From a “psilocybin-adjacent” start to board game nights at local bars, this is the wild story of Silver Lake Backgammon Club.
It ’s about 11:30 phase modulation on a Thursday night at a trendy bar in Echo Park , and one thing ’s become well-defined : there ’s not much backgammon bechance atSilver Lake Backgammon Club . Instead , the kind of fashionable people who would n’t be catch dead at a normal board game Nox are peach , laughing , and swaying to 2000s indie rock . A yoke who may or may not have known each other when the night began is openly make out next to a now - forget vintage backgammon board . They , and everyone else hang out around them , have founder Paris Hunter Paul to give thanks . Paul brought Silver Lake Backgammon Club to life by accident , a serendipitous idea that jump from the cyberspace into the real existence and became a party contrive to help neighbors and strangers get to know each other , to support local bars , and yes , also to dally backgammon .
Despite appearances , Silver Lake Backgammon Club outcome are indeed root in playing backgammon , or at least that ’s where the night begin . Paul is profoundly enthusiastic about the ancient game , bringing a ton of boards and a saintly longanimity for teach the rule and preaching the fine points of scheme to anyone who ’s willing to heed . He ’s also an actor and a film maker , which is immediately apparent in his charisma , the room his face brightens when he ’s commandment , and the easy path he adhere with alien over the game he loves . He check how to play it from his parent , as many masses do , but for him it developed into a lifelong passion .
The events are so fun and popular , it ’s frankly hard to trust that the golf club ’s founding was an accident , and that it was n’t in the beginning supposed to involve any backgammon at all . After the restaurant where Paul cooked closed during the pandemic , he fell into an alternate revenue current : procuringmushroomsfor a select client list . He needed a covert name for his enterprise , so he smashed together his neighborhood and his favorite hobby , and Silver Lake Backgammon Club was born .
Photo by Ira Edelman, courtesy of Biite Club
He started asocial media accountfor the “ club , ” and the strangest thing kept happening — people were remove him up out of the amobarbital sodium all the metre , asking where to play backgammon and how to unite the night club . For a while he redirected them to respectable groups across town in Venice or down in San Diego , but eventually he actualize there was enough need to host his own event .
The first real Silver Lake Backgammon Club party was at Black Cat in October of 2023 , just a stone ’s throw from Paul ’s flat , and it was a smash . Now the clubhouse is growing and morph with Paul ’s other interests . He ’s in the cognitive process of plunge a vino society , partnering with different bar and restaurants , and looking to the future . He ’s throwing introduction to backgammon upshot at private golf club and project to host high - level nights for serious gamers , and he ’s curating wine lists for other event too . At an elemental level , all of it is define by good vibes , Paul ’s passion , and an sincere desire to make friend and build up meaningful connections .
“ It can be a lone metropolis , ” Paul sound out , “ and I know what that ’s like firsthand . ” But alleviating that solitariness through fun and games is the central tenet of Silver Lake Backgammon Club ; whether you ’re a serious backgammon player or someone who scantily knows the rule , you ’re welcome to hail hang out , dally , hear , and be a part of the golf club . “ The here and now [ people ] show up and say they ’re here for backgammon , they ’re already a part of the residential district , ” Paul say .
Photo by Joseph Nicolas Duarte, courtesy of Biite Club
Backgammon has long been a pointedness of link for Paul : “ I ’ve made friends go alone in the Middle East , just setting up at hookah bars with a backgammon board open , not knowing anybody in the country , ” he says . “ Dudes descend up like , ‘ You speak English ? ’ I ’m like , ‘ Yeah , you want to get a game go ? ’ ”
Now he ’s trying to reduplicate that sense of residential area in Silver Lake , the neighborhood where Paul has live for the last X . The area has change a lot in that span , especially on Paul ’s block right near Sunset Junction . There are always tourists coming through these days , transplants to LA often subside there , and bar and restaurant turnover is super high .
Which hit on the other indispensable piece of the club — providing support and play a crowd to local bar and restaurants . He ’s host events at iconic venue like the Black Cat and Club Tee Gee , and at interesting new spaces like Spirit House and Nico ’s , he ’s partnered with Biite , and he ’s open to all sorts of other locale . The next one is set to be at Silver Lake Pool and Inn on February 23 , with more to come .
Photo by Joseph Nicolas Duarte, courtesy of Biite Club
bar and bartenders are responding well , too ; after one recent result wrapped up , an unaffiliated patron approached a bartender and inquire how it belong . The barman smiled , “ It was fucking lit . ”
Paul struggled in the beginning of the pandemic , having lost his job in the kitchen and taken a severance from acting . “ I feel like I had abandon the very affair that I was best at , and that was acting and storytelling , ” he says . But he did gain some deep personal cognition : “ One of my strength is that I have really dear taste , but no fucking accomplishment whatsoever . ”
Some of us would quibble with that characterization ( ‘ taste is a skill ’ might as well be the civilisation writer ’s creed ) , but the opinion stands . Paul has found the perfect way to put that taste into activeness with Silver Lake Backgammon Club , and it ’s working .
Photo by Joseph Nicolas Duarte, courtesy of Biite Club
“ The identity of it is a little puzzling , ” Paul let in , “ It ’s psilocybin adjacent , it ’s born wine , it ’s parties , it ’s backgammon and play . What the fucking is it ? It ’s just all my preferred things . ” surely it ’s a wild omnium-gatherum , but it all tote up up to one Scheol of a party , whether you end up realise out with a stranger or just playing backgammon , drinking wine , and hanging out .
