Hold my beer...while I throw this axe: Trendy concept coming soon to Columbia

It’s like darts — but with axes.

Or, like a shooting range — but with axes.

And beer. Axes and beer.

An up-and-coming entertainment concept with locations sprouting across the country is coming soon to downtown Columbia.

Craft Axe Throwing plans to open an axe-throwing, beer-serving location in Columbia’s Vista, at 700 Gervais St., in December. It will open in the former Vista Keys dueling piano bar.

The company already has locations in Greenville (opened in February) and in Springfield, Missouri. It announced on its website plans to open in Columbia, along with plans for new locations in Charleston, Raleigh, Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska.

For $20 an hour per person, Craft Axe Throwing will offer both casual games and competitive leagues of axe throwing. There will be about 14 axe-throwing lanes, able to accommodate four players at a time.

The business also is seeking a permit to serve craft beer, according to its website.

Other Craft Axe Throwing locations also have bars and “axeperts” to teach players how to throw.

Urban axe-throwing has become a trendy activity in cities across the country. In the past year, Charlotte (Lumberjaxe), Durham (Urban Axes) and Greenville (Craft Axe Throwing) welcomed the Carolinas’ first axe-throwing bars.

In a recent report, NBC News hailed axe-throwing bars as “an updated — and far hipper — version of the 1970s bowling alley.”

This story was originally published November 7, 2018 at 10:47 AM.