That’s a wrap!

Expansion

It was on Thursday, January 26th that we officially opened the doors to our second location in Greensboro, NC. This location is much like our original location in Raleigh (quite literally, as we’re adjacent to the railroad tracks and across from Greensboro HQ!) with a few key differences, including the ability to bring in food trucks and enough space to accommodate a 2,000 sq ft private event space, which became available for rent in August.

Giving Back

With your help, we raised and donated a combined total of $48,927 for local charities in 2018 through our weekly “Drink For A Cause” events, where we donate 15% of sales to a select local charity each week. Your contributions also resulted in 211 pounds of food donations for the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina and you helped to brighten the holidays for children across Wake and Guildford counties with your Toys For Tots drive donations. Thanks for your help in supporting the many noble causes and less fortunate individuals of our community!

Improvements

It was another year of transformation at our Raleigh location. We built a dedicated live music stage on our heated, covered patio, to more comfortably accommodate our weekly musicians while opening enough space to fit our newest edition: a year-round patio bar! The replacement of our draft system in late 2017 not only provided us with better temperature control and faster service, but the benefits don’t stop there… with more efficient service at the main bar, we were able to remove the back bar and transform the space into a dedicated Nintendo corner, which is now home to all of our (always free-to-play) console systems and the place to be for our free pop-up console tournaments!

Humbling Moments

We were honored when the 82nd Airborne Division asked us send them a little “piece of home” to adorn their wiffle ball field in Baghdad. Not only was this a humbling request, but we were stoked when the division sent us this picture of the Boxcar banner in hand!

Familiar Faces

When Michael Franti from Spearhead asked to host a donation-based yoga class (with the help of @yogammunitytribe) at our Greensboro location, to raise funds for Hurricane Harvey relief, we happily obliged – and we were equally stoked to get our game on with WWE’s Xavier Woods, who showed up to show off his DDR skills following the WWE Starrcade 2017 event in Greensboro.

Celebrations

Because we’re open 365 days/year, we’re lucky enough to spend the holidays with some of our customers. In areas with a significant transplant population, it’s our goal to provide something festive and fun for everyone, whether that be individuals who can’t make it home for Christmas or a destination for your in-town guests. From New Year’s Day to New Year’s Eve, we enjoyed celebrating the seasons with you!

Live Music

We began hosting live music in 2016 when we signed our favorite one man band, Andy Lyle Hall, to perform at our Raleigh location every Saturday and Sunday afternoon. In 2017, we added DJs to our Raleigh mix, kicked off “Live Music Saturdays” in Greensboro and hosted various live music events at both locations, such as Hopscotch, Xmas is Luv II and more. There’s some serious talent in our communities and we’re always open to adding to our live music lineups, so be sure to send us your feedback and recommendations and to check out our Greensboro and Raleigh event calendars to see what we’ve got lined up for 2018.

Furry Friends

We love our #BoxcarBowows (and hope you continue sharing pics of your pups throughout the new year!), but while dogs often take center stage, we had a few other furry creatures steal the spotlight this year, including a special appearance by Greensboro’s famous @eugenethepig and the stars of the Purrcup Cafe popup event in Raleigh!