{"id":16939,"date":"2025-08-14T16:01:31","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T22:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bitterblossom-games-moves-to-new-location-in-cortez\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:03:11","slug":"bitterblossom-games-moves-to-new-location-in-cortez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bitterblossom-games-moves-to-new-location-in-cortez\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitterblossom Games moves to new location in Cortez"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bitterblossom
Bitterblossom Games officially opened its new location in Cortez on Wednesday. (Aaron Cato\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Bitterblossom Games, a tabletop gaming and collectible card trading spot, has opened a larger location on West Main Street after a year of business in Cortez.<\/p>\n

The gaming business, founded by Aaron Cato, started online three years ago before opening its first physical store in Cortez on Aug. 2, 2024. After seeing interest grow in a year, the business decided a move was necessary to keep up with the demand.<\/p>\n

Now, its square footage has doubled by moving to 8 W. Main St. (between Stonefish and Loungin\u2019 Lizard) from its former location at 1423 E. Main St.<\/p>\n

\u201cCollecting and trading collectible cards has been booming the last couple of years, and a lot of people are really interested in it,\u201d Cato told The<\/em> Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The name \u201cBitterblossom\u201d comes from the game Magic: The Gathering.<\/p>\n

Bitterblossom Games offers board games, trading card games such as Pok\u00e9mon, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Lorcana and more, along with tabletop model games like Warhammer, and role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. The increased interest in collectible card games in recent years has continued drawing players and collectors to Bitterblossom.<\/p>\n

\"Players
Players play a game at Bitterblossom Games. (Aaron Cato\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Cato shared that he created Bitterblossom Games with the hope of providing a place for people to gather and have fun in an alcohol-free environment. Limited screen usage is also encouraged in the store.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main reason I opened the store is because Cortez doesn\u2019t have a place that people can go and just hang out and have fun that doesn\u2019t involve alcohol,\u201d Cato said. \u201cI really wanted it to open a space where everyone can be welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Pok\u00e9mon meetup every Saturday at 1 p.m. for trading and playing and other events take place weekly, and a more detailed schedule can be found on Bitterblossom\u2019s social media channels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have quite a few events that happen weekly, and it\u2019s always growing,\u201d Cato said.<\/p>\n

In addition to gaming, Bitterblossom Games partners with Deco Dessert from Mancos to serve ice cream, with flavors changing often. The community is welcome to stop by and buy ice cream even if they\u2019re not playing games. This week, Bitterblossom hit \u201ca record\u201d of 16 flavors at the store.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way to be involved is to come by and play a game and have some fun. We have the best people. I feel like so many fun, interesting people come together and find reasons to enjoy their time that doesn\u2019t involve any screens,\u201d Cato said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have video games. We don\u2019t have any TV\u2019s in here, and when people are playing games, they\u2019re almost never looking at their phones. We have a really special place here where you can kind of escape and live a life of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The store also purchases collections of Pok\u00e9mon, Magic: The Gathering and other trading cards from collectors who are wishing to cash in on their collection.<\/p>\n

For more information or to participate in events, visit Bitterblossom Games\u2019s Facebook<\/a> or Instagram<\/a> pages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

business features in-person gaming, collectible card trading and more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,21,2095,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-cortez","tag-games","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16939"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20475,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16939\/revisions\/20475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16939"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}