Featured in the Funnest Ideas Ever Department is Tribecan Greg May, who 12 years ago opened the The Uncommons — helping to launch the return of the board game to the city’s social life — and who now has published his own game, Floristry, that will join his own stock of 1000 games there and at his three other shops, Hex & Co.

The two-person game, designed with date nights in mind, can fit on a card table and is colorful, friendly and approachable — like flowers. It uses a Dutch auction mechanic, based on the Aalsmeer Flower Auction in the Netherlands, where the two players bid on flowers using their phone app as well as cards and chips from the game.

But let’s back it up and then come back around: May has always loved games, loved coffee and loved beer. But his collection at home started to pile up. “My girlfriend at the time was sick of me having a hundred games in the house,” he said. “I don’t think she thought I would start a business with them.”

But he did. At the time, he was going to gaming nights but everything was in dark bars and only at night. He wanted to create an all-day space “for gamers by gamers.” That was The Uncommons in the Village, which opened in 2013. A few years later, he co-founded Hex & Co., a game cafe and retail outlet that now has three shops around the city.

Greg was in tech for a while — working for web design — but he is now a full-time retail operator. “It was rough going that first year but we had a great time,” he said. “We did zero marketing and we still don’t do marketing.”

So fast forward to Floristry. Greg had two regular clients of the stores, David Gordon and TAM, who were game designers. He gave them the brief: a two-player game that you can play as a date on a cafe table. (All the shops host all sorts of dating events.) Greg is the publisher and they connected with a publishing partner at a convention. They could have financed it on Kickstarter, but the partnership allowed them to print 10,000 games.

It’s now the game of the month at Barnes & Noble, and one of the larger board game video channels posted a great review last week, which launched Floristry to #1 on the Amazon Board Game New Release list.

And the team is already working on next game, which will be called Scurry Up — it’s about squirrels. Stay tuned for that.

And in the meantime, some recs from Greg for your next game night:

• Light strategy: Azul, Splendor
• Amazing family game: Just One
• Drinking game: Dutch Blitz