By Kimberly Pistone
For the Sidney Daily News

SIDNEY – Cogs N Gears Game Café will be opening soon in downtown Sidney.

Owner Dekon Matthews plans to have a soft open around Aug. 15. Currently he is using his 32 years of experience as a general contractor to update the space. The café will seat a maximum of 35 people who can enjoy tabletop games and artisan food.

Cogs N Gears Game Café will have more than 350 games available for patrons. In order to play, any individual over the age of 18 has to join the board game library and sign an agreement about taking care of the games and being sure to return all the pieces before leaving. Joining is free, however playing games is $5 for an individual.

Games of all types will be available from classics like Stratego, Battleship, Scrabble, varieties of Monopoly, and Trivial Pursuit to more modern games like Catan, Mansions of Madness, Splendor, and Ticket to Ride. Kid friendly games include Candyland, Bananagrams, and Cranium.

In addition to board games, there will be themed nights for patrons to enjoy role playing games, card games like Magic: the Gathering, or even Pokémon.

Matthews went to the Culinary Institute of America for a year and finished his Culinary degree at Sinclair. The restaurant will serve pizza, subs, sandwiches, salads, appetizers, desserts, smoothies and milkshakes. Most food will be artisan and made from scratch with fresh produce hand selected by Matthews.

Cogs N Gears is within the DORA zone and Matthews will be applying for his alcohol license, although they will be opening without the ability to serve alcohol.

Matthews is also a game designer. He likes to create games with miniatures and a horror-based theme like aliens and zombies. These games will be available to play, but they are still in the testing stage.

Cogs N Gears is located at 219 E. Court St., across from the Board of Elections office. It will be open Monday – Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday it will be open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. to midnight, and on Sundays it will be open from noon to 8 p.m. Reservations are suggested for weekends due to limited seating, and can be made by calling 937-710-4070.