“You are a thief, and you see a house on fire, what would you like to do? Steal an item from the burning house or run away from the burning house?”
“Hmm… I’d like to steal something from the house.”
Everyone looks intently at the dice as it is being prepared to be rolled across the table. The player rolls the dice across the table and gets…..16!
“You got 16! 16 + 2, so 18 total!” says the Game Master. “You successfully steal an item from the burning house, you escape the house before it collapses, and no one sees you. You have two choices: one, you go and steal the remains of whatever survived the house fire, or two, you move on from the fire and continue journeying through the town. What would you like to do next?”
This is a glimpse of what happens every D&D night at the Recharge Cafe in Wrightwood. Since opening the Recharge Cafe on November 10th, 2025, business owner Manny has been hosting D&D nights every week at their location in the village of Wrightwood on Evergreen Drive.
But what is D&D? I’ll explain. D&D stands for the board game Dungeons and Dragons. A storytelling board game that allows players to explore fantasy worlds, solve puzzles, and fight monsters, all the while building the story. The example at the beginning of this article explains exactly what it’s like to play a game of D&D. But there’s more to the game than just that. In this game, there is someone called a “DM,” or Dungeon Master, which really just means the game master, who controls the scene of the game, the storyline of the game, and the decisions available during the game.
At Recharge Cafe, D&D is the very heart of the business. At the cafe you can even purchase different versions of D&D which include the following (but aren’t limited to): “D&D Lord of the Rings”, “D&D Avatar” and even “D&D My Little Pony.” Some of these different D&D versions are even available just to play at Recharge Cafe.
But why did Manny choose D&D to be the core of the cafe? “After 20 years, you see how our town works and how things go on here, you also see how people don’t have anywhere to go to hang out, either late at night or simply after school,” he continues on stating, “The business originally started on online streaming and selling cards, and slowly doing D&D nights” Manny said reflecting on the business’ early beginnings, “really since then it has grown from there.”
Recently, demand for Dungeons & Dragons nights has been on the rise. The popularity has grown enough that Manny added a reservation calendar so customers can secure a spot.
“Since we opened, the demand for D&D nights has been rising,” Manny said. “We’ve seen a lot of people from across the Tri-Community come through, and on busy days the shop can see a few hundred visitors. We’ve even had people travel in from places like Apple Valley and Los Angeles.”
“My first 10 years being here I always wanted to do something for the town because it needed something and I just wasn’t sure what is was yet.. and now I have Recharge Cafe” said Manny, “and I now know what that something was, and since the opening I been meeting more members of the community than I had ever known of.”
Local resident, Brooklyn, is a frequent customer and says “My favorite part is the game time we have there, and some of the tournaments that are hosted there as well…I love the environment sometimes, although sometimes I can get a little competitive and may not win, I still really enjoy the time spent there and I feel very welcomed there.”
There are also other activities that happen at Recharge Cafe. Some of the activities include, video games (on the Nintendo Switch), Mario Cart competitions, movie nights, and Pokémon card trading nights. Manny says “We’ve also seen a demand in Pokémon cards too and have been hosting tournaments.”
And of course a cafe wouldn’t be complete without refreshments. “Our customers favorite item sold here is our Japanese sodas, they aren’t like your typical soda, that is high in carbonation and overly sweet” he says, “these sodas, are something different that you don’t generally find unless you go to a specialty store of some sort, and they are really just an experience within themselves.” The sodas are priced around $2 and come in different flavors, the one pictured here has a “Lemon-lime” taste. The soda treats typically sell out so make sure the next time you visit Recharge Cafe grab your own before its too late!
In the future Manny would like to see Recharge Cafe getting a bigger space, he says “I would like to do more events, not just our D&D nights or card game tournaments, I would like to have more space to allow more community members to come in and sit down, and have a place to read a book, or run their own D&D campaign’s, and maybe have a private area that can be rented out, but as of right now…our space is really tiny.” He also says “At Recharge Cafe, community comes first, and we really enjoy seeing members of our community enjoy their time here at Recharge Cafe.”
Recharge Cafe is located at 1253 Evergreen Rd. Unit 2 in Wrightwood under Mexico Lindo Restaurant. Follow them on Facebook or Instagram @Recharge Cafe LLC and be sure to visit their website www.rechargecafellc.com to learn more about their upcoming events and business hours.
