A new business is always a roll of the dice. With a unique concept, the owners of Caverns & Forests board game café in North Little Rock believe they have hit on a winning strategy.
Friends and co-owners Radiance Beltz and Matt Quin call their cafe the first of its kind in Arkansas.
“Basically, someone was going to do it, and we wanted to be the first in the area,” said Beltz.
“What makes Caverns & Forests valuable is that it’s constructed around what everyone needs more of: real connection with other people. I can’t tell you how happy our clientele is and how great it is to work in a space where everyone is always laughing and smiling,” she said.
Nestled in the Argenta district, the café opened in December 2023.
For a $5 per person fee for ages 8 and up, customers can play as many games as they like until closing time. Caverns & Forests also offers memberships for a month and longer. Members don’t have to pay the cover charge.
The walls are lined with more than 600 board games, with seating at long tables and benches plus smaller tables with folding chairs.
What you won’t see? Screens.
“We’re a screen-free third space. We don’t have televisions or other electronics in the cafe. We do have free wifi, since lots of folks like to watch how-to-play videos instead of reading rule books,” said Beltz.
Along with games, the cafe serves up a menu of Italian-style paninis, salads, homemade desserts, and beer, wine, and coffee. Caverns & Forest uses many local suppliers and ingredients, including bread from Boulevard Bread Co., where the owners used to work together.
Quin has been general manager of several restaurants in central Arkansas, including Boulevard Bread and ZAZA. He is also a board gaming enthusiast.
Beltz began working with Quin on Caverns & Forests in October 2022. Initially, they held pop-up game nights at different local restaurants and bars.
A Pivotal Pop-Up
At one of the pop-ups, Nicolas Mayerhoeffer, a business consultant at the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center, introduced himself. The friends told him of their goal of opening the café, and he told them about the no-cost services available through the center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
“Nicolas was exceptionally helpful. We never would have found out about ASBTDC without him taking the initiative at that pop-up,” said Radiance. “He helped us get the funds to make it happen.”
Mayerhoeffer helped them put together a budget and funding proposal, which they used to get a small bank loan. He also became a sounding board, “someone we felt we could just ask stupid questions,” she said.
“You know, never having done this before, and neither of us having a business background, it was really essential to have someone to build our confidence and give us an outline of what we needed.”
He challenged the prospective owners to be certain of their concept and consider whether customers would embrace it. “Answering questions like that did give me a boost of confidence as well, because it became pretty clear that this area is in desperate need of spaces like ours,” Beltz said.
Customer response has confirmed Beltz’s belief.
“Business has been great!” she said.
Visit the cafe’s website, cavernsandforests.com, for business hours and more.
