slosh down the pepper!

Need a refuel?

Visit Pitstop Cafe. It's a game cafe located on the 3rd floor of a narrow shophouse situated at 14B Circular Road. A pretty easily accessible place from either Raffles Place MRT or Clarke Quay MRT. Pitstop was introduced to me by SY, whose friends were the co-owner of that games cafe. I think the establishment was barely a year old when she first brought the whole lot of us there. Likewise Mind's Cafe and Settlers, Pitstop offered similar games packages, but at a cheaper rate. It also offered a more friendly and homely feel with its non-cluttered yet bright furniture arrangements. At that time, the owners were constantly seen around the cafe, frequently going around to introduce games to players, or just simply to see how the gamers are doing . That light personal touch makes one comfortable.

Me and Tempest brought A, H and K to that cafe last Friday night. After so many dinners and movies, I thought it would be refreshing to do a change. Luckily A and H are not foreign to games cafes. And K is willing to give it a try. We once brought Tempest's friends over too. But the reactions from his friends were less than enthusiastic. Then there was G and J too, who weren't very fond of games. To make Pitstop an enjoyable experience, you sure need enthusiastic, loud-roaring players!

The first thought that came to me when I stepped into the cafe: it has become more commercialized. There are several helpers dressed in black polos bearing the Pitstop logo. Some of them are more friendly than the others. But some of them looked very 'green', and not very sure of how the games are to be played. None of the 4 owners we recognized were present till later. Even then, I don't see them 'patrolling' or chit-chatting with gamers. Instead, they were occupied at one corner with their Mac-books. In fact, you won't be able to recognize them as 'Pit Crew' since they are decked in their own home clothes, resembling nothing like the uniform their helpers wore. No logos or tag on their clothes either. Overall, I observed a sense of familiar commercialism that once was missing from the cafe.

Back to the five of us. We started off slow, taking time to decide on the food. Between us, we ordered fish and chips, chicken lasagna, teriyaki chicken and assorted finger food set. The fish and chips seemed to have shrunk and not equally distributed. We ordered 2 sets, one had a bigger portion than the other. The lasagna looked very small. The teriyaki chicken was alright. The assorted finger food came with an egg and rice; it didn't look very appetizing. Service level was at most 3 out of 5. They kept mixing up our orders with some other tables. They were also slow at preparing certain foods. We almost ate half of our dishes before K's arrived. We got all our drinks way before K's. But one thing I liked about it, it gave us half an hour allowance to finish our food and did not charge that into the 2-hour games package.

We selected generally easy-to-learn games for the night. We played only once or twice per game, probably also due to the fact that H can never play for long in a same game. Her attention span is pretty short. One of the more interesting ones we played was Guns n' Roses which came with foam guns. The rules were a little complicated and confusing that it took me 1 - 2 games to fully understand the strategy of the game. We had some kind of Win-Lose-or-Draw game; instead of drawing on paper, we were provided with cards that come pre-drawn with shapes. We were supposed to mix and match the cards to form a picture for the opponent to guess. It was a fairly difficult game for me since I can't draw very well. A is surprisingly good; he constructs concepts fast and makes good pictures. His Jack O'Lantern left an impression. Haha.

We extended for an hour and moved on to even easier no-brainer games like The Tower of Pisa and Jenga. Essentially the former is similar to Jenga, just that you are maneuvering little plastic boys instead of bricks.



My favorite was:

Good fun. =)

It was 11.30pm when we left Pitstop. K gotta leave for the night while the rest of us proceeded to Lau Pa Sat for supper. We ordered some satay; it was my first time tasting duck satay! Actually apart from physical appearance, I can't really taste the difference between the beef and duck. At the same time, we ran through a number of pictures from A's business trips to Berlin and Moscow, and Me & Tempest's holiday to Hanoi. We left at 2.30am, and Tempest offered to drive all of us home. Nice of you, dear one! *pats on the back*

posted by slingwoof @ 4/07/2008 02:57:00 PM