Beer bellies, balding men and grotty pubs might be what springs to mind when you think of darts. But much like Britney, Craig David and ball pits, there’s nothing a good revival can’t fix. Flight Club is making darts sexy again* (*for the first time?) with a venue that is more stylish than shady, a cutting-edge scoring system, and pizza and cocktails rather than salted peanuts. We headed down to Flight Club Shoreditch to try our hand at the game.
The Experience
Where does Shoreditch end and where does the city start - a question many a philosopher has pondered I’m sure. I’m going to weigh in and say at Flight Club Shoreditch, which is located just up from Finsbury Square and down from Worship Street Whistling Shop. Regardless of the darts, the venue is worth a trip alone as a two storey space has been stripped back and filled with Victorian-looking carousel pieces creating the sense of an abandoned fairground.
Flight Club has venues in Shoreditch and Bloomsbury and uses state-of-the-art technology to keep track of the score.
We headed downstairs to our area which was comprised of a wooden booth, long tables for food and drink, and the legendary scoring system. I still haven’t worked out how to put the clock centre on my phone screen so I’m not going to attempt to explain the technology behind Flight Club’s scoring system but it was annoyingly accurate. Even when I tried to cheat - for the sake of research obviously - it scored me correctly. Everything is done electronically, from taking a photo and giving yourself a nickname on the TV Screen, to choosing which game you want to play - it turns out darts is seriously fun.
It’s all about the game at Flight Club but it never hurts to have a good selection of food and drink. As well as amazing cocktail slushies and crowd-pleasing bottles of wine, the spot serves epic sharing cocktails. Arriving in a huge metal cup, Triumphant Trophy (£40) was an icy mix of vodka, chambord, raspberries, mint, lime and Old Mout passion fruit and apple cider. To soak up drinks, long pizzas are offered on wooden boards with a great selection of veggie options and meat-topped goodies.
From alcoholic slushies through to giant trophies, Flight Club Shoreditch has a huge range of cocktails.
Summary
Your dad knows, old uncle Gary knows, and now you know, darts is great. Flight Club has taken the game from slightly scary pub domain to a great night out in East London. Order a frozen slushie, grab a slice of pizza and get your game face on for a date night, birthday party or team bonding with a difference.
