The Cosmo Burger team diversifies with Arrow Dart Club, opening soon in Crossroads
Courtesy Arrow Dart Club
A bar doesn’t need a collection of games in order to be something special, but those diversions can often go a long way toward shaping any bar into someone’s favorite spot. Darts, pool, arcade games, pinball, shuffleboard, and even board games lend an identity to a local watering hole—attracting diehards, helping people socialize, and offering a fun distraction to casual players who like to have something to keep them busy when they go out.
The team at Arrow Dart Club, a new sports bar in the Crossroads Arts District, hopes that its combination of tasty food and drinks, tons of TVs to watch the game, and a series of dedicated dart lanes is just what the crowds in the Crossroads are looking for.
Kara Anderson, the General Manager of both Arrow Dart Club and Cosmo Burger XR, feels like they’ve put together a pretty unstoppable team to ensure Arrow Dart Club is a hit. “We’ve put together a ‘who’s who’ at Arrow Dart Club,” Anderson says. “Mari Matsumoto is sharing her cocktail expertise from Goat & Rabbit with ADC, Zach Shore is our Director of Operations, and Christian Castillo—who worked at Town & Co. and as a private chef—is our Executive Chef. We have some top talent here, and it’ll make for a tough-to-beat experience.”
Kara Anderson // Courtesy Arrow Dart Club
Arrow Dart Club will have a lot more going for it than just good food and drink. As the name implies, darts are something that are taken very seriously here, and Anderson says the dart technology they’ll have on offer here is a game-changer for those who are only passingly familiar with 301 and cricket.
“We have 10 dedicated dart lanes at Arrow Dart Club,” Anderson says. “It’s steel-tipped darts on classic boards, and each lane is designed to have up to a dozen people in 90-minute reservation increments. There’s space to set drinks and food, plus places to hang back if you are waiting for your turn or just want to watch.”
The lanes go beyond just being dedicated places to play. The team at Arrow Dart Club has brought in and developed cutting-edge technology that enables a lot of the convenience of electronic boards, despite the traditional equipment. Cameras and sensors can pinpoint dart placement to keep score automatically and populate on-the-fly leaderboards. They’re also designing special games and ways of playing around the technology in each lane.
“The goal is to give veteran players new challenges and ways to play, while also making things more accessible to newcomers,” Anderson says.
Courtesy Arrow Dart Club
Even if darts aren’t your thing, there are plenty of other elements that could draw you to Arrow Dart Club. It’s a massive space, with a capacity for over 300 people.
It’s outfitted as a sports bar, with some large, communal spaces and tons of TVs for watching the Chiefs, Royals, Current, or any other sports going on. There’s even an offset area that’s tailored as a casual wine bar: “Like enjoying a glass at a friend’s house while you’re watching the game,” Anderson says.
The food is what Anderson calls “really good bar food,” with sandwiches, dips, and large-format shareables being the name of the game. She also says there’s a “strong possibility” that they’ll bring over some Cosmo Burger pickles from next door for a fried pickle menu item or two. Despite being under the same ownership/restaurant group and being located next door, Arrow Dart Club won’t be serving a version of Cosmo Burger’s beloved namesake—it will remain its own entity.
The same goes for the drinks. “Mari has put together some really impressive drinks that fit in perfectly with Arrow Dart Club’s identity,” Anderson says. “We will have some craft cocktails, but the spirit of a place like this is we want it to be somewhere you can hang out for longer periods of time. Slamming a bunch of super-boozy cocktails while you’re sitting down for an entire Chiefs game can lead to some issues.”
As such, many of the drinks at Arrow Darts Club are a little more session-oriented, designed to be sipped and enjoyed for a longer period of time. There will also be a housemade seltzer program, with around a half-dozen different options available at any given time. “Some of our seltzers will be riffs on cocktails,” Anderson says. “One I’ve fallen in love with is an Old Fashioned, but in seltzer form. Others are more fruity, kind of Topo Chico-style, and we’ll have some N/A seltzers as well if you want to try something unique but don’t want any alcohol.”
Arrow Dart Club even has a huge garage door that they’ll open when the weather is cooperative. It opens to the public on October 16, so they’ll still have plenty of sunny fall days to take advantage of. They even plan on working on an outdoor space that will be ready in time for next spring. Whether you’re aiming for triple-20 with every throw, or you’re just happy to hit the board, Arrow Dart Club looks like it’s gearing up to be a winner.
Arrow Dart Club is located at 1817 Locust St, Kansas City, MO 64108. It opens on October 16.
