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Week of January 27, 2022
JEFFERSON COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE | SPORTS: PAGE 16
There’s a new game in town BY JENNIFER LEDUC SPECIAL TO THE ARVADA PRESS
Flannel Jax, an indoor axe throwing and lumberjack experience center, opened in Arvada at 88th and Wadsworth in December. Billing itself as “extreme, social and fun” the venue gives participants — or “swingers” as the company calls them — the opportunity to compete against one another and hurl an axe at a target for points. Think darts, but with a three pound hatchet. While axe throwing venues and target sports like knife throwing are gaining momentum in Colorado and nation wide, the Arvada location marks the first Flannel Jax franchise in Colorado. There are currently six throughout the United States. Sabash Bahuguna owns the Flannel Jax in Arvada. A native of India, the Arvada resident was seeking a profitable and sustainable franchise opportunity in 2019. The the pandemic, construction and supply chain issues hampered opening, but the growth in the indoor sport industry felt too compelling. Despite setbacks, Bahuguna officially opened his facility in December 2021. After filling out waivers and a briefing on rules and safety protocols, participants are assigned a lane — a la bowling — with two targets against a backboard and a foul line. Lane attendants guide the group through their experience, and offer scorekeeping and throwing tips. On a recent Saturday night, Flannel Jax was bustling. Four groups spread out over seven lanes, and cheers, laughter and fist bumps punctuated the thuds of the axes hitting the pine and cottonwood backboards. John Trimm, an Arvada native, was celebrating his 58th birthday with his wife and two other couples. “I can still get the axe all the way to the wall,” he said, beaming after landing his axe squarely on the target. “We just loaded up on Advil before we came,” joked friend Bridget Hart. Dressed to impress, the group all wore flannel shirts. Although Bahuguna owned a few flannel shirts before buying SEE GAME, P2
VOLUME 17 | ISSUE 32
Arvada Tavern and Carwash owners receive entrepreneur of the year Chamber announces 2021 award recipients BY JENNIFER LEDUC SPECIAL TO THE ARVADA PRESS
Subhash Bahuguna, the owner of the newly owned Flannel Jax’s, an axe throwing PHOTO BY JENNIFER LEDUC and lumberjack sports center in Arvada.
Lenka Juchelkova and Mike Huggins, the wife and husband team behind the Arvada Tavern and The Glo Carwash, are recipients of the Entrepreneur of the Year award by the Arvada Chamber of Commerce for contributing “mightily to the culture, innovation and resilient spirit of Olde Town Arvada and the community at large” and being the model for sidewalk patios and the street closures of Olde Town. In addition to the Entrepreneur of the Year award, the Chamber also announced that the 2021 recipient of Business of the Year was Barber-Nichols, which engineers and manufactures innovative turbomachinery systems used to explore the universe and enable sustainable energy. Animal Assisted Therapy Programs of Colorado, which integrates teams of professional therapists and their therapy animals to facilitate the counseling process, received the Non-Profit of the Year award. The Arvada Tavern is a storied watering hole in Olde Towne. It was granted the city’s first tavern license in 1933. Since 2012, Juchelkova and Huggins have stayed true to, or in touch with, those iconic roots and serve up pre-Prohibition and traditionallystyled cocktails along with a succinct menu. Huggins appreciates the nod from the Chamber, but is emphatic in mentioning their failed bid to revive the former DNote space as Klines Beer Hall on Grandview Ave, which closed its doors a year into the pandemic. “Klines was a learning experience. Being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean you’re always getting it right,” Huggins said. “We are very successful, but not always.” Huggins said he’s optimistic that they can resurrect Klines in the vacant space next to the Tavern and former home of The Cereal Box — which also SEE AWARD, P2