Date Ideas That Are Not Just Eating & Drinking: Bonus Round Game Cafe

Looking for a date night that’s a little more fun than dinner and drinks? Bonus Round Game Café in Lakeview is the perfect place to add a little friendly competition to your next date. With more than 500 board and card games to choose from, a full-service drink menu, and late weekend hours, you can pick a game, and settle in for a night of laughs, strategy, and maybe a little rivalry. Whether you’re into classic games or looking to discover a new favorite, Bonus Round proves that a great date doesn’t have to revolve around a restaurant or bar.

Bonus Round is open seven days a week, giving you all week long to get your game on. Before heading in, it is recommended to make a reservation. Game passes are just $7 per person and give you unlimited access to the entire game library, plus personalized recommendations from the friendly Game Guides to help you find the perfect game for your date night. The $7 game pass gets you a minimum of 1.5 hours of game time as a couple! In addition, there is a $10 minimum per person. You are asked to spend at least $10 on food and drink, and if not, you will just be charged $10.

With hundreds of games to choose from, you’re bound to discover something new. Stick with a classic like Scrabble or Battleship, or step outside your comfort zone and try a game you’ve never heard of before. Not sure how to play? No problem! Bonus Round’s Game Masters are happy to walk you through the rules so you can spend less time reading instructions and more time playing.

All this gaming can work cup an appetite. Good thing Bonus Round does have a food menu, with snacks like house made hummus and honey fig goat cheese plate, and sandwiches like Neside’s Grilled Cheese and the Trivial Pursuit Quesadilla. They are a cafe, so they have tons of specialty drinks! Americanos, iced coffees, s’mores lattes, Earl Grey Tea, Masala Chai Lattes, they have it all! You can also treat yourself to a cocktail, mocktail, glass of wine, seltzer, NA beer, or soda while you play.

Date Night Package: For just $45 for two people, you get two game passes, a bottle of wine, and the Hummus & Honey Fig Goat Cheese Plate!

View the Full Menu Here!

Bonus Round hosts tons of events, with at least two happening a week! Here are just some:

First and Third Monday of Each Month: Netrunner Nights: Cyberpunk dystopia! Netrunner is a two-player asymmetric card game set in a dystopian future where four megacorporations control almost every aspect of daily life. Whether you’re an experienced player or just interested in learning more, there will always be someone on staff to teach the game as well as people available to play with! Show up as close to the 7pm start time as you can to play with others.

Every Tuesday: Magic the Gathering Commander Night: Spellslingers come on out and show what you’ve got! Games start promptly at 7pm, please show up ~10 minutes in advance to make seating / pairing a smooth experience for all participants.

Board Game Mixer: First Thursday of the Month: Meet other board game fans in Chicago! Everyone is welcome at this social mixer. People will be sat as they arrive. Groups will be offered a variety of games to play, and the staff will handle the teaching! You can kick back, relax, and enjoy some quality board gaming.

Board Game Beta Test, Dates Vary: Come test board games with critically-acclaimed game developers Jeff and Andrew from Road to Infamy (R2i) games. R2i have developed great games like Formaggio and Canvas. The Chicago-based duo and their developer friends want your help testing their in-development games. Come out to Bonus Round, grab a snack and a drink, and try some games with your friends!

Click Here to View All Events

Behind Bonus Round are three friends who turned their love of games into a place where people can come together, unplug, and connect. The café first opened in 2017, but its story took a new turn in 2025, when Greg, Fareine, and their longtime friend Yuuki came together to keep it from closing. Today, Bonus Round is more than a game café, it’s a community hub that hosts themed events, special game nights, brunches, and is a safe space for people to gather around a table.

For Greg and Fareine, Bonus Round has been part of their story from the very beginning. The now-married couple had their first date at the café in 2019 after meeting on Hinge. One of Greg’s prompts asked, “Which board games would you bring to a party?” His answer was Telestrations, which he chose for its mass appeal and ability to accommodate a large group. Fareine matched with him specifically to roast his “terrible taste in games” and challenge him to play some “real” board games.Their first date at Bonus Round was, fittingly, spent playing games. “We played Santorini and The Game,” Greg recalls. “We each won a round of Santorini, then proceeded to get absolutely destroyed by The Game. It’s a very difficult cooperative game that requires nonverbal communication… needless to say, we didn’t have that after just meeting!”

Along with a couple of lattes and some snacks, the date was a success. The couple returned to Bonus Round many times over the years, both together and with friends, making the café a familiar part of their lives. Eventually, their relationship with the café came full circle.

Yuuki had been friends with Greg and Fareine for years and had also worked at Bonus Round under its previous owner. When the owner announced in late 2024 that the café might have to close without a new buyer, Yuuki jokingly asked what it would cost to take over the business. What started as a joke quickly became a possibility. Knowing how much Bonus Round meant to Greg and Fareine, Yuuki asked them to join in on the purchase.

Together, the three friends scrounged up the money to buy the café from its previous owner, officially becoming the new owners in June 2025. “The three of us became owners in June of 2025 and haven’t looked back!” Greg says.

For Yuuki, taking over Bonus Round was about more than keeping a beloved neighborhood café open. The space had become an important part of their own life. After first visiting Bonus Round around 2021, Yuuki returned to the café in 2023 while looking for a fresh start. They applied to work there and were hired by the previous owner, eventually spending more than a year behind the counter before the opportunity to buy the business arose.

Today, Yuuki is committed to making Bonus Round a place where people can step away from the constant distractions of everyday life and simply spend time together. That vision is shared by all three owners, who see the café as an inclusive “third space”—somewhere people can gather outside of home and work, meet new people, and find community.

“We pride ourselves on being an inclusive third space,” Greg says. “We run a very wide variety of events, and that diversity is something I really love.”

For Yuuki, keeping Bonus Round alive is deeply personal. “In a way, this place saved me,” Yuuki says. “I work my butt off here doing my best to make it a community center for the important people in my life, as well as all the game-loving people and people who need a place to get away from phone screens and the constant rain of political and personal strife.”

What began as a game café in 2017 has evolved into something much bigger: a place where three friends found an opportunity to preserve something they love, and where countless others can find a table, a game, and a little more connection.

Greg’s Favorite Games: Magic: The Gathering, Scythe, Heat, and the Lord of the Rings Trick-Taking Game

Fareine’s Favorite Games: Dixit, Mysterium, BombBusters, and Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game.

Yuuki’s Favorite Games: Kinfire: Night’s Fall, Magic the Gathering, Ark Nova, Terraforming Mars, So Clover!, and Hot Streak