Back in November, there was a lot of talk about the new “social darts” club coming to The Venetian. It would be called Flight Club (ahahaha, puns are fun) and is an extension of a European chain of similar clubs. For those of us who enjoy our booze and snacks with a side of unique diversion, this was exciting news. November came and…nothing. It had presumably opened on schedule, but softly. Even now, six months later, the coverage of Flight Club Las Vegas has been thin, to say the least. So, since the fountain seems to be fairly empty anyway, allow me to throw in my two cents.
Food and Drink (and Sport!)
Before getting into the menus, let me address the “flight” part of Flight Club. Basically, it works similar to a bowling alley, only instead of chucking a massive boulder down a lane at ten pins, you throw sharp things through the air at a wall. Other than that, it’s very similar. The games are preprogrammed into a computer with easy-to-follow instructions, and all the scoring is handled automatically. You pay a per-person rate for a 90-minute block of time at your “oche,” (aka “dart lane”), which you can re-up if you want to at the end of the session.
What else? Oh yes. It’s a BLAST. Take it from me, a person who stopped playing most games because of how much I hate losing. Not so at Flight Club. I literally lost every game for 90-minutes straight, and I LOVED it. I honestly can’t wait to go back.
Anyway, back to the food…
There is an extensive drink and small plates menu at Flight Club Las Vegas, but since I attended during happy hour, it only made sense to choose from the specials. And what specials they are! Select appetizers for $8, and $5 draft beer, cider, and select wine. Not only that, but locals get a discount. Our party of four ate and drank our fill for less than $100 including tip. Who says Vegas bargains are dead?!
Let’s return to my bowling alley metaphor. With some exceptions, most bowling alleys aren’t known for their food. However, I would argue that darts can be viewed as “fancier bowling,” and the food follows that track. We ordered cheese flatbread (fancy pizza), bacon-wrapped dates (upgraded breaded mushrooms or jalepeno poppers), and Scotch eggs (not a one-to-one equivalent, but chicken tenders is as close as I can get).
What surprised me the most, however, is that the one I thought I’d find least noteworthy was the one I enjoyed the most. The four-cheese flatbread was crispy and gooey, with a tomato and garlic sauce that had a smooth, creamy consistency that was more like a thick bisque than a standard marinara. The other two dishes were as good as I expected them to be (the Scotch egg came with a particularly yummy spicy grain mustard), but the flatbread was the real surprise.
Sidenote: Since the cocktails weren’t on happy hour, I didn’t sample one on this visit. But they do have them–presented in carousel format, as you can see below. When I got back, I’ve got my pick all ready to go.
Atmosphere
As a novelist, I subscribe to the phrase “show, don’t tell.” But this isn’t a novel. It’s a blog. Which means I can show you pictures and let them do the telling for me.
Do these images read as “charming,” “cozy,” and “British-ish?” I hope so, because that’s what it is.
How Did The Writing Go?
Yeah, so….not gonna lie, I was too distracted by throwing sharp things at the wall to write much more then a few lines. I’m also not entirely sure whether you can access the tables around the oches if you’re not with a playing party.
Either way, they have an amazing carousel bar in the back. This section has more than enough space to bang away on the keyboard without drawing attention.
Head down around 2pm, tap out a few more pages over a cocktail, then grab an oche for happy hour. Sounds like a perfect Friday afternoon to me.
Final Thoughts on Flight Club Las Vegas
The buzz leading up to Flight Club’s opening followed by almost no coverage whatsoever seems to have left it somewhat forgotten. When we had our outing, a large corporate group took up the entire center section, making the place look packed. However, after they cleared out, it revealed the place was basically empty. That is a real shame, especially where the locals are concerned. Catering to residents by Strip properties has gone by the wayside in recent years, and rightly so in a lot of cases. However, there are places, that do offer legitimate value for a unqiue experience. Flight Club Las Vegas is one of them.
I’ve always dreamed of having a place where work can seaminglessly morph into socializing over a period of hours. A place where the prices are so good I can easily spend multiple nights a week there without having to sell an organ. A place where I can lob flying needles at a corkboard and not end up in police custody. The practicality of that dream may have died in my twenties (and having a child certainly put a nail in the coffin), but the idea of it lives on at Flight Club Las Vegas. While I won’t be taking up residence, I will most certainly be back.
Flight Club Las Vegas is located in the Grande Canal Shoppes at The Venetian. For more information, visit www.venetianlasvegas.com/restaurants/flight-club-social-darts
