This was a storage room.
Now it’s the reason people book.
How The Cabinet in Atherton turned a room it didn’t use into one where guests average two drinks an hour.
LOW STAFFING
UNUSED SPACE
POST-COVID RECOVERY
Post-Covid blues turned around with darts
The Cabinet is a cocktail bar and restaurant on the outskirts of Manchester. Like many venues, it came out of Covid to find its customers had changed. Fridays had softened. Saturdays were carrying the week.
It also had a large back room doing nothing but storing things. Turning it into something useful seemed to mean more staff, a bigger kitchen or a whole new concept. None of those appealed.
So the owners refurbished the room, called it the Boardroom, and fitted it with Dartsee interactive darts lanes. The risks were obvious. Would enough people come? Would they spend enough on food and drink to pay for it? The answer, it turned out, was yes on both counts.
"A back room nobody used became the attraction everybody books."
The figures so far
Guests have played more than 3,500 hours on The Cabinet's lanes. More than 14,000 players have registered. They have thrown over a million darts. But it's merely scratching the surface. Making Dartsee a main attraction has brought in more than just fancy numbers.
Cocktails, dinner, darts and live music under one roof. The Cabinet Live, a few steps from the Boardroom.
Nine things the owners learned
Drop by & try Dartsee
A whole night out, without the train
The Cabinet offers cocktails, dinner, darts and live music under one roof. Dartsee brings in large, varied groups who are happy to stay all evening rather than head into central Manchester.
Several new bars have opened nearby since The Cabinet launched. The Boardroom gives it something none of them offer, and the owners now count Dartsee as their dependable weekly source of revenue.
Why not ordinary darts?
Dartsee was built for bars, not adapted from a home product. Each lane is a complete, professional installation: robust hardware, an interface anyone can use in a minute, and a support team that picks up.