Ember Rest rents a table and any board game for $7 a day in Martinez

Ember Rest, the tabletop game shop at 649 Main St., Suite 101, in downtown Martinez, charges $7 a person to play any game in its library — and the fee covers the whole day, according to the shop's website.\n\nThat is the part worth knowing if you have teenagers and a rainy Saturday. The library runs from familiar titles to long, expensive campaign games such as Gloomhaven and Kingdom Death, the kind most households would never buy for themselves.\n\nThe shop is set up as a place to sit down, not only a place to buy. Its rooms include forest-themed playrooms and gaming rooms built to look like a Dungeons & Dragons tavern. Tables and rooms can be booked ahead through the website, and the shop runs weekly tournaments and role-playing sessions alongside open play.\n\nHours are short and weighted to the weekend: Thursday and Friday 5 to 9 p.m., Saturday 1 to 8 p.m., Sunday 1 to 6 p.m., closed Monday through Wednesday.\n\nThe shop also sells its own merchandise. A Downtown D&D 2026 artist-series tee, with artwork by the artist Skinner, is listed at $45 and a matching hoodie at $75, in a run of 100 of each; pre-orders shipped May 6.\n\nEmber Rest is listed in the Downtown Martinez & Co. directory under entertainment, at the same Main Street address, among the shops and restaurants that anchor the blocks around Main and Escobar.\n\nThe phone number is 925-387-8179 and the shop's email is emberrestmartinez@gmail.com.\n\nOwn or work at Ember Rest? We'd like to hear your story — send us a note.