I’m writing this on Valentine’s Day, though you’ll receive it afterwards. There’s the obvious romantic love that so many have and want, but there are so many ways we love each other. We love our siblings and our parents, our chosen families, our friends, even our coworkers in one way or another. We love our neighbors, whether they’re right next door or farther away.

And how we love each other is so varied and extravagant. You might cook for someone, or you might be the one entertaining the cook and not helping. You might walk your friend’s dog when they’re at work, or listen with engagement when someone excitedly tells you about their new obsession, or just spend time in silence reading or doing tasks side-by-side. You might play games together, or grocery together, or organize someone’s pantry. You might donate both to organizations doing good work and to individuals needing a hand up. You might speak up for someone, make space for them to speak up for themselves, even put yourself between that someone and those who would harm them.

Love is, as many others before me have said, an action, not just a feeling. We do love. We try, here at Free Parking, to embody that in our welcome to all people, in our space for tasty food and fun games, in our encouragement for folk to sit with people they don’t know and meet new friends. We hope you’re feeling the love and you’re able to share it out there in the world, too.

Friends, keep warm, keep heart, and keep playing.

Alice C., board game librarian

Play fish-themed games!

To go with our seasonal special below, I thought I’d highlight games with fish in them:

Deep Sea Adventure is a charming and frustrating press-your-luck game in which players dive ever deeper in search of treasure (point tokens) but have to manage their collective oxygen or they’ll all pass out and return with nothing.
Finspan is the most recent in the affectionately-named “ThingSpan” game universe, following Wingspan and Wyrmspan. This one is about exploring the ocean and collecting different kinds of fish, a medium weight strategy game with beautiful art!
Kelp is a 2-player only, asymmetric game of cat-and-mouse, or rather shark-and-octopus! Each player has their own goal and way of playing the game—the octopus simply needs to avoid the shark long enough for the shark to be exhausted, the shark needs to manage its energy so it can hunt down the octopus.
Sea Salt & Paper is a light set-collection card game with gorgeous origami art. Players draft cards to their hands to build point-rich sets and extra-action pairs to defeat their opponents.
The Crew: Mission Deep Sea is the follow up to the original Crew game, both cooperative trick-taking games with increasingly difficult collective goals.
River Valley Glassworks has players acting as different river creatures and drafting shards of colored glass (lovely plastic in this version) to build sets.

Try our fish and chips! (and also the fish sammy)

Crisp battered cod, house-made tartar sauce, and your choice of a toasted bun or waffle fries—it’s delicious and nostalgic and excellent with a fish-themed game! Order a beer or one of our refreshing cocktails alongside to complete the experience. Keep your eyes open, we might have additional seasonal menu items featuring this tasty cod.