What’s Fueling the Success of New-Wave Eatertainment? | Eater Twin Cities

"A 30,000-square-foot multiplex that combines a wide slate of activities with a full bar and a “scratch-made kitchen,” this suburban venue is built around pickleball but also offers duckpin bowling, party darts, shuffleboard, karaoke, cornhole, axe throwing, an arcade, a small bowling alley, an all-season cornhole green next to a plush lounge, and a vast outdoor yard-games space. The author’s axe-throwing vignette is precise: lunging with a dull-edged hatchet, arcing it behind the head while a coach named Wolfgang demonstrated; the axe hit “the outer rings of the bullseye, a red-and-white screen image projected onto a sensor-calibrated plywood board,” and the author’s avatar — “a lion wearing a red flannel shirt” — flashed on screen: two points. The brand’s founder, Monty Lockyear, is described as a former marketing executive and early pickleball prospector; Kelly Sims, vice president of marketing, says the company’s target demographic centers on three archetypes: “the athlete, the ‘21-plus’ customer, and the family.” Private events like bachelorette parties and corporate team-building are noted as popular. Operations director Kristin Kroeger emphasizes that the venue’s appeal lies not only in the sports but in the combination of activities, full bar, “scratch-made kitchen,” and social premise, which she says alchemize into a single “legendary experience.” The space can feel cavernous — “the cavernous feel of a waterpark” — and is deliberately built to accommodate broad, social gatherings; details such as a neon-lit arcade packed with teenagers, couples clutching cocktails on the turf-carpeted cornhole green, and a happy-hour crowd in the outdoor yard area are foregrounded. Small theatrical touches (flat-screen TVs cycling event ads for trivia and glow-in-the-dark parties) and oversized novelty drinks (the “Big Mule,” a 192-ounce Moscow mule served in a pumpkin-sized copper mug) contribute to an intentionally manufactured, immersive atmosphere that some patrons find thrilling and others find unsettlingly simulated." - Justine Jones