In the Internet age, where games are played online with opponents you might never meet, Terry Chiu and Robert Cron are decidedly old school. Their arena of choice: board games.

So devoted are they that they are moving their growing, roving board-game group to a permanent home.

Chiu, 44, and Cron, 38, have applied for permits to renovate a 1920s structure at 1800 S. Brand Blvd. in Glendale into Los Angeles County’s first board-game café, GameHäus Board Game Café, and plan to open by October.

The café will cater to the needs of board-game veterans like themselves: big tables designed for board games, a collection of 700 games including classics like Risk and Monopoly, modern strategy games such as Agricola and 7 Wonders, and party games like Taboo and Trivial Pursuit. Customers will be charged a flat $5 to enjoy any games they choose all day.

The partners haven’t turned their backs on modernity altogether: They are financing the effort in part through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign that, three days before it closed last week, had drawn 187 backers and more than $11,000 – well above the $7,500 they hoped to raise.

The move to bricks and mortar started with a board-game group they formed with a couple of friends four years ago. Over time, the group grew to more than 500 members.

“We can play 12 to 13 hours every time,” Chiu said.

Having fans online and a decent-size group might provide a running start, but restaurant consultant Jerry Prendergast, for one, was skeptical that that was enough to create a successful business.

“I don’t understand how they generate revenues,” Prendergast said. “People can sit there for two hours and don’t order anything.”

– Kay Chinn