A revolutionary, British dart-focused restaurant/bar/event venue is flying into a buzzy Houston mixed-use development. The bustling Allen Parkway corridor project Regent Square will welcome Flight Club, the immersive pub making waves in the U.K. and here in the U.S.
This is the first Texas Flight Club outpost, set to open late 2021. (The venue boasts a popular presence in Chicago.)
Visitors should expect a decidedly retro Brit vibe, with plush booths, semi-private gaming areas, vibrant vintage signage and decor, and a ubiquitous red phone booth in an 8,500-square-foot space.
Press materials promise a “unique social gaming experience through specially designed technology and spacious set-up,” as well as an eclectic bar program led by award-winning Peter Vestinos, plus a menu curated by acclaimed Chicago Chef Rich Gresh.
Oh, and the darts and games. Pub games and darts are central here; the space can accommodate groups of six to 400. More than 160 million darts have been thrown by some 2 million people globally since the venue launched in October 2015, per the company.
“Houston is an incredibly diverse city with vibrant food and drink scene–we are so thrilled that our first Texas location will be in this market,” said Alan Cichon, U.S. president of ownership company, State of Play. “Houston has shown the world time and time again how resilient it is, and we cannot wait to be a part of the fabric that makes up the Houston culture.”
Adding a little note that he gets it, Cichon noted, “everything is bigger in Texas, including our concept.”
Flight Club promises a vibrant, festive atmosphere.
Photo courtesy of Flight Club
Flight Club promises a vibrant, festive atmosphere.
Describing the new movie Pillionis almost an act of futility. It contains a variety of seemingly disparate parts that coalesce into a whole to make it utterly fascinating. Few other recent films have been able to walk the line between filthy and wholesome in quite the way this one does, and that’s only because few other filmmakers would actually dare to try.
It centers on Colin (Harry Melling), a meek man in his mid-thirties who still lives at home with his parents, Pete (Douglas Hodge) and Peggy (Lesley Sharp), while working a dead-end job giving out parking tickets. While performing in a barbershop quartet at his local pub, Colin catches the eye of biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), who summons him for a clandestine hook-up the following day (which just so happens to be Christmas Day).
With barely a word exchanged between them, Ray establishes a dominance over Colin that quickly leads to them starting a relationship in which Colin does anything Ray asks. And that means more than just sex: Colin, whether desperate for any kind of affection or unlocking a side of himself he hadn’t known, readily agrees to cook, clean, shop, and basically do whatever else Ray wants him to do.
Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Harry Lighton, the film is astonishing in the way it’s able to mine humor from Colin and Ray’s atypical bond. To call Ray “unfeeling” might not be totally accurate, but the way he treats Colin borders on cruel. However, the way Lighton structures the film, it’s easy to understand why someone like Colin would be willing to go along with the situation. It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking to see Colin debase himself in a variety of ways.
On the flip side is Colin’s heartfelt arc with his parents. It’s established right away that Peggy, who is sick with cancer, is a bit too involved with Colin’s love life, with the opening scene featuring her setting him up on a blind date. But their easy acceptance of his queerness and desire to see him find love is as heartwarming as it gets. The juxtaposition between the wholesomeness of their family and Colin’s new life is also the source of a good amount of comedy.
Lighton does not shy away from the sexual side of Colin and Ray’s relationship, and the scenes he depicts are as graphic as you are likely to see in an R-rated film. Some go up to and a little past what might be expected in a mainstream movie (including the use of a certain fake appendage). Other times they play out in a comical way to illustrate just how far Colin has progressed from the person he was when the film started.
Skarsgård, who stole the show in the Charli XCX movie The Moment, is the attraction in more ways than one in this film. The part calls for someone who’s not only impossibly handsome, but also a person who can stop dissent with just a glance, and he lives up to both qualities equally well. Melling, best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies, also embodies his role perfectly. He plays Colin as weak enough to be run roughshod over by Ray, but not so hopeless as to not be worth rooting for.
Pillion (which is the name of the secondary seat on a motorcycle on which Colin rides multiple times in the film) operates at a storytelling level that is difficult to achieve. Many people will not fully understand the film’s central relationship, but the way it is showcased by Lighton makes it compelling, gut-wrenching, and sexy.
