The Uncommons Hobby Shop in NYC: $15 Unlocks 1,000+ Games

If your idea of a hobby shop is a place where you can open the box before you buy it, The Uncommons on Thompson Street in Greenwich Village is the Manhattan address to know. It calls itself Manhattan's first board game cafe, and it works as a full game store too, with Magic: The Gathering product, cards, accessories and indie titles on the shelves. The difference is the library: a flat per-person fee unlocks more than 1,000 games you can play at the table.

The Uncommons, 230 Thompson St, sits on a short Greenwich Village block on the NYU campus, and Washington Square Park is only a block away. The closest subway stop is West Fourth Street, a short walk west along the park. Because the shop is open all day, 363 days a year, it slots easily into a lunch break, an afternoon off or a late night out.

Hours run Monday to Thursday 10 am to 11 pm, Friday and Saturday 10 am to midnight, and Sunday 10 am to 11 pm. The only closures are the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Those late weekend hours matter for this kind of hobby shop, since most game stores in Manhattan close far earlier, while here a Saturday session can run right up to midnight with a fresh pot of coffee or a cold beer.

The house rule is simple. Play costs $15 per person, and students pay $10 Monday through Thursday. There is no hourly meter. Instead, the flat fee gives each player access to the whole library, with a three-hour limit during peak periods. The shop describes that library as the largest on the East Coast of the USA, and it adds new games so fast that it no longer keeps a complete list online.

You can bring your own games, but the same gaming fee applies. Games from the library cannot leave the building, because some boxes take staff around 30 minutes to check for missing pieces. Free wi-fi and outlets come with the seat, which is why laptops sometimes share tables with Catan boards on slow weekday mornings. The room seats 65 people, and a separate private room handles parties.

As a retail hobby shop, The Uncommons is one of the largest game stores in Manhattan and aims to stock most popular in-print titles. It is an authorized Cards Against Humanity dealer and often carries Kickstarter indie successes that are hard to find at other retailers. What it skips is just as useful to know: no out-of-print rarities, no Games Workshop items such as Warhammer 40K, and very few miniatures, so painters and model builders should head elsewhere.

The staff favorites list is a good starting point when the library feels overwhelming. Settlers of Catan, Cards Against Humanity, Ticket to Ride, Dominion, Star Realms, Pandemic, Hive and Resistance: Coup are the titles the team names first. The collection leans toward recent and indie releases, with plenty of party, Euro, strategy, family-friendly and co-operative games mixed in, so a group of mixed experience can find something within minutes.

The Uncommons is a Wizards Advanced store and runs a steady Magic: The Gathering schedule. Monday brings Drafts, Tuesday is Standard, Thursday is Commander, and Friday Night Magic closes the week. Pre-Releases, GPTs and PPTQs fill out the calendar. The shelves carry current sets plus select out-of-print sets from 2013 and newer, though the store does not sell singles, so bring your own binder of staples.

Solo visitors do not need to recruit a group first. The shop runs regular events and tournaments where you can show up alone, and it points to Wednesday and Thursday nights as the strongest evenings to try new games and meet other tabletop fans. Indie designer demos, showcases, Tabletop Day and launch parties also appear on the calendar, and playtests for local designers are welcome.

Peak periods bring waits of up to three hours, and walk-ins are handled first come, first served. The practical move is to arrive on a weekday afternoon or early evening, when tables turn over faster and the student rate is in play. Weekend evenings fill quickest, since the late closing time draws date-night pairs and groups after dinner on nearby MacDougal Street.

For a guaranteed table, the shop accepts a limited number of reservations for groups of up to twelve people, booked one to thirty days in advance and paid in full as a deposit. Reserved tables cost $17 per person with a three-hour maximum. Party bookings generally need a group of at least five. Kids are welcome, and guests under 14 stay with a parent or guardian.

The bar side takes its drinks seriously. More than 30 rotating bottles cover lambic, cider, ginger beer, shandy, ales, lagers, porters, stouts and IPAs, alongside a house red, rose and white wine by the glass and often a sparkling wine. Coffee is part of the original concept as well, since the founders set out to combine a game store with a coffee shop rather than run either alone.

Outside food and drinks are generally not allowed, with exceptions for allergies and dietary needs, including kosher items. If you want to bring a special bottle, the corkage fee is $10. Birthday groups can bring their own cake, and the staff supplies plates and silverware for a $1 per person cake cutting fee. Donated games are gladly accepted and are often thanked with a free coffee.

Build the visit into a loop. Start in Washington Square Park under the arch, watch the chess players in the southwest corner, then walk south on Thompson Street to the shop for a session. Afterward, the cafes and bookstores of the South Village are a few minutes away on foot, and Bleecker Street makes an easy route back toward West Fourth Street for the train home.

The Uncommons was funded in part through Kickstarter, and that indie spirit still shows in the shelf space it gives small designers and local makers. For a first visit, pick one weeknight, pay the $15 fee, ask the staff for a two-player recommendation, and leave room in the budget for one new box from the retail wall. It is the rare hobby shop where you can test a game properly before deciding to take it home.