WALLINGFORD — Visitors to The Dragon’s Lair on Route 5 are transported to any game world they choose.
“We’re a destination store,” said Steve Talbot, owner of The Dragon’s Lair. “People show up, they hang out here for about five to six hours and they play whatever game or hobby they’re into.”
Hundreds have stopped in, usually once a week, since the store opened in 2015, Talbot said.
“We do tabletop role play on Thursday nights,” said Jerry Volpe, Meriden resident and weekly visitor to the store. “We’ve done ‘Blood Bowl’ which is a different version of fantasy football — by fantasy I mean playing football with orcs and rat men and humans.”
Talbot said the most popular games are Magic: The Gathering, a tabletop card game around since 1994; Dungeons & Dragons, a tabletop role play game around since 1974; and board games like Monopoly and Pandemic.
During a recent visit to the store, Wallingford resident Michael DeStefano put together a ship from the Star Wars X-Wing miniature game.
“There’s a group of guys that I come up here with every other Saturday and play regular board games with and then I got involved with a group up here playing (Star Wars X-Wing)," DeStefano said.
The game uses small classic ships from the Star Wars universe to battle opponents across a three-foot by three-foot field.
The store, 220 N. Colony Road, is usually packed on weekdays starting at 5 p.m. and throughout the day on weekends.
“People come here to interact and that’s mainly the goal is to get people connected,” Talbot said.
Wallingford resident Elijah Miller and fellow gamer Edrick Drachenberg, of Granby, played a card game after meeting for the first time during a busy Thursday night.
“You get to see friends, you get to hang out and get to play some Magic,” Drachenberg said of his frequent visits to the store.
No visitor is quite as popular or friendly as the store’s “mascot,” Talbot’s dog Lettie.
“Well a lot of people play games at home with their families but they don’t know this is a place they can come and play,” Talbot said. “We encourage people to learn games and try new things.”
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