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Owners of popular downtown bakery announce plans for board game cafe

By Stephanie Meador, posted Jul 2, 2026 on BizFayetteville.com

Photo courtesy of The Sweet Palette

Patsy Crawford and her sons, Adam and Zack, are collaborating to open Thirsty Gamers Cafe in the space next to their successful dessert shop, The Sweet Pallette. 

“As a family, we've always loved playing board games, and ... when our renter moved out we decided this was the ideal opportunity to include the other thing we love, besides baking and making cupcakes ... [to] have a place where people can gather and play games and ... have a good community feel,” shared Patsy.

Patsy and Adam started the bakery back in 2014, and board game aficionado Zack is partnering with them to help open the new board game cafe. 

“It's a coffee house first and foremost, but we wanted something where you can stick around, play with your friends and family, hang out, and just talk around coffee – and have something tangible and physical to play,” explained Zack.

The cafe will feature a full library of games available to play as well as games for purchase. 

Local coffee roaster Morning Jump will be providing a special blend for Thirsty Gamers Cafe to sell to customers. The Sweet Palette will also expand its menu to include breakfast pastries to cater to the earlier hours that the cafe will be open. 

“We’ve been running the cupcake side for so long. We've always really loved board games and always wanted to do events like game nights, so it's exciting to bring something new to downtown, something kind of fun that hopefully people will enjoy,” shared Adam.

“We love downtown, and we think this will be a nice plus for more things you can go and enjoy at night, [to] grow downtown even more,” added Patsy.

The cafe is expected to open in August. 

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