Picture a darts bar …
Does an image of a worn dive or pub come to mind? Perhaps one with smoke-filled rooms, a sticky floor due to spilled beer, and target boards tucked in a dark corner.
While we do love that vibe, Rittenhouse’s new dart bar, Flight Club Philadelphia, is aiming for a different concept.
The franchise bar, which began a decade ago in London, has locations all over the world. The bar threw its opening party in the City of Brotherly Love this Wednesday.
The 7,000-square-foot location comes from State of Play Hospitality, “a highly innovative creator and operator of technology-enabled experiential leisure concepts.” The goal is to infuse some flash and innovation into the beloved game.
“If you think you know anything about darts, just go ahead and throw that out and reimagine everything,” said Kim Chute, the vice president of marketing at State of Play. “This is not that. This is high technology.”
If you are a purist and lover of the classic dart experience, Flight Club may not be for you. The atmosphere is vibey, with a playlist featuring pop hits from artists like Dua Lipa, Sabrina Carpenter and The Weekend.
However, if you’re a lover of a good craft cocktail and barely know a thing about darts, including how to play or keep score — step right in! The Flight Club dartboard can accommodate six different games and tracks everything for you. (Chute teased that a seventh game will be added in the fall.)
Just like at a trendy bowling spot, there’s a screen that lets you know which numbers you’ve hit, how many points they total and where you’re at in the round. After the winning shot, a camera takes a reaction video for an instant replay, so players can bask in the glory of their victory.
Chute said that there are games for more experienced players, but really no one is expected to be a professional.
“Most of our games are for those that are not great at darts,” she explained. “Because who really is that great at darts?”
The Philadelphia location has 11 private and semi-private playing areas. The bar decor is whimsical and takes inspiration from Victorian-era fairgrounds and English pubs. Vintage stage lights hang from circular chandeliers. The walls are covered in used-picture frames with prints of Staffordshire dogs and porcelain Spode plates. So while the bar is very new and high tech, there is still an effort to make it feel worn in with English history.
“There’s a big warehouse in London that a bunch of people just kind of collect stuff and then put in there. And then, when we open a new Flight Club, we just ship it on over,” Chute said.
Philly already has a slew of high-tech and gimmicky gaming bars dedicated to corporate events, group parties and birthdays like Puttshack, Spin, South Bowl and Kick Axe. Part of the draw comes not just from the game, but also the elevated food and drink that comes with it. Instead of PBR, the bar serves craft beer.
“We’re upscale food, shareables, appetizers. Clean eating, we call it, so you can pick something up and not have stuff dripping and still throw a dart,” said Jeff Martell, national director of culinary for State of Play. “We have elote. We have guacamole. We have beef sliders. We have flatbreads, so a little bit of stuff from all over the place.”
Servers on opening night passed around fried lobster mac-and-cheese balls, tuna poke tacos, meat skewers and more. The cocktails were strong, citrus-forward and had names like “Bee Sting” and “Snap Dragon.” The bar also features a brunch special.
“We put a lot of effort into our cocktails to make sure that we have really good craft ones, and then we have a great variety of alcohols as well,” Chute said. “So we’re more of a fun bar that just has this really amazing concept of social darts as well.”
While large groups can rent their own social darts playing area, or “oche” (pronounced ockey), for $15 per person for 90 minutes, we went to the communal oche that let anybody wait their turn to play.
Our game was being run by Carlos DaSilva Jr., a certified trainer and ambassador from the Flight Club in Boston. He had traveled to Philly to help with the opening.
It was clear from the start why State of Play had brought him in. DaSilva is a ringer – a ball of energy who enthusiastically curated our experience, picking out games and explaining the rules.
Occasionally, he would pull out his signature dance move, which involved a fluid, almost magical backbend to the ground and then back up.
“I do love to show a little bit of energy with my dance moves, and to really, as I like to say, drop it like it’s hot,” DaSilva explained. “A lot of people really love to walk in here and see that we are all filled with fun and joy. And I really like to go above and beyond that, to really make sure that Flight Club is as fun as it gets.”
Influencers and their guests, invited for the opening, joined our game. One of them was Lauren Hollinger, known for her time as a contestant of season 28 of The Bachelor. (You may remember her for her dramatic self-elimination.) She came with her plus one, Marc Helfrich.
“We played Demolition first. I won,” Hollinger said. “We play at Buffalo Billiards sometimes, but I’m not good at darts. Honestly, I feel like it’s more of a social thing than anything.”
“Darts is fun,” she added. “But half of these people I feel like don’t even know how to play darts.”
The game we played together was called Killer. The goal was to eliminate other players by hitting the right target. Hollinger said she is often invited to different events around the city. The pair agreed that the Flight Club experience was one of the better nights they’ve had.
“There’s games, the food is great, drinks are great,” she explained. “Also, Carlos was a vibe. Carlos has made this so much more fun. His energy — amazing.”
Flight Club will probably not become your regular haunt, but the spot is great for a fun event or group party. For those unsure that a game of darts is enough for the night, there is certainly enough silliness to go around for at least 90 minutes.
The new Flight Club Philadelphia location is open now. If you’re feeling ready, go ahead and take a toss.
