Cafe Au Lego

There was no school today (thank you veterans).  As we've entered school age there just is not the same amount of time for adventuring.  I recently learned that a Lego cafe opened in Northeast Seattle.  A crispy fall morning seemed like the perfect day to investigate.   I was hedging my bets that it would be less crowded than other places.

Wunderkind is really a pretty brilliant idea.  On the main floor is a cafe serving snacks, a light kid friendly menu, juice, coffee/lattes, wine, and beer. There is also free wi-fi.  Off the entrance is a room (closed in by a low door) set up with play tables full of duplos.  On the edges of the room are tables and chairs for parents to work on laptops and ignore their children while playing on their phones.  There is also a big flat screen television for watching sporting events.

The upstairs features parental seating on one side, a large lego table full of legos, and another smaller parent section with a duplo table.  This smaller section also has a small low door to keep the little ones inside.  I really appreciated this area because I was worried about managing kids with different lego abilities.

Overall, I give the experience a C+.  The seating was super cramped even though there were plenty of open seats.  The parking lot consists of two spaces plus one handicapped spot.  I am pretty sure that Linus alone owns more Legos than what was made available at the Lego tables.  The kids were happy and played nicely beside one another.  It was fun watching them be master builders.

My takeaway was that it just was not worth the cost.  Given the amount and variety of Legos and duplos at our house, I'm better off just hosting Lego playdates.  I can see it now.  I'll have mulled wine and coffee at the ready, make some mini pumpkin muffins. I'll flip on the fireplace.  I already have wi-fi.  We'll be set and I'll save myself $20.

I'm not totally done with Wunderkind.  I'll still follow them on Facebook.  On Fridays, they offer specific Lego building classes like Minecraft while parents watch sports and imbibe alcohol.   That could be fun.

I'll give Wunderkind this---it set the kids up for a good day.  They played all day long together, more Legos, camping, baby orphan dinosaurs....

So, what I guess I'm saying is, if you need something to do over Thanksgiving or winter break, Lego playdate at my house!