It's always a risk to start a new business, but for the owners of the Game Table Cafe, their new venture is literally a roll of the dice.

Ah, board game humor.

But seriously, game cafes are a growing trend according to Tom Keegan, owner of the new business in Mechanicsburg. The Game Table Cafe, located at 4900 Carlisle Pike, follows the model that has been successful across Europe and Asia, and is now starting to grow in the United States.

"Games have been a growth industry for the last five years," he said, citing a growth between 15 and 20 percent annually. "While I wish i could claim it as my own, it's been a very popular concept in Europe and Asia. Snakes and Lattes has been operating in Toronto since 2010. The first one I went to was in Los Angeles, California called the GameHaus Cafe. The whole concept just kind of hooked me."

The Game Table Cafe is the first such cafe in our area, with the next closest being the Board and Brew in College Park, Maryland.

"All of the board game cafes have the same business model, with the expresso drinks, light cafe fare, and extensive game library maintained through a cover charge," Keegan said. "It seems to be very successful in other cities, so I said, 'why not try it here?'"

The full-service cafe has various soups and sandwiches, baked goods and other snacks available in addition to the specialty coffee, all of which can be enjoyed while you play. Guests pay a $5 cover charge to enjoy the games (though kids 12 and under are free), which goes toward maintaining the games themselves.

"There's spilled coffee, some of the components end up disappearing, they get lost," Keegan said. "The cover charge is really to keep the games fresh and current, a viable library for people to use."

That library has nearly 600 games currently, which includes ancient games like Go or chess, family classics such as Monopoly, Sorry, Operation and Candyland, and modern games like Settlers of Catan and Pandemic. They are sorted by difficulty and length of time required to play, and the staff of the cafe is ready to help explain the rules.

There is also a category that Keegan calls "breadstick games," which are simple to learn and take only a few minutes to play.

"Much like at a restaurant, the waiter would bring you a basket of breadsticks [while you wait]," he said. "That's kind of what the breadstick game genre fits. If you're a party of five, and the first two show up and you're waiting for the other three people, in about two minutes we can teach any of those games to you. The two of you can play several rounds while you're waiting for the friends to show up."

"People like to come for the nostalgia perspective, to play a game with their kids," Keegan said. "It's an opportunity for people to get together with their friends and family, and make new friends, and connect around board games."

For details on the hours and special offers, visit the Game Table Cafe Facebook page or check out their website.