Want to play like a pro? Oakdale esports cafe offers play-by-the-hour gaming

Turning a hobby into a career is a dream for some people, and one Oakdale man has done just that.

Chris Chavez, owner of Gamers Garage, went from owning restaurants and gas stations — and building computers and gaming for fun — to selling his businesses to open an esports cafe.

“Not everybody can afford the quality level machines that professionals play on,” Chavez said. “Why not have an esports cafe, like Gamers Garage, for them to come experience (that).”

In the gaming world, “cafe” doesn’t exactly mean food and drink service, but rather a gathering space. Gamers Garage does sell snacks and drinks, though, ranging from $1 to $4.

This isn’t the first time Chavez opened Gamers Garage in Oakdale, but it is in a different part of town this time.

He opened the first Gamers Garage in the center of town in 2020, and it was open for a year before the doors shut due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, the gaming cafe sits at 1214 W. F St., Suite A7 — in the shopping center anchored by Backwoods Burgers.

How does Gamers Garage work?

Each machine in the shop has all of the top games, including “Fortnite,” “Apex Legends,” “Call of Duty” and “Counter-Strike: Global Offense.”

“Usually, these (customers) are playing these on an Xbox or PlayStation, so they don’t realize when they sit on these machines that the professionals play on, the replication of the game is much faster,” Chavez said. “So it gives them an advantage over other players.”

Though Gamers Garage does have an Xbox and a PlayStation 5, it centers around PCs assembled in house by Chavez. Each PC has the same specifications, which exceed what is required for professional players.

The shop also has two virtual reality stations with Meta Quest 3 headsets, and an arcade with “Street Fighter” and other retro games.

Essentially, customers buy time, Chavez said. The first hour is free for new customers and every hour after that is $8.

“There’s a lot of people that need their first hour to figure out, ‘What am I doing here?’” Chavez said. “Then once they’re like, ‘Wow, this is awesome,’ you just pay by the hour.”

Hours can be used for any gaming system and the arcade.

For frequent customers, there is a commitment-free membership option that adds free hours and reduces the hourly rate when those free hours are used.

The gold membership is $40 per month and includes eight free hours, priority reservation of stations, a 3x coin rate for arcade games, priority access to member-only events, a 10% discount on snacks and drinks and a $6 hourly rate.

Events, services and party rentals

At 14 years old, Chavez took apart his first computer and put it back together. Since then, he’s been gaining knowledge and even got a CompTIA A+ certification for doing IT-level repairs.

“I’m one of the few around this area that knows how to repair liquid-cooled gaming systems,” he said.

Chavez offers repairs at the shop — mostly for gaming PCs — and custom PC builds that are done in less than a week.

Gamers Garage has a 350-square-foot event space that can be booked for any purpose.

It’s equipped with a private entrance, a kitchenette and tables and chairs. The room can fit up to 25 people, but the shop provides seating for 15.

The event space rents for $50 per hour, not including game time.

To rent the space for a birthday party is $250 and includes full access to the room for two hours and two hours of playtime for up to 10 guests.

Adding pizza and a drink for party guests is $60. Each additional playing guest with pizza and drink is $25.

Once or twice a month, Gamers Garage hosts a “lan till you drop” event that starts at 10 p.m. and ends at 7 a.m. It’s $55 for members and $65 for nonmembers and includes the nine hours of game time, pizza, tournaments and giveaways.

Gamers Garage is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday from noon to 10 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 7 p.m.

For more information, visit the Gamers Garage Facebook page or call 209-322-8100.

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