Tavern of Tales

Tavern of Tales sits at 1478 Tremont Street in Mission Hill, between Roxbury Crossing and the Longwood medical area, and bills itself as Boston's only board game cafe and bar. There is a shelf of free games curated by staff for anyone who walks in, a much larger library catalogued publicly on BoardGameGeek, and private soundproof rooms that can be reserved for longer sessions. Opening hours run 3pm to 10pm on weekdays and from 10am at weekends, so it works both as a Saturday afternoon and as a weeknight evening.

The drinks card is a single sheet with the cocktails on one half and a nonalcoholic block on the other, and the nonalcoholic block is the larger of the two. Three house mocktails are listed at $6.99 with the same descriptions the bar gives its cocktails: Red Flags is a fizzy strawberry drink with bright notes of lime and ginger; Ticket to Ride, punning on the MBTA, is the house version of an Arnold Palmer made with a house lavender syrup and honey; Dispelled Magic is orange and cranberry juice with cinnamon. A lavender lemonade at $5 uses the same house syrup, a Shirley Temple is $4, and Barritt's extra zesty ginger beer from Bermuda is $4. The coffee side is more serious than the format suggests, with George Howell's Dota Blend on cold brew and the Alchemy Blend for espresso, and a specialty latte list available until 5pm that includes a caffeine-free Honeybee latte of rooibos with honey, turmeric and cinnamon, plus matcha, strawberry matcha, lavender matcha and spicy chai. Alcohol is served in the room, so this is a licensed venue with a genuine but simple zero-proof list, not an alcohol-free one. Brunch runs at weekends from 10am, and the specialty latte list is cut off at 5pm, which leaves the three mocktails, the lavender lemonade, the ginger beer and the cold brew as the evening options.