What do you get when you combine alcohol and ax throwing? A new bar in Arlington

(Star-Telegram, January 16, 2019)  After a long, stressful day, what sounds better than knocking back a few beers and throwing axes at something?

Nothing, that’s what. And you’ll soon be able to go to Arlington to do just that.

Texas Axe Throwing Co. is set to open an ax-throwing lounge in downtown Arlington in the spring, at 506 E. Division St., Suite 120. Mitesh Natha and Vikash Bhula are the co-founders and co-owners of the lounge.

Ax throwing as a recreational game has been growing in popularity over the past few years. It’s played in a throwing pit, where the player stands a certain distance from a target and then flings the ax as best as he or she can at the target. Natha describes it as “darts on steroids.”

Natha said he got the idea when he went to Canada for a bachelor party and was introduced to it. He had so much fun that when he came home he told Bhula about it. There were already two places in the DFW Metroplex that offered ax throwing, but they thought Arlington deserved its own lounge.

“It’s going to be a Texas-themed lounge,” Natha said. In addition to ax throwing, it will include arcade games and maybe some shuffleboard as well.

And if you’re worried about mixing alcohol and ax-throwing, there are safety precautions to recreational ax throwing. For one, the axes aren’t heavy duty, and they’re not razor sharp. For another, all the staff will be trained in safety, so no one should get hurt, the owners say.

There are already several places in the Metroplex where you can go for some ax-throwing fun, including the Fort Worth Axe Factory, Class Axe Throwing in Richardson, Bad Axe Throwing in Dallas, Corky’s Axe Throwing in Grapevine and Artful Axe Throwing in Lewisville.

Bhula said there are about 26 ax-throwing lounges in the country, and the majority of them are BYOB, but Texas Axe Throwing will have a bar. Part of this is also a safety measure — if people bring their own beverages, there’s no way to control consumption. With the lounge doing the serving, barkeepers can control how much alcohol individuals consume.

Texas Axe Throwing is still in the permitting and inspection process, but Bhula and Natha hope to open the lounge in early March. In fact, they’ve already met a lot of people who have told them they’re looking forward to it.

“We want to bring people together for a unique experience,” Natha said. “There are a lot of stressors in life, and we want to create an environment where people can have fun.”

The story by Carla Jimenez was originally published in the Star-Telegram on January 16, 2019.