KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The owners of Blade & Timber are ready to introduce a new social venture in the Kansas City Power & Light District, the Kansas City Business Journal first reported.
Consider it a new take on a classic: mini golf.
There’s a nostalgia for the activity, but one immediate word comes to mind — outdated, Matt Baysinger, CEO and co-founder of Blade & Timber’s parent, Swell Spark, said.
Mini golf traditionally is found in the suburbs, but more residents are flocking to Downtown for social activities, he said.
So Swell Spark is taking a swing at a new version of mini golf — one that pairs an Instagram-worthy venue with craft cocktails and a chef-driven menu. It’s called Sinkers Lounge, and it’s slated to open inside a 7,000-square-foot space in late July at 53 W. 13th St., next to Blade & Timber’s ax-throwing venue.
“We want people to come here for the food,” Baysinger said. “If you think of the country club culture in general, there are plenty of folks that go to a country club and never touch a golf club.”
Swell Spark delved into the restaurant side in August, when it opened Blade & Timber’s Power & Light location. Its menu features items such as a Portobello sandwich, chicken and waffles, and a brioche waffle with Belgian pearl sugar. Sinkers will focus even more on food, and it will make the evenings adults only, he said.
The upscale yet affordable lounge will include nine mini-golf holes, plus nine tabletop golf holes, which Baysinger described as a mashup of billiards and mini golf. The tabletop game also uses a different kind of club, a cross between a pool cue and a putter.
“We’re going to have a very artistic slant on what our playing holes will look like,” Baysinger said. “We’re going to have some pretty quirky nostalgic aesthetics that both remind us what mini golf was but also shows us what mini golf can be.”
Unlike Blade & Timber, which requires some education and calming people’s nerves, people get mini golf, Baysinger said.
The new venue probably will become a weekly hangout, a differentiator from Blade & Timber, which typically attracts repeat customers every couple of months to a quarter, he said.
Even so, Blade & Timber’s new location has been hitting the bull’s-eye since its August opening. During the fourth quarter, sales at the location were 50% higher than the location in Kansas City’s West Bottoms. Baysinger hopes to duplicate that success with Sinkers.
