GREENFIELD — Coffee is brewing, dice are rolling, cards are drawn.
Hitherto Coffee + Gaming Parlour has opened in the Green Meadows Shopping Center in Greenfield. The business offers an assortment of coffees, teas, tonics, elixirs, pastries and soft serve along with a selection of tabletop games for both playing on the premises and for purchase. Its owner comes from a background in coffee houses, culinary arts and hospitality as part of a family with a passion for tabletop gaming.
Kevin Kerkhof, a Greenfield native, opened Hitherto in December after 20 months of planning.
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He graduated from Purdue University with a degree in hospitality and tourism management before going to culinary school at Johnson & Wales University in Denver, Colorado.
Kerkhof was part of the team that started Greyhouse Coffee in Lafayette, where he worked for 10 years before moving closer to family.
Hitherto makes most of its syrups and sauces in house. The beans for its vanilla syrup get scraped straight from the pod.
The soft serve on the menu includes flavors like Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean and Belgian chocolate.
Shelves filled with tabletop games for sale include titles like “Ticket to Ride,” “Catan” and “Pandemic.” There’s also a collection patrons can choose from to play at their tables while they enjoy their refreshments.
“We really wanted to focus more on this concept of introducing tabletop gaming to the general public,” Kevin Kerkhof said. “We are primarily a specialty coffee and tea house. We wanted to complement that aspect of getting people together at the table through another piece, which is tabletop games.”
He and his wife, Amanda Kerkhof, have five kids, and playing tabletop games is one of their favorite ways to spend time together.
“It’s just a really fun thing for us as a family, and it grows with us as a family,” Amanda Kerkhof said.
There are games that work with both their 3-year-old and their 12-year-old, she continued, while there are other games they stay up later to play with just their older kids.
“As they have grown, it’s just continued to be a great hobby,” she said, adding it also enriches their children’s relationships with their friends, too.
Kevin Kerkhof said games teach kids at all ages. Games designed for young players teach concepts like colors and shapes. As players grow older, games introduce different mechanics and improve cognitive development, strategic thinking and fine motor skills.
“They all scale to that, so it’s like a gradual progression into something that makes you think instead of just being entertained,” he said.
Kevin Kerkhof said there’s a game for everyone, even those who aren’t competitive, as there are plenty of cooperative ones that require working as a team to accomplish an objective.
Games are constantly evolving too, he said, by developing interesting new mechanics.
“Just when you think you couldn’t have a new type of word game, somebody comes up with something new,” he said.
In the future, he plans to host events at Hitherto that teach attendees how to play different games.
“There’s literally thousands of games being released every year, and people don’t realize that,” Kerkhof said. “It can be very overwhelming to learn the rules for those games or try to find those games.”
He also plans to extend the business’ hours earlier and later from its current schedule as staff get settled and trained. Hitherto has about 20 employees, most of whom are part time.
Kim Clark met several of her friends at Hitherto on Jan. 6.
“I think it’s a very happy place, it’s needed and it’s local,” she said.
She appreciates how the business serves its beverages in cups that can be washed and reused to customers who aren’t taking their orders to go.
“They don’t push paper,” she said. “There’s not a lot of waste. It’s a good carbon footprint.”
She got a superfood latte the last time she visited.
“It was a unique experience,” she said. “I appreciate trying new things.”
Clark said she also admires the atmosphere.
“When we were here before, there were people playing games, and I love that. There’s a vibe. You can feel the vibe, can’t you? It’s different than Starbucks. You can breathe, you can stretch out.”
Kellie Scherschel-Barr sipped on a ginger beet superfood latte while her friend Kelly Shiplett drank her Americano. At a table nearby, their daughters, who are home-schooled, read books.
It was Shiplett’s first time at Hitherto.
“It’s got more of an eclectic feel than other places in town, and a little bit more space so we can do school here,” she said.
Scherschel-Barr said her daughter got a couple of the card games for sale at Hitherto. One one occasion, her daughter visited with some of her friends and played board games there for several hours.
“You can come in and have a really nice family evening playing board games,” Scherschel-Barr said. “It’s a peaceful, warm, comfortable place.”
