Nerds, rejoice — Astoria’s first ever FLGS, “Friendly Local Game Store,” The Geekery, is set to host it’s grand opening in early October, with a soft opening on September 12th. The shop is located on 42-11 Broadway in Astoria between 43rd and 42nd St, and is excited to build the gaming community here in Queens, which the owners noted they believe is long overdue.

“Our mission is to build and support the gaming community in Astoria and all around Queens. We want everyone – current and future gamers – to have a space that feels like home, discover and play new games, and meet new friends with similar interests and have fun,” says owner Wendy Chua, who of course used the word n00b in her email to us. So we know these folks are the real deal!

When asked about the inspiration behind the store, Wendy noted that her business partner Syrus Gabales is a huge miniature gamer, while she’s more of a casual gamer. When the idea to open a store came to them, they only ever considered Astoria and Long Island City, wanting to create a space for people who “have to travel to the other boroughs just to get their game on,” says Wendy.

Wendy on her and Syrus’s background: “Myself and Syrus have actually been working in the fashion industry (which could not be further from the gaming industry!). Syrus is a junior controller for a women’s apparel company, while I used to work as a technical designer and production coordinator for a footwear company. That being said, The Geekery was really born out of passion and the love for gaming and everything geeky.”

The store will be home to over 100 game titles (no video games here) including Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, table top miniatures like Warhammer 40k, and RPG games (which stands for Role Player Games, you n00b) like Dungeons and Dragons. A majority of the games will be ones you can’t find in big box stores.

Its here! All the #warhammer40k #warhammerfantasy you could want! A photo posted by @thegeekeryhq on Aug 28, 2015 at 11:43am PDT

The shop has space for customers to come and play the games and spend time with friends and family. They will host events for certain games to be played, including a lot of Magic: The Gathering, and miniature table top games such as Warhammer, X-wing, and Heroclix. Whenever the space isn’t scheduled, it will be open and available for anyone and everyone. They are building a library of boardgames to be rented and played in store, but are open to people coming in and bringing their own as well.

“The games we carry are by nature very social. They’re also educational in the sense that they develop your critical thinking and strategy skills.” Of course we also all know, games are also just a ton of fun!

Personally, I’m a big Settlers of Catan fan, and immediately asked if they’ll carry the expansion packs. They will.

Are you a gamer? Wanna be gamer? Closet gamer? Enjoyer of board games? Share your excitement in the comments!

The Geekery (42-11 Broadway | 718-606-2853)

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