Longtime Groton Shop To Move, Create Unique Entertainment Space

GROTON, CT — The Citadel Game Cellar in Groton announced it will be moving.

The shop will collaborate with Lucille's Cafe in Ledyard to make a board game cafe in a large new space.

The Citadel Game Cellar is currently located at 565 Long Hill Road and will be moving to 441 Long Hill Road.

It's anticipated that the new location will be open in early winter.

The store was opened in 1977 by Pat Flory. In 2016, CEO of Citadel Hobbies and Games LLC Ken Miffitt said he and two partners purchased the business.

Miffitt said "one of my original desires was to be a board game cafe but our current location did not lend itself to that style of space."

He had been doing game days at local libraries, coffee houses and at a few breweries.

"Having a board game cafe was something I wanted to establish," Miffitt said.

He said it started to come to fruition when he hired Victoria Miles to handle social media for the business who also worked at Lucille's with partner Anthony Sarcia, who owns the business.

"When a space became available that met the criteria I had for my cafe idea, I pitched it to Victoria and Anthony who were very excited with the prospect of partnering with one of their favorite stores, The Citadel," Miffitt said.

The Citadel sells a myriad of board, card, dice and role playing games.

Miffitt said founder Flory's philosophy was "buy one of everything, if it sells, buy it again!"

He added that this "is difficult to do now with many companies self publishing through Kickstarter, where consumers can go straight to a publisher."

He said the bulk of production still runs through distribution, but he said regardless, he tries to bring games into the store that he thinks customers will enjoy.

"Our customer base is very knowledgeable when it comes to new releases. I'm constantly learning what's out there from them, our distribution partners and a great website called Boardgamegeek.com," Miffitt said. "I refer to what we're doing as promoting analog gaming with family and friends."

He said that over 80 people have already volunteered to help with the move.

Citadel Game Cellar posted the following about the move on Facebook:

The secret’s out- the Citadel Game Cellar is moving!

Not only are we moving, we are collaborating with lucillescafect to make a boardgame cafe.

We’ll still host all of the events you love, but now we’ll also have a board game library, lounge space, a private DnD room you can book, and of course a full cafe!

We’ll have sign-ups for volunteers interested in participating in this massive move posted soon.

We couldn’t dream of a better way to go into our 50th year, and we couldn’t have done it without you.