Boards n Beans closes permanently due to COVID-19

The dice have stopped rolling at Boards n Beans Cafe in Regina.

The board game cafe has had to permanently close due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ron Carman’s wife, Carole, and daughter, Stephanie Smith, were the owners of the cafe. Ron said profits were down to about five to 10 per cent of what they would normally see.

“It was very, very slow and we were only allowed to open up with half of our tables (due to COVID-related restrictions). We did get some people in, so I’m very appreciative of those customers who came in but at the same time, it’s to something that can support and pay the bills at that level,” Carman said.

His family has been running the cafe for about 3 1/2 years, with family members not paying themselves a wage and working there on evenings and weekends after working at their day jobs.

“It has been pretty difficult over the last couple of months that we haven’t been able to operate. This has been a project that my family has been working on pretty strongly. It’s really tough because we were really invested into that business and we really loved all the customers that came in and spent time with us,” Carman said.

“We are very appreciative of all the love that everybody has sent out to us through Facebook and messages; we really do appreciate it. It may be a business that has ended here in Regina but the community that we touched is very important to us.”

Carman said the idea behind Boards n Beans was to bring the community together and interact face to face.

“We really wanted people to put their cellphones down. We wanted them to socialize, we wanted to get friends together and we wanted people to have fun. We wanted people to get out of that electronic world that we live in nowadays and get some human-to-human contact,” Carman said.

“That was our business model and unfortunately, that is contrary to everything that is going on with COVID right now.”

He said the family was glad to get a chance to be prominent in the community and bring joy to people.

“It was a very positive experience for us. People in the community really loved us. We had many times where people would stay after hours just to chat with us. My wife and I are north of 50 and we felt like we were Regina’s parents out there because we had a lot of kids that came to come and talk to us,” Carman said.

Now, the family plans on taking advantage of those weekends and nights to hang out with their immediate families as opposed to the expanded one that grew during their time at the cafe.

“My daughter and her husband haven’t been able to come out to our cottage for a couple of years now. This year, we’re actually spending time out there,” Carman said.