Chance & Counters announce new ‘flagship’ store opening in Bristol

A board game bar and cafe group is opening a new flagship site on Gloucester Road in Bristol - replacing an Italian restaurant, which closed at the end of January. Chance & Counters will launch the store at 79-81 Gloucester Road in April.

The company will also continue to operate its Christmas Steps venue having recently signed a 10-year lease for the site. But the Gloucester Road venue will offer more space for more than 100 customers, and will be open seven days a week.

The store will feature a huge library of board games and offer food, including vegan and gluten-free options. It replaces the Italian vegan restaurant Purezza - although vegan pizzas will be available to buy at the site.

Chance & Counters was founded by three friends and board game fans, Steve Cownie, Luke Neal and Richard Scarsbrook, and had its first site opened at Christmas Steps in 2016. It has since expanded with new stores in Cardiff and Birmingham.

The trio hope to get the Gloucester Road venue opened before the Easter school holidays.

Steve Cownie, co-founder of Chance & Counters, said: “We’ve been on the hunt for a new site in Bristol for nearly three years now and we couldn’t be happier to have found it. Bristol is where it all started for us so it feels pretty amazing finally to be in a position to grow here.

“The Christmas Steps site will always be massively important to us, but we realised pretty early on we just didn’t have the space and facilities there to meet demand in Bristol. Having all this extra capacity in such a great spot on Gloucester Road is huge - we can’t wait to get the doors open.”