Feature image via @thelostdice
Jonathan Holmes-Ross is, in no particular order, a board game enthusiast and an award-winning chef.
A few months ago, Jon opened The Lost Dice, a board game shop and café located on King William Street, a venture poised to fuse fun and food.
Jon previously owned The Artisan Café, a Blackwood establishment named Café of the Year in the 2017 Restaurant & Catering Awards.
According to Jon, about four years ago, he took on a second lease and started selling board games from the space.
“We always said we’d give Artisan ten years, and ten years was up,” says Jon.
Now, The Artisan Café lives on in The Lost Dice. It is absolutely a board game café but the focus is also on food.
Jon is a classically trained chef, and the menu is ever-changing, based entirely on the best ingredients available at any given time.
At the moment, the menu features burgers, snacks, and desserts, and is set to expand in the future.
The Lost Dice Café comprises three floors. The ground floor is both a board game shop and a café, with patrons able to purchase from the large range of games Jon stocks.
On the first floor, you’ll find the Board Game Lounge, aka the heart of The Lost Dice. This is a space dedicated to table-top games, old school style.
“You pay to play, and there’s no limit to how long you can stay,” says Jon.
Payment is $8.50, and gives patrons access to approximately $15,000 worth of games. Jon hopes the games library will build to eventually host about $50,000 worth of games.
The top floor is a multi-purpose area, with patrons able to take a miniature painting class, join an MTG, partake in a Zombicide tournament, or play with the Warhammer.
Keen game players can also purchase a monthly ($16.50) or annual ($165) membership to The Lost Dice. Members can visit the Board Game Lounge as often as they like, and are also privy to other perks, including hiring games and what Jon calls a “birthday surprise.”
As far as game recommendations go, Jon is a long standing Dungeons & Dragons player, and is currently enjoying Scythe (an engine-building game set in an alternate-history 1920s period), L.L.A.M.A (a card game in a similar vein to UNO), and Root (an asymmetric game of adventure and war).
It’s safe to say, our curiosity has been piqued.
Find The Lost Dice Café at 111 King William Street.
Visit the website here: https://www.thelostdice.com/.