Taste Test Thursdays: Building the Menu One Bite at a Time

Before Twist of Fate Café opens its doors, we wanted to invite a few brave adventurers into the process.

That is how Taste Test Thursdays began.

Taste Test Thursdays are our behind-the-scenes menu testing sessions where friends, family, future guests, and trusted tasters get to try early versions of the food and drinks we are developing for the café. In exchange, they give us honest feedback, helpful suggestions, and the occasional very necessary reminder that yes, Brad probably needs to use more salt.

The goal is simple: build a menu that feels fresh, thoughtful, flavorful, and true to the spirit of Twist of Fate.

We are not trying to create a massive menu filled with everything for everyone. We want a focused café menu built around quality ingredients, smart overlap between dishes, fresh flavors, and food that makes sense for a board game café. That means items that are satisfying, easy to enjoy at a table, and memorable enough to feel like part of the experience.

At its heart, Twist of Fate is about encouraging analog connection in this digital world. The food and drinks are a big part of that. A great coffee, a warm sandwich, a shared bowl, or a colorful potion can all become part of the moment when people gather around a table, roll dice, play cards, laugh, and slow down for a bit.

Why We Started Taste Test Thursdays

A menu can look great on paper, but food has to be tested in the real world.

Does the sandwich hold together?
Is the flavor balanced?
Is the portion right?
Is the drink too sweet, not sweet enough, or just right?
Does the dish still taste good after a short drive home?
Would someone actually order this again?
How much is fair for pricing? Both for the customer and for the business.

Those are the kinds of questions Taste Test Thursdays help us answer.

Each week, we send out a small test menu, collect orders through our web form, prepare everything ourselves, and follow up with feedback surveys. Some items are close to final. Some are early experiments. Some will need small tweaks. Others may head back to the lab entirely.

That is the fun of it.

Taste Test Thursdays let us build the menu with the community instead of behind closed doors.

What We Have Tested So Far

Our first few rounds have already covered a lot of ground.

We started with items that helped define the bigger vision for the café: a saffron chicken sandwich, wild mushroom stew, café lattes, and our first Potion of Health.

The saffron chicken sandwich came from Brad’s love of sandwiches and inspiration from Chicken Shish Tavuk at AliBaba in Longwood. It was our way of exploring something more interesting than a standard grilled chicken sandwich while still keeping it approachable and easy to eat during a game.

The wild mushroom stew was inspired by the cozy feeling of fantasy taverns, video game comfort food, and the idea of a warm, restorative dish you might find at the edge of an adventure. It was earthy, hearty, and very mushroom-forward. Maybe a little too mushroom-forward, according to some very helpful tasters.

The Potion of Health was our first step into one of the concepts we are most excited about: fresh-pressed juices served with a fantasy-inspired twist. At launch, we are planning core potion colors inspired by classic game language: Health, Stamina, and Mana. The first version taught us a lot, especially around balancing ginger, celery, sweetness, and freshness.

And of course, we began testing coffee.

Heather and I care deeply about great coffee, and our café program is being built around that passion. Onyx Coffee Lab has been a major inspiration and supplier for us, and we want the coffee at Twist of Fate to feel intentional, delicious, and worth coming back for.

Breakfast for Dinner? Absolutely.

Our second Taste Test Thursday shifted into breakfast.

We tested our version of the classic bacon egger, a handheld breakfast sandwich with eggs, bacon, and cheese on sourdough English muffins. The goal was to create something portable, comforting, reasonably priced, and easy to enjoy whether someone wants a quick breakfast, a casual brunch, or breakfast for dinner.

We also tested homestyle potatoes inspired by one of Brad’s favorite breakfast spots from Vancouver. These potatoes use red potatoes, smoked paprika, and an air-fried approach to keep them tender, flavorful, and a little lighter than a traditional deep-fried version.

That round also helped us explore our tea program. Onyx offers a really lovely tea lineup, and we started testing brewed teas and tea lattes as future café staples. Tea lattes are something Heather especially wanted on the menu after having a great one during a trip back to Vancouver, and they fit beautifully into the cozy café side of Twist of Fate.

Comfort Food Enters the Quest

One of the biggest wins so far came from a very classic pairing: grilled cheese and roasted tomato soup.

We wanted the grilled cheese to feel familiar, but a little more thoughtful. Not “elevated” in the fussy restaurant sense, just made with care. The version we tested used a blend of sharp cheddar, creamy Havarti, and smoked Gouda on sourdough. The goal was melty, comforting, balanced, and easy to pair with other menu items.

The roasted tomato soup was inspired by a small dairy and café in British Columbia that served a simple but memorable grilled cheese and tomato soup combo. Our version uses roasted San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil, oregano, smoked paprika, cream, and a small touch of sweetness to balance the acidity.

The feedback on this pairing was some of the strongest we have received so far. There were a few useful tweak suggestions, but overall, this one feels very close to becoming part of the final menu.

Some dishes arrive as experiments. Some show up and immediately feel like they belong.

This one feels like it belongs.

Matcha, Hojicha, and New Drink Experiments

As the drink menu has grown, Heather has been leading the charge on several new café beverages.

We recently started testing matcha from Onyx, including a classic matcha latte and a matcha soda. The matcha latte is creamy, earthy, and lightly sweet, and it can be served hot or iced.

The matcha soda is a little more unexpected. Our friend and food photographer Rafael suggested it after seeing it in cafés in Hong Kong, and we thought it could be a fun, refreshing addition if the feedback is strong enough.

We have also started bringing in hojicha and additional tea blends, which will give us even more room to build out cozy, interesting, and slightly uncommon drink options.

Our goal is to have a beverage menu that feels familiar enough to be welcoming, but special enough to feel like Twist of Fate.

Lighter Fare, Bigger Flavor

Not everything on the menu needs to be heavy comfort food.

We also want fresh, bright, healthier-feeling options that still have big flavor. That led us to dishes like Emerald Cucumber Chili Crunch and a Thai-Peanut Soba Noodle Bowl.

The cucumber dish was inspired by the viral “sometimes you just need to eat a whole cucumber” trend, but the idea really clicked after trying a friend’s version at a potluck. Our version uses cucumber, chili crunch, toasted sesame oil, reduced-sodium tamari, fish sauce, and other flavorful ingredients to create something crisp, savory, lightly spicy, and refreshing.

The Thai-Peanut Soba Noodle Bowl has a more personal origin. When Brad first met Heather, she was vegan, and she introduced him to a whole world of vegetarian and vegan food that went far beyond salads and veggie burgers. One of the dishes that stuck was a peanut soba noodle power bowl from the Oh She Glows cookbook. It was simple, colorful, nourishing, and packed with flavor.

That kind of dish feels perfect for Twist of Fate: familiar enough to enjoy, different enough to be memorable, and not something you find on every café menu.

What We Have Learned So Far

The most valuable part of Taste Test Thursdays has been the feedback.

Some of it has been recipe-specific. The first potion had too much ginger. The mushroom stew was too mushroomy for some tasters. The chicken sandwich needed smaller pieces and maybe a saffron sauce. The bacon eggers could use sauce options. The potatoes might eventually get a loaded version with onions, peppers, or a little heat.

Some of it has been broader.

People like customization, especially with drinks. Sweetness levels matter. Sauce options matter. Cheese choices matter. Clear ordering information matters. And yes, seasoning matters.

We have also been improving the process as we go. The ordering system is still new, but every round helps us make it better. We have added richer descriptions, improved the user experience, adjusted pickup details, and continued building the backend tools that will help us operate more smoothly in the future.

Taste Test Thursdays are not just helping us test food.

They are helping us test systems, communication, timing, prep flow, packaging, photography, and the overall guest experience.

The Bigger Quest

All of this is happening while the larger Twist of Fate adventure continues.

We recently closed on the future home of Twist of Fate Café in Mount Dora, and there is still a big quest ahead: renovations, permits, equipment, signage, game library building, coffee training, retail planning, event design, and bringing the whole space to life.

Taste Test Thursdays are one small but meaningful part of that larger journey.

They give us a way to keep building, keep learning, and keep inviting people into the story before the café officially opens.

And honestly, that feels right.

Twist of Fate was never meant to be built in isolation. It is meant to be a community space, and the community is already helping shape it.

Thank You, Tasters

To everyone who has ordered, picked up food, filled out a survey, sent a text, shared an idea, or bravely tried an early version of something that may or may not have needed more salt: thank you.

If you are reading this, want to join in on the taste test Thursdays and are available for local pickup in Apopka, drop us a line at info@twistoffategames.com

Your feedback is already shaping the future menu of Twist of Fate Café.

We still have plenty of testing ahead, and we cannot wait to keep sharing the process with you.

The adventure continues, one bite and one sip at a time.

Fun, Flavor, and Fellowship await at Twist of Fate.