By Ruth Melville

Tired of sitting around the living room with family members all absorbed in their smart phones or tablets? Ryan Craig at the Berkshire Country Store has a suggestion to liven up your Monday nights: board games!

“I noticed with my own family,” Craig says, “that we’re so busy all the time, rushing to get dinner made, shower, bed. It’s such a routine, with no time to spare.” But then he thought, what if you set aside a special time to leave the house with its chores and digital distractions? Remembering that when he was growing up his family used to enjoy playing board games together, he came up with the idea of Game Night.

Every Monday evening, from 4 to to 6:45, everyone is invited to grab a board game or two and come along to the Berkshire Country Store. You can bring your own games, or Craig has some on hand. Playing cards and jigsaw puzzles are also more than welcome—but no video games.

“The idea is to bring people together,” Craig says, “and to do something fun.” As an added incentive, anyone who brings a board game to play with family and friends gets 5 percent off their entire dinner order.

Craig picked Mondays because it’s normally a quiet night in town. Wood Creek Bar and Grill has its popular trivia night on Tuesdays, and Thursday is open mic night at Infinity Bistro, but both restaurants are closed on Monday. “It would be nice to have something to do in Norfolk every night of the week,” Craig says.

On a recent Monday evening, Kerim and Jeni Bahadir, who are new in town, were playing Survivor, but later they attracted the attention, and applause, of other gamers and bystanders with their impressive skills at Jenga. Ryan Craig’s family, his fiancé, Natasha, and his dad, stepmother and seven-year-old daughter, Gianna, were playing Survivor and Othello—although Gianna was also keeping a close eye on the Jenga tower.

Once the weather gets warmer, Craig hopes set up some gaming tables outdoors too, but in the meantime, it’s cheerful and cozy in the store. Anyone up for Monopoly?

Photo of game night at the Berkshire Country Store by Bruce Frisch.