I’m thrilled to announce that as of 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, The Raygun Lounge has an official Washington state license to sell beer, wine, ale, cider and mead. Yes, mead. This means that tonight’s (Friday, 11/30) invite-only event (a reward for everyone who backed us at the “Soft Opening” level) will indeed feature the very first time we’ll be serving beer. First shipments are arriving tomorrow afternoon in time to be chilled before our guests’ arrival.

The flipside of this stellar news is that as of 5 p.m. tonight – just mere hours from now – The Raygun Lounge becomes an exclusive 21+ establishment. We’re in talks with our new neighbors, the Black Coffee Co-op, to provide alternative gaming event options for our fans and friends under the age of 21. We’ll release more details on that exciting collaboration once we sleep off tomorrow’s inevitable hangover.

I know from personal experience how important getting a Christmas gift can be for a child living between homes. The gifts that meant the most to me were always games. The games I received at Christmas brought me joy and connection year round for years to come. That’s why it’s such an honor for me to announce Gamma Ray Games‘ 2nd annual Waltier Used Games for New Games for King County Foster Kids for Christmas Drive (better name pending). Here’s how it works:

You bring in your open-yet-complete-and-in-good-condition-games to Gamma Ray Games.

We put the store credit for these used games into an account for Treehouse.

On December 15th, we take all of the credit from everyone’s used games and buy a bunch of brand new games at great prices for the Treehouse Wearhouse to be given out free to King County foster children and their families.

Last year we were able to raise over $250 in store credit and carefully stretch it to buy dozens of great games for foster children. This is a great way for you to pass on your used games to people who will love them and buy brand new games for local area kids in need at the same time.

It’s brilliant.

We love participating in it and we hope that you will too. Just bring your used games to Gamma Ray Games, tell us that they’re for Treehouse and we’ll take care of the rest.

See you soon,

-Eric