If you’ve ever thought that sitting at a bar and watching sports on TV is too boring or that barroom billiards or darts lacks excitement, don’t fear—there’s a new trend popping up in cities around the country.
Apparently, somebody has decided throwing axes in places that serve or allow alcohol would be a smart idea. In the last two years, axe-throwing bars have sprouted in cities including Philadelphia and Austin, Texas, and there are plans for others in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Baltimore. Bad Axe Throwing, which operates axe-throwing venues in 19 North American cities, last month obtained a license to sell beer at its Denver location.
Blame Canada. The “sport” was popularized there. Now, the new bar concept is tapping into a growing segment of Americans who want to channel their inner lumberjacks. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that a business serving beer and wine won zoning approval this month to “begin construction on an ax-throwing area where visitors can safely hurl axes at a wooden target—similar to darts, but with an object that could also kill you.”
Co-owner Becky Cooper Clancy told the online publication OnMilwaukee: “It’s really fun. Ax-throwing has a very manly, bearded-guy stereotype, but as a petite woman, I find burrowing an ax in wood very fulfilling.”
That may well be true, but for now, count us among those who will find our fulfillment at establishments that lack large, sharp metal objects hurtling through the air.
