I get asked a lot what my favorite game is, the problem is I have many favorites!

There are the games I’ve played the most—Agricola, Shifting Stones, Scopa—and there are the games I’ve played recently that I’m obsessed with—Spring Meadow, Yubibo, Bottle Imp. There are the games I haven’t played but am enamored of from a distance—CMYK, Fine Job Labyrinth, A game about WEE WHIMSICAL CREATURES and trying to identify them after someone makes noises—and there are the games I can play without thinking, giving me space to just chat with the people I’m with—Flip7, Point Salad, Azul.

What does it mean for something or someone to be your favorite? Is it beauty or depth or reliability? Nostalgia or newness or kindness or competitiveness?

On the other side of the question, what don’t you like, in a game or otherwise? At summer camp, when campers don’t like a food being served or a song or anything, really, we encourage them to say, “It’s not my favorite” rather than “I hate it, it’s gross.” Understatement, perhaps, but it helps ease tension if someone else loves whatever it is. Monopoly is not my favorite, heavy war games are not my favorite, the current political and civic climate is not my favorite, sardines are definitely not my favorite!

How do you share the things you love with others? The joy we feel is contagious—“We keep what we have by giving it away,” is a common phrase in AlAnon circles. The people around us don’t have to love the things that are our favorite, but simply experiencing others’ joy can lift our spirits.

Alice C, board game librarian

Play Sea Salt & Paper!

Sea Salt & Paper is a great, quick game of set-collection and pressing-your-luck with gorgeous origami illustrations. Players take turns drafting a card from the two face-up discard piles into their hands. When they make pairs of cards—fish, boats, crabs, or shark-and-swimmer—they can play them to the table for a point as well as a bonus action specific to the pair. Players can also collect sets of shells, octopi, penguins, or sailors for increasing numbers of points. Each hand ends when a player either says “stop” and all players receive the points they’ve accrued, or when a player says “last chance” and all other players have one more turn to get more points than the calling player. If the “last chance” player has more points than anyone, they get additional bonus points, so they’d better be sure!

This game is currently very hot since there is a new small expansion that was just released (“Extra Pepper”, to follow up the previous “Extra Salt”). We don’t have those expansions, sadly, but the game itself is a delight!

Try our cookie dough wontons!

Y’all, I may have joked about becoming a dumpling-only restaurant back in the spring, but did you know we do in fact have a dessert wonton? These crispy, fried shells are filled with chocolate chip cookie dough, dusted with powdered sugar, and served with chocolate sauce for dipping. Delicious!

Come for the games, stay for the wontons!