I had been to Sip & Play once before. I was on a date, and I spent the evening drinking beer and playing Battleship. It was one of the better dates I’d been on. But this time, I’m not here on a date; I’m here on a mission. On this Friday evening in early December, I’m here to participate in one of Jonathan Li’s signature game nights—and to uncover the secret to his success.
J Li, as his crew likes to call him, is the king of board games. The 24-year-old Brooklyn native is the brains behind Park Slope’s first and only board game cafe. Boasting an impressive collection of more than 300 games, a menu of boba and “Beyond Bussin’ Sandwiches,” and a ridiculously sweet deal of $7 for three hours of gameplay, Li’s establishment is paradise for game enthusiasts, nostalgists, and everyone in between.
I walk in and am greeted by the clatter of dice and the buzz of banter. Sip & Play is lively tonight. The smell of dark roast coffee drifts through the air as today’s top hits blare from the speakers. A couple to my left takes turns gingerly tapping Jenga blocks—the tower wobbles. I spot Li. It’s impossible not to. Sitting near a shelf spilling with party games, he’s deep in concentration. His three buddies are too. Sprawled out on the small table in front of them is a board game I’d never seen before, but it seemed reminiscent of Risk. After several seconds of watching him ponder his next move, he finally looks up. “Yo!” he nods to me, and I walk over.
You’d never guess from seeing him, but Sip & Play was not what Li originally thought he’d be doing with his life. In fact, Li’s original goal was to become a chef and open a restaurant. However, his plans were quickly derailed in 2017, when he suffered a severe knee injury at a music festival. After months of self-medicating and continuing to work as a line cook, Li’s girlfriend finally convinced him to see her knee surgeon. As it turned out, Li had torn his meniscus and needed surgery to remove part of it. Despite regularly attending physical therapy sessions to regain his strength, Li found himself unable to keep up with the physical demands of the restaurant industry. Unsure of his next move, his family suggested he open a board game cafe in Brooklyn. “I had always considered board games as a hobby, never as a career option,” he says. But he took his family’s advice and went with it. “I kind of just YOLOed it, to be honest.”
He wasn’t going in completely unprepared. Coming from a long line of entrepreneurs, Li always knew he wanted to start his own business. And with a strong culinary background, a degree in business management, and an unhealthy obsession with board games, a board game cafe just made sense. After a few short months of planning, Sip & Play was open for business in January 2020. “It was looking really bright in the beginning,” says Li’s close friend, Emily Yuan. “We were so excited because it seemed like things were going great. But then after two or three months, the pandemic hit.” Virtually every aspect of Sip & Play was reliant on human contact, but COVID didn’t care. COVID didn’t care that hundreds of board games would collect dust on the shelf. COVID didn’t care that an entire menu of food and drinks could no longer be sold. COVID didn’t care that a small business was about to go under faster than it had begun. The pandemic’s timing was terrible for Sip & Play—then again, when is a pandemic’s timing ever not terrible?
But if there’s one thing Li is best at, it’s rolling with the punches. He quickly got to work and came up with not one, but two, ideas that would keep his establishment afloat during lockdown. The first was a board game rental program, which allowed people to rent one board game for $5 or three board games for $10. “We kind of turned into a Blockbuster/library situation with board games,” he says. The second idea was the creation of boba kits, which provided customers with all the ingredients and supplies necessary to make their own bubble tea at home. “I thought that was such a great business move in the middle of a pandemic,” says Yuan, “I feel like that’s what people needed.”
While the board game rentals and boba kits were a great way to break even, the business was far from thriving. Then one day, a small TikTok influencer came in and changed everything. With a following just shy of 45k, @lostwithlucy is dedicated to finding affordable things to do in New York City. And in February 2021, she found Sip & Play. “Just that one video absolutely saved us during COVID,” Li recalls, “We didn’t even invite this person. She just came to Sip & Play and made a casual TikTok. It got over 200,000-300,000 views in that one week. Then, for the entire month—and this was still when indoor dining was at a certain percentage—we were just packed, like absolutely slammed.”
When, during game night, I mention that I had also found out about Sip & Play through TikTok, Li’s friends can hardly contain their excitement. One of them even tells the table he shared a Sip & Play TikTok “like a hundred times” to bring in more business. “Anything for the boys!” he proclaims.
It was becoming increasingly clear to me that Li’s entourage really would do anything for their boy. The group dates all the way back to high school—a few members even back to middle school—and they all had one thing in common: a passion for board games. “Our high school and our year had an affinity for board games,” says Li’s middle school friend, Brian Tran. “It was a big part of the culture,” adds Yuan. “In high school, I had a board game resurgence after seeing board games pop up around the city,” Li explains, “That’s when our friend group latched onto board games. We played a lot. My friends would cut class to play board games and we would leave school to go to a board game cafe right afterwards.”
Avalon was typically their go-to game. Anything involving strategy or deception was always popular amongst their friend group, and still is to this day. In fact, one of the first things I noticed when I stepped into Sip & Play was a table of furrowed brows and pensive stares. “Cyclades is one of those games that we’ve been playing recently,” says Li’s friend, Junhao Dong. “Jonathan was like, ‘Oh, I found this game and think you’ll all love it. Let’s get together and play it one day,’” Tran adds. “I saw it in a random video. I bought it. We’re hooked,” says Li, “We’re playing it right now.” According to the game night crew, Li is constantly switching things up and throwing new board games into the mix—a quality that not only keeps their friendship interesting, but also contributes to his business success. By keeping his finger on the pulse of the latest game trends and incorporating them into Sip & Play, he’s able to cater to specific niches, while also staying true to the classics.
“He never seems unsure of himself,” Yuan tells me as the group engages in a rambunctious round of Sleepy Princess, “I’ve even said to him, ‘I want to be like you when I grow up.’” Even though Yuan and Li are the same age, I know what she means. Jonathan Li is the most unassuming business owner I’ve ever met, and I kind of love him for it. From texting me phrases like “LMAO bet” and “big yolo energy” to roasting the shit out of me when I lose every round, he made me feel like we’d been friends for years, and I think that’s where his secret to success lies. When I asked him what his favorite game was, he told me it was Ticket to Ride. Not because it’s the game he has the most fun playing, but because it’s easiest for other people to learn. “I value people fitting in and having a good time,” he explains.
True enough: It’s not often your profile subject asks you about your childhood, or invites you out to tacos with their friends. As I sit playing Skulls with a band of board game enthusiasts at 12:03 a.m., I realize I’m more at ease than I’ve been in a long time. Sip & Play is an inclusive space, and Li is the reason why. His customers are his friends, and his friends are his customers. For someone who never envisioned himself running his own board game cafe a few years ago, I’d say he’s doing a pretty good job.