Ya know, axe throwing is a little like indoor skydiving. You know about it, hear about it, maybe…read moreeven read about it. But only because you assume, at some point in your life, you may end up doing at least one of these things by accident, if not intentionally. And typically, with a friend.
So, when my wife's bestie suggested the idea of tossing axes at splintered wood to purge out pent up aggression, I thought to myself, "Self, this could be therapeutic and fun. Let's do this!"
As you can imagine, throwing axes is nothing like throwing water balloons. Ergo, you must sign a waiver prior to partaking in said lumberjack competition.
At any rate, we booked our lane ahead of time, which I *think* is mandatory anyway. Like, you can't exactly just walk in and take a lane. The site seems to encourage its visitors to book a reservation first. Just my assumption though.
Anyways, after signing away our rights to sue the place in the event one of us pulls an Anakin Skywalker and lops off a limb, we proceed to the throw house's location. I'd like to take this moment to mention how tucked away this place is. Keep in mind, I'm the first and only person to review this place at the time of writing this. The fact that this place didn't exist on Yelp before I showed up blows my mind. But I have two theories on this..
1.) The place is too new.
2.) Not enough people know about it for whatever reason. Therefore, nobody bothered to add them to Yelp till now.
This is one of those "blink and you'll miss 'em" locations, too. So, ya ain't finding this one by happenstance whilst going for a casual drive.
When we walk in, it takes a while to get a hostess. But we're eventually confirmed via our reservation and given a lane. Which was defective.
So, we proceeded to the next lane over. This one was better. We got a thorough demonstration and crash course on axe throwing by our... "Axepert" (yes, that's what they call themselves). And honestly, I gotta say...axe throwing isn't as difficult as you might think.
Only pro tip I could give is...watch a YouTube video ahead of time and you'll learn a bit about holding techniques. The main thing is not to grip it tight like a baseball bat. It should be a little loose, but not TOO loose of a grip. But don't quote me on this; I'm not an Axepert. OMG...I can't believe I just said that (－‸).
Moving on..
The bar (if you can even call it that) is pretty basic. Beers, wines, and a few foo-foo drinks, I think. However, the food...was pretty pathetic. Bland chicken tenders with breading so thick, it tasted like those frozen tenders you get at the grocery store. The seasoned curly fries were...okay. Not quite as seasoned as I'd have imagined, but whatevs. I guess the ladies loved the stuffed poppers, so....winning? ¯\_( )_/¯
It's bar food, yeah. But like, it shouldn't suck? 3 out of 10, stick with the drinks and the axes.
And now, we have to talk about the prices. Now, I've never been axe throwing before, so I have no basis for comparison yet. But even I know that something here is f**ky in the way the prices are presented.
If you book a reservation ahead of time via the website, you still won't see the prices until you click "Book Now". Note that the prices shown are per person, not group. Also, it varies based on the size of your group.
Thing is, you would never know any of this if you just walked in or called in without using the website. It's....dubious, to say the least. So, our entire bill ended up being over $150 for 4 people. And that was only for 1 hour. I dunno how much axe throwing goes for at other establishments, but....arrive with a full wallet. That's all I'm sayin'.
As far as first impressions go, the activity itself was surprisingly invigorating. The place itself is decent enough. Though, I can't help feeling like there are most likely better ones out there. So, I'm holding out for one of those. For now, Axel's Throw House receives 3 axes hurling through the air dead on target out of 5.
