In 2002, Emma and Ahmed met and moved into a super cool inner city apartment together. It was on the corner of Vivian St and Victoria St. Ahmed taught Emma how to play Catan. A few years later, they moved to Abu Dhabi. Had a couple of kids. Met fellow game lovers. Bought more games. Played. Worked. Rode camels. On a trip back to Ahmed’s hometown Toronto one year, they stumbled across the fabulous Snakes & Lattes. A board game cafe! Coffee and beer and food and board games. What a revelation. The germ of an idea started to form, and desert life was beginning to get hot and monotonous, so… they moved back to Wellington. They started looking and looking for a place to open a board game cafe and share their love of board games and coffee and beer and food. One day, they saw a TO LEASE sign underneath their old super cool inner city apartment. In a mad chaos of sleepless nights and ‘What ARE we doing?’ moments, they opened the doors of Counter Culture Board Game Cafe and Bar on 1 June 2017. Now, they’re marvelling at the huge range of enthusiastic people who come through their doors to play games and the super positive response they’ve had to opening Counter Culture. The first year still included loads of ‘What ARE we doing?’ moments, mistakes (missing the deadline for WOAP!! Aargh…), hospital stays (nothing like multiple brain surgeries on your child to keep things edgy) and other fun and games (ha ha, so punny). So, onwards & upwards. Counter Culture will keep striving to provide a welcoming space for you to get your game on.