My Review of Playing Steel Tip Darts at Flight Club Chicago
My Introduction to Flight Club Chicago.
As an avid steel tip dart player, I’m always on the lookout for a good dart bar to play steel tip darts. In my recent blog post, I took a look at dart bars by writing about the 17 factors that make up a good steel tip dart bar. However, that post was in reference to what can be called traditional steel tip dart bars. In this blog post, I review a totally different type of steel tip dart bar; a place called Flight Club, located in downtown Chicago.
I first read about the Flight Club back in mid-2017. In that article, the term ‘social darts’ was used to describe the type of dart experience Flight Club provides to its patrons. I wasn’t sure what ‘social darts’ meant or what it was about, so I immediately wondered if any US locations existed so I could learn more. After doing a little research, I discovered there weren’t any US locations at the time. The only location at that time was in London, England.
Since I didn’t have plans to fly to London any time soon, I sort of gave up hope that I’d ever get to visit a Flight Club. Then, in late 2017, I read that the first US location of Flight Club would be opening in Chicago, IL in 2018. But as much as I love darts, I wasn’t going to fly to Chicago just to visit Flight Club. So not having plans to visit Chicago at that time, I knew I’d have to wait a while. Luckily, that all changed in November 2018 when I headed to Chicago to visit some friends.
Social Darts? I Never Heard of it.
What intrigued me was the term ‘social darts’. First, after seeing photos of the Flight Club UK, I said to myself, this place looks really nice! This wasn’t your typical dark, smokey, shit hole dart bar. In other words, it was obvious a lot of thought (and money) went into the design, and the overall patron and darting experience of Flight Club. It looked like a mix of a restaurant, dart bar, and pub within a spacious, designed, clean, and well-lit environment. Additionally, unlike most dart bars and pubs, their food and beverage options go far beyond standard draft beer and chicken wings.
As excited as I was to spend time with my friends, I also told my friends that I had to visit Flight Club. And yes, they were coming along for the ride. Since they work in downtown Chicago, I asked them if they heard of Flight Club. Since my friends don’t play darts, I wasn’t surprised to learn they never heard of it. Nonetheless, they were excited to check it out as a potential location for their office Christmas party.
My Visit and Review of Flight Club Chicago
During my 5 day visit to Chicago, I visited Flight Club two times. On each visit, I was able to experience, review and assess the following categories:
1. The Venue, Location, and Atmosphere (Ambiance, Decor, Interior, and Crowd)
2. Staff (Servers/Waitstaff, and Managers)
3. Menu/Food and Beverage
4. Social Darts.
In this review, I will provide honest and candid insights and ratings of each category based on what I experienced and observed.
Flight Club Venue, Location, and Atmosphere (Ambiance, Decor, Interior, and Crowd):
Prior to getting into the details of my review, here is some basic information about Flight Club Chicago.
Flight Club Chicago
Address: 111 W. Wacker Dr. Chicago, IL 60601
http://us.flightclubdarts.com
Tel: (312) 284-2474
Flight Club is easily accessible by CTA, taxi, water taxi, or on foot.
And according to their website, Flight Club is open 7 days a week:
Sunday: 2:00pm – Close
Monday: 12:00pm – Close
Tuesday: 12:00pm – Close
Wednesday: 12:00pm – Close
Thursday: 12:00pm – Close
Friday: 12:00pm – Close
Saturday: 12:00pm – Close
Guests must be 21+ after 9 pm on Thursday, Friday, & Saturday.
I liked the idea that there was no defined closing time.
Flight Club Chicago is only one of five Flight Club locations in the world and the first in the United States. The first Flight Club launched in London, England in 2015. There are two other locations in England; one in Manchester and the other Birmingham, England, bringing the total to four locations, with a fifth one on the way. With some of the basics out of the way, let’s move on to the good stuff.
Flight Club Chicago Venue and Location
I’ll say it upfront, Flight Club is not your Daddy’s smoke-filled, low light, dart bar. It’s just the opposite. From a location point-of-view, Flight Club got it right. Flight Club Chicago is in the heart of downtown Chicago on prime, waterfront real estate. Flight Club takes up two floors, each with a different experience, ambiance, and purpose. The first (bottom) floor of Flight Club features a 50-seat dining room/sit down restaurant with a full menu and table service. The ambiance of the first-floor restaurant was intimate, with low light. However, irrespective of low lighting, the restaurant was fully packed with every table filled with people.
The 2nd floor is where the 14 steel tip dartboards are located and where the fun and action takes place, with amazing floor-to-ceiling views of the waterfront and downtown Chicago.
Flight Club Atmosphere (Ambiance, Decor, and Interior)
Flight Club’s ambiance is a mix of a bar, lounge, and restaurant, with a traditional British pub look and feel. But underneath and behind the scenes of the wood and leather furnishings, is the strategic use of 21st-century technology. All of these elements provide for a fun, engaging, and memorable dart playing experience.
First Impressions
After walking through the glass doors facing W. Wacker Drive, we headed up the stairs to the second floor to where the dartboards are located.
As we walked up the stairs, it became obvious Flight Club was setting the tone for the second floor. The walls surrounding the staircase showcased some very interesting and unique dart memorabilia including old dart magazines, dartboards and authentic darts photos from the UK and the US.
Upon our entrance to the second floor, I can see that it was busy at the time, but definitely overcrowded or super busy. We arrived around 5:30 pm and decided to have a few appetizers and drinks as we waited for our oche (explained below). This began our first interaction with the Flight Club staff.
The Flight Club Crowd:
On Friday night, I noticed many patrons were still wearing professional work clothes. It seems Flight Club was a popular place for those who work in downtown Chicago to meet up for drinks after work.
The crowd was a 50/50 split of (fairly young) men and women on both nights. Though I’m sure there were a few in the crowd, it was hard to find anyone that looked over 60. Saturday night was a larger crowd than Friday night. And it looked like everyone was having a good time whether they were playing darts or just sitting at a table.
Unlike traditional dart bars or pubs, the dart-throwing area (around the oche) isn’t conducive to mingling or interacting with other dart players. Most of the dartboards have enough space between them, making it difficult to interact with people on the other dartboards. And since players on each board are paying for time to play, everyone stayed focused on their own oche. In the case of our dartboard, we were in the back of the second floor, near a corner. There were no dartboards on either side of ours. But we didn’t mind at all because we still had a great time.
Flight Club Staff (Servers/Waitstaff, and Managers):
The level of service a bar or restaurant staff provides to patrons is often put to the test on the busiest nights. On our Saturday night visit, we were on the wrong end of a not-so-great service experience that tested both the Flight Club servers and managers. While waiting for our oche/dartboard, we sat at a high-top table in the middle of the restaurant to have a few drinks and appetizers.
Not only did we have to wait for our dartboard. Turns out we also had to be waited on by a server. We were a patient group, and the wait didn’t make us want to leave. But after a solid 10 minutes, and no less than 5 servers walking past us, we realized it was time to get someone’s attention.
Getting service when the restaurant is busy.
We managed to get the attention of the closest server (who was also walking past us) and kindly told her we’ve been waiting a while and asked her if she could take our order. We asked her because she wasn’t holding any drinks or food, just walking by. Her first and only response was “I’m sorry, that’s not my table, I can’t help you out.” It would’ve been great if she ended that sentence with “…but give me two minutes and I’ll have your server come right over.” But that didn’t happen. Even if she just took our order and passed it on to another server, that would work for us. Either of those two responses would’ve been fine.
Instead, she walked away from our table after telling us she couldn’t help us out. That didn’t sit well with us. With the wait time creeping up on 15 minutes, and a less than pleasant service experience, we realized we had to address the problem. We realize things like this happen in bars and restaurants, especially when they are super busy and crowded. We also couldn’t ignore it. Not something my friends or I would do on a consistent basis, we asked to speak to a manager.
Knowing how and why to make things right.
With the wait time creeping up on 15 minutes, and a less than pleasant service experience, we realized we had to address the problem. We realize things like this happen in bars and restaurants, especially when they are super busy and crowded. We also couldn’t ignore it. Not something my friends or I would do on a consistent basis, we asked to speak to a manager.
After telling the manager about our wait time and our experience with the one server, the manager said he would take care of it. I’m not sure what that meant for the server that blew us off. But from a service point-of-view, things quickly changed for the better. The server who wound up waiting on us and taking our order was fantastic. He waited on us hand and foot for the rest of the night (almost too much), but we couldn’t complain. He was super friendly and tried hard to make up for our wait time by expediting our food and drink orders. Being very satisfied with how the manager and the new server turned things around (which included a free round of drinks and a free appetizer), we didn’t let poor service from one server put a damper on our evening.
Fight Club Menu/Food and Beverage
Along with a full bar with beer, wine, and liquor options, Fight Club offers a menu with diverse food options to please any preference. The food and drink menus are available on both floors, but they differ slightly from floor to floor. The first floor is a sit-down restaurant with food options including a raw bar, dry-aged steaks, pasta, chicken, seafood, and a selection of flatbreads. The menu on the second floor (where the dartboards are) offer more casual, shareable items such as dips, appetizers and other sharable foods. Here are the links to the food and drink menu. Here are links to the Flight Club food menu and drinks menu.
What We Ate (and Drank)
On my first visit to the Flight Club, we ordered a few beers, mixed drinks (Tanqueray and Tonics), and appetizers. With a mix of hunger and curiosity, we tried several items from the menu. They included: Oysters on a Half Shell, Pulled Pork Flatbread (with aged cheddar, hoisin sauce, chilies, cilantro, cucumber), Mini Poke Tacos (with Ahi tuna, fennel, chili vinaigrette, Mandarin orange); Ginger Vegetable Dumplings (with mushroom, bok choy, spiced soy sauce); Al Pastor Skewers (with marinated pork, pineapple, crispy tortilla, jalapeño, scallion); and Grilled Beef Skewers (with Guava barbecue sauce, scallion, and sesame). Here are a few pictures of items we tried.
On our second first visit to the Flight Club, we ordered a few more beers, tried a few more cocktails, and ordered some of the same appetizers (because they were so good), and some new ones as well.
This time, we ended our eating binge with an unexpected treat. Not that we were craving sweets, but due to a delay in one of our orders, the manager comped us these profiteroles as a free dessert. Overall, the service was really good. But a manager doing a good thing like this during a moment of dissatisfaction showed they were committed to providing a great customer and darting experience.
Moving on to the darts….
The Process to Play: Reserving an Oche.
Flight Club isn’t the type of venue where you can just walk up to any dartboard and start playing. Unfortunately, there’s a little bit of a process to get started. This is one of a few reasons why playing darts at the Flight Club is not for the individual player looking for a place to throw some darts on a Friday night. Similar to a bowling alley, you first have to reserve/book your oche time (dartboard) in advance by calling ahead or making a reservation through the Flight Club website.
The Flight Club website says that oche reservations are available for groups of 6 or more. I don’t think that’s a hard rule as my friends and myself made up a party of three.
How much does social darts cost?
The cost to play darts at Flight club depends on the day and time. As for Flight Club Chicago, here are the prices as stated on their website:
PEAK TIMES
30 Mins: $22 / 60 Mins: $40
Monday – Thursday: 4 PM – 8 PM
Friday – Saturday: 4 PM – Close
OFF-PEAK TIMES
30 Mins: $15 / 60 Mins: $30
Monday – Saturday: 11AM – 4PM
Monday – Thursday: 8PM – Close
Sunday: All Day
What? Pay to Play Steel Tip Darts?
Admittedly, I’m a purist steel tip dart player and I would never consider paying to play darts. That’s probably why I’ve never been a fan of schlepping around rolls of quarters to throw soft tip darts at a vending machine. But Flight Club is different. One of the big differences is that you’re throwing steel tip darts at a real dartboard.
Also, it’s ‘social darts’. You’re playing for fun, and it’s not competitive on any level. It’s also not something I would do on a regular basis. As you can see, the cost for oche time alone (excluding food and drinks), can add up fairly quickly with only a few hours of play. This is just one example of why this type of venue isn’t well suited for a single player. But I’ll discuss more on that later in this post. With a party of 3 or 4 or more, the overall cost isn’t that bad.
Everything Revolves Around the ‘Oche’. But What the Hec is an Oche?
At Flight Club, everything revolves around the ‘Oche’. If you’re not familiar with playing steel tip darts at a traditional dart bar, the ‘oche’ (rhymes with hockey), refers to the throw line or toe line where you actually place your foot. It’s the line to not cross to when throwing your darts at the board. However, at Flight Club, the word oche has a much broader meaning. The first major difference can be seen in this photo (below).
When playing steel tip darts at a traditional dart bar or in steel tip league or tournament, the distance from the front of the dartboard to the oche (throw line), is 7 ft .9.25 in. But as you can see from the photo below, because this is ‘social darts’ with the intent of encouraging anyone at any skill level to play, Flight Club provides three different oches to choose from; Rookie, Regular, and Pro. Pro is the standard 7 ft. 9.25in.
At Flight Club, the oche also refers to the seating area where you sit, eat and drink, and the entire dartboard area you reserved. Each oche (area) can hold up to 20 people, which is pretty impressive. The oche serves as the hub of your social darts experience. It’s where you use the interactive tablet to select games and add players and teams for each game. You can also contact a server to order food and drinks delivered to your oche.
“At Flight Club, the word oche has a much broader meaning.”
– Sean Brennan
Let’s Play (Social) Darts!
Our reservations were for 6:30 pm. Sure enough, right around 6:30 pm, we heard – “Sean, party of 3, your dartboard is ready on oche 10.” At that moment, our host escorted us to our oche and walked us through on how to use the game kiosk. We also brought our food and drinks over from our previous table and then placed an order for more food and drinks.
With a fresh order of drinks and more delicious appetizers on the way, we were excited to get to the main reason for our visit, to play darts! Already pleasantly surprised by the delicious food and drinks, I was even more eager to try out ‘social darts.’
What Dart Games Can You Play?
Flight Club Chicago offers 5 games to choose that players access and set up through the digital kiosk. The available games are 1. Demolition Darts; 2. Snakes and Ladders; 3. Shanghai; 4. Killer; and 5. Quackshot.
We decided played the Flight Club’s version of 301 (Demolition). Remember, this is social darts. So, in this version of 301, you don’t need to hit a double to win the game. For example, if you have 20 points remaining and you hit a 20, you win.
And remember the little service problem we ran into when we first arrived? While we moved on and pretty much forgot about it, it seems that the manager was still wanting to provide us with a memorable Flight Club experience. He comped us an extra 60 minutes of oche time and a free dessert! That brought our total oche time to 3 hours.
What Exactly is Social Darts?
Flight Club defines social darts as “a twenty-first-century form of darts, set up for groups of players (at least 4 or more), with fast-paced, multiplayer games, that uses groundbreaking dart-tracking technology, allowing for instant scoring and video replay through the use of an intuitive user interface.”
What Flight Club and Social Darts Are Not.
If you’re a serious steel tip dart player, before running out to check out your local Flight Club, you’ll need to adjust your expectations. Just because you see a bunch of nice Unicorn steel tip dartboards hung on the wall, remember that you cannot use your own steel tip darts, so DO NOT bother to bring them.
Still not sure what Social Darts is? The description above describes social darts from the Flight Club point-of-view. To provide further context, allow me to explain social darts from a serious dart player point-of-view by describing what social darts is not.
Simply put:
- Social Darts (and the Flight Club) is not a place for steel tip dart leagues.
- Social Darts is not about serious competition. The Flight Club is purely for fun, non-completive playing. For example, Flight Clubs version of 301 does not require ending on a double.
- You cannot use your own steel tip darts, so DO NOT bother to bring them.
- And because you have to pay for oche time, and food and drinks cost more than your average dart bar, this is not the place for the solo steel tip dart player wanting to hang out at the bar, guzzle a few draft beers and have a few pickup games with someone you might run into from your local dart league.
- Another clear example of how social darts works is that Flight Club provides 3 throw lines (oches) to accommodate players of all skill levels. For those folks only used to throwing soft tip/plastic darts, or those who are afraid of throwing steel tip darts, this helps tamp down any fears. (shown in photo above.)
Flight Club Social Darts Equipment and Experience:
There are four key ingredients that make up the social darts experience:
- The dartboard (and the proprietary technology and blue darts)
- The kiosk
- The video cameras
- The design of the space and atmosphere.
I’ll breakdown and review each element.
1. The Dartboard (and the proprietary technology, and blue darts):
It was still a little disappointing to not be able to use my own steel tip darts. However, after a few drinks, I was able to get over that disappointment. I also realized, at least in my situation, it was probably a good thing that I couldn’t use my own darts because my friends were not serious players. So using the required house darts made it fun and fair for everyone.
Electronic scoring with steel tip darts.
This type of electronic scoring is different than using a tablet or that from a soft tip machine. Besides not having to punch in the score on a tablet, I was able to use steel tip darts and a real dartboard. Additionally, through the use of proprietary technology, (blue) steel tip darts, and cameras, the scores and standings are instantly displayed on the monitor without a vending machine-like experience. The darts are blue for a reason. The blue color works with the cameras in order to capture the number it hits on the dartboard, and then digitally displaying the score or number on the monitor. And if desired, watch an instant replay of the winning dart!
“The darts are blue for a reason. The blue color works with the cameras in order to capture the number it hits on the dartboard, and then digitally display the score or number on the monitor.”
– Sean Brennan
2. The Game Kiosk:
The kiosk serves as the hub of the oche area. It’s easy to use and has a touch screen interface. The kiosk is located at the front of the oche area, behind the throw line and is used by patrons to select the games you want to play, input the names of each player for each game, and also notify your server in case you have questions or want to order food or drinks.
3. Video Cameras:
Throughout my years of playing darts, I witnessed some great matches in various steel tip dart leagues that would’ve been awesome to watch over again using instant replay. Also, as an advocate for getting more steel tip dartboards in bars and pubs across America, I immediately envisioned how the use of video and video replay could enhance the steel tip darting experience and attract more people to the sport. At the same time, I’m also realistic enough to know that bars are not likely to install video equipment anytime soon (probably never).
They’re not easy to spot because they’re positioned in a way to not interfere with playing darts, but there are video cameras above each dartboard. The combination of electronic scoring and video cameras provide for a fun and memorable darting (and Flight Club) experience through the use of instant replay. Having the ability to show the video replay of the winning dart was a nice touch making for a memorable dart and customer experience. After all, this is ‘social darts’, not serious darts.
4. The Venue, Location, and Atmosphere (Ambiance, Decor, Interior, and Crowd):
The design of the space, the location (the heart of downtown Chicago), decor, and overall ambiance provides for a very fun, lively, and enjoyable experience. I have to admit, throwing steel tip darts in a well-designed, and clean environment (as opposed to a smoke-filled, dark cavemen bar where many steel tip boards and leagues reside), is a refreshing change of pace. From my personal experience of playing darts for over 30 years, this is the nicest place I’ve ever thrown steel tip darts. Clearly, a vital ingredient to the success of social darts, the venue location, ambiance, and decor, adds to the success of the entire Flight Club experience. And in my opinion, they got it right!
Review Summary:
Before I provide my written summary below, I’m going to start off with a list of overall Pros and Cons, and a Star Rating (1 – 5 Starts) on the four areas that I assessed and reviewed. As a reminder, the four areas are:
1. The Venue, Location, and Atmosphere (Ambiance, Decor, Interior, and Crowd)
2. Staff (Servers/Waitstaff, and Managers)
3. Menu/Food and Beverage
4. Social Darts
Note: The comments and ratings below are specific to my experience at the Flight Club Chicago.
Pros:
- Venue/location, atmosphere, decor, and cleanliness. This was the complete opposite of most steel tip dart bars
- Menu/food and beverage (quality and choices)
- Use of quality Unicorn Steel tip dartboards
- Use of video instant reply
- *Electronic scoring
*Though not something I prefer, if electronic scoring makes the experience of throwing steel tip darts less intimidating for soft tip and steel tip dart players who run for their lives in fear of having to keep score by hand, then that’s a good thing.
Cons:
- Can’t use your own steel tip darts
- Having to pay money to play darts (of course I understand why)
- Only ideal for groups of 3 or more
- Long wait times. Despite what your preferred times are, be flexible. You might have to start your evening a little earlier than you’re used to. Keep in mind everyone wants to meet up between 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm for drinks, dinner, and darts. But there’s only a certain number of dartboards at Flight Club to go around.
Star Ratings (1 = lowest / 5 = highest) on the areas that I reviewed and assessed:
The Venue, Location, and Atmosphere (Ambiance, Decor, Interior, and Crowd): ★★★★
Menu/Food and Beverage: ★★★★
Staff (Servers/Waitstaff, and Managers): ★★★★
Social Darts: ★★★★
Summary:
Would I Visit Flight Club Again?
Keeping my steel tip dart expectations in check, yes, I would definitely visit Flight Club Chicago (or any Flight Club location) again. Though not exactly the same as playing standard steel tip darts or playing in a steel tip dart league, I like that a place like this can expose more people to the sport of steel tip darts. A themed venue like this could’ve easily been filled with soft tip vending machine darts. If that were the case, Flight Club would never be what it has become– successful. I can only thank the founders of Flight Club for their vision to develop a brand based on the strategic use and historic heritage of steel tip darts and having the confidence to implement it.
If you’re a dart player (especially a steel tip dart player) and you happen to be living in or visiting Chicago, I definitely recommend spending some time at Flight Club Chicago. If you go to a Flight Club, as long as you know you’re going out to play ‘social darts’ and not competitive steel tip darts, then you’ll have fun and really enjoy it.
What’s Next for Flight Club?
A new Flight Club, their fifth location and the second location in the United States, is slated to open in Boston, MA in late 2019. Click to read more about the future Flight Club Boston. And while I haven’t seen any news or announcements about future locations after Boston, I’ll make a prediction that Flight Club NYC or Flight Club San Francisco won’t be far behind. Time will tell.
Have you been to a Flight Club? Tell us about your experience in the comment box, below.
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