Monday the 22nd I went up to Montpelier to check out The Book Garden as a more local Friendly Local Game Store, the alternatives being in Burlington or West Leb. The store is small and had a small but good selection of the better board games: Dominion, Puerto Rico, Quarriors, 7 Wonders, Munchkin, Ticket to Ride, The Lord of the Rings Card Game, and Settlers of Catan. They had X-wing from Fantasy Flight, which shows that someone in the store is up on the latest games. Magic the Gathering also made an appearance with a selection of used cards as well as the newest sets.
The games section is really just one rack in the middle of the store. They carried expansions for most of the games they had in stock (7 Wonders, Dominion, and Settlers,) but I didn’t see quest packs for LotR. Also missing was any Arkham Horror. There was a tiny selection of RPG books at foot-level, mostly GURPS. I didn’t see space for gaming and the store was empty save the one clerk. I asked about Games Workshop merchandise, but no they don’t carry Warhammer or 40K.
So it’s still Quarterstaff or Tripleplay for models and paints.
The visit left me with the overall impression that this is more of a bookstore that has games rather than a full up FLGS. It’s not bad and I will certainly return to the store from time to time and list it on BoardGameGeek as a FLGS stand-in for people stuck in Montpelier.
