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For years, Angelo Mendoza dreamed of opening up a board game cafe. Then, he was laid off from his corporate job in May 2025, which presented a unique opportunity for him – the time to make this dream a reality.
After a summer spent putting things in writing and drafting a business plan, Mendoza met Rebecca Wang and her husband, Sean Forman, who at the time were running Next Level Board Game Café in downtown Mountain View.
“They were kind enough to give me some direction, provide some mentorship,” Mendoza said, adding that he ended up joining the Next Level team as a member of its staff.
Months later, Wang and Forman announced that they were shutting down Next Level due to financial difficulties, a move that dismayed many local residents. The couple told the Voice in March that they hoped someone would continue the concept of a board game cafe.
That’s where Mendoza, along with business partners Alfred Tarng and Chris Ferejohn, come in. The trio is hoping to re-establish a board game gathering spot in the same location as Next Level on the corner of Villa and Bryant streets. The plan is to lease the space and open up Rice & Dice Board Game Cafe.
“We want it to feel like coming home for a lot of the community members that have already gone off to play board games at other places,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza, Tarng and Ferejohn are looking to build upon the foundation created by Wang and Forman, including bringing back the Thursday meetups and Sunday brunches. The trio also plans to expand the events calendar. They want to continue serving food to people playing games but are thinking of changing the menu to feature Asian-fusion dishes.
In terms of employees, the business partners intend to hire back many of Next Level’s former workers.
“It really has that family atmosphere when you’re coming back to familiar faces, people that you trust, people that have that sort of credibility with the community,” Mendoza said.
Currently, the group is in contact with the landlord of 888 Villa St. to discuss leasing out the site for their new cafe. According to Mendoza, they are hoping to negotiate a rent price that feels manageable, so that they are not “immediately drowned in high rent costs.”
They’ve already purchased a lot of assets from Wang and Forman, including Next Level’s furniture and appliances.
Mendoza, Tarng and Ferejohn are aware of the challenges that led to the demise of their predecessor, including high rent, labor costs and inflation. While some of these factors can be hard to plan for, Mendoza said that the three business partners have been speaking to advisors and taking classes to prepare for these obstacles.
On June 7, they will host their first board game meetup at Google’s event space, the Huddle, 2000 N. Shoreline Blvd. During this RSVP-only event, they plan on answering community questions about the new cafe and hearing suggestions about what people would like to see from the place.
“We understand that there’s a lot of other places now, after the closure of Next Level, that have tried to just pick up where they left off and create their own board game meetups, but if we’re being completely honest, no one did it like Next Level,” Mendoza said. “We’re just really excited to get those things started again.”
