EVBG Celebrates its 12th Birthday! Parrrrty!

East Valley Board Games’ 12th birthday is headed your way in 2026! Enjoy some birthday treats and wear some party hats with us!

Quick but Mandatory History Lesson: Valley-ites Kim and Felicity first met at Natasha’s gaming event on the Westside in early January 2014. They hit it off immediately and hatched a plan to start something similar in the Valley. Thank you Natasha, for the inspiration!

East Valley Board Games’ very first event was at the now-defunct Grounded Café on Ventura Blvd. on January 26, 2014. Since then we managed to corral Jamal and Charmayne as fellow organizers, and we've wished Kim well as a former (but honorary) organizer. For a while there, Kim was a Westside dweller with a baby girl, but now she's back to being a Sherman Oaks dweller, now with a toddler girl. They always come back to the Valley...Jamal and Charmayne both moved on from organizing, and now we've got Joe and Mike in the co-organizing positions!

We’ve cycled through Jumpcut Café, Vitello’s, Du-Par's restaurant, and Panera Bread as event venues. We've been stationed at Paper Heroes for a while now, and we love this venue and our hosts.

Since its inception in 2014, our group has eaten cupcakes with legendary drummer Sheila E. (Stars, They’re Just Like US!), suffered head injuries and hospital visits, paid tribute to Prince, held Christmas gift exchanges involving Santa’s Pants, hosted game giveaways, held Halloween costume contests, hosted bar trivia, sang Wham's! Careless Whisper at karaoke, and enjoyed TONS of board game play!

Onto the details:

Food---Outside food and drink is allowed in. We just ask as always that you are careful so as not to spill. There's a coffee shop next door, Nat's Early Bite, which is open until 3pm. Just please be careful and don’t spill food or drink on games, or you’ll be expected to replace them, which we think is a fair policy.

Attendance---This is a drop-in event, so you don’t have to stay the whole time. Come for an hour, come for two hours, show up late, leave early. As long as you clean up any mess that you leave, you're good with us and the wonderful store runners. NOTE: It is advisable that the best way to get in on a game without waiting is to come at the beginning of the event at 2pm. Otherwise you might have to wait for a game to end and another to begin.

Guests---Guests are great! Just be sure to note it in your RSVP, and if your guests' plans change, please update your RSVP. Please understand that you are responsible for making sure that your guests spend at least $5 at Paper Heroes to support the business. More info on that in a second.

Parking---Paper Heroes is located in a strip mall on the northwest corner of Burbank Blvd. and Hazeltine Ave. in Sherman Oaks. No, we don't know why Meetup lists the city as Los Angeles.

There are a few parking spaces in the small shopping center, and we would suggest looking for street parking as well. Since it's Sunday, meters will be free. Important note: It's been brought to our attention that there are a few 1 hour parking signs around the venue, so as always, check parking signs carefully so you don't get a visit from a parking fairy. We have had good luck parking on the east side of Hazeltine, just south of Burbank.

Store policy---Our venue Paper Heroes is making an adjustment. PH is asking that every person who attends our events makes at least 1 purchase or purchases $5 store credit to use in the future (the store keeps an account for you). Snacks and drinks can be part of this, but they're not ideal. It's a gaming store (also comic books!) after all (and was affected by the pandemic).

What we like to do is put aside a list of games we want and buy or order them from PH, rather than get them from Amazon (doesn't Jeff Bozo have enough of our money?) The store runners and East Valley Board Games organizers (Felicity, Joe, and Mike) will remind you at the event.

Games---Feel free to bring your own games, or just play the ones that others bring. There's always a healthy selection of strategy games, word games, party games, and so on.