#1 Detroit Birthday Party Idea

Birthday Party Ideas #1:  Fowling

• What is it ?  Fowling is a cross between a couple of classics: bowling and football.  Sound weird ?  Well, it kind of is, but it’s an absolute blast for a birthday party!  A really quick and helpful video on the rules and how it works can be found here.  You basically throw a football at bowling pins that are setup on a platform.  Similar to cornhole, you’re setup across from your opponent.   The goal is to try to knock down their 10 pins before they knock down yours.
• Like any successful birthday party they do have alcohol.  Full bars are setup in the massive warehouse facility.  One cool thing they have is a mystery beer machine where beers start at $2 so it’s super reasonable.  A full list of the drinks is here.
• Cost is $120 per lane for 2 hours (up to 10 players max per lane).  They can also do massive groups of over 300+ people at once if you contact them.  Either way, very reasonable pricing.
• Although they started locally, they now have locations in Michigan, Ohio, Georgia and Indiana.  The location in our neck of the woods, which is the first Fowling location in the world, is in Hamtramck.

Birthday Party Ideas #2: Whirly Ball Birthday Party

• WAY too few people know about Whirly Ball.  A Whirly Ball Detroit birthday party looks silly and sounds strange, but it’s SO FUN.  Trust us.  (The attached picture is a HandleBar staff outing we did there!)
• So what is it ?  It’s like Jai-Alai, but you ride around in those electric bumper carts like you see at your local fair grounds.  Two teams of 5 bump each other and try to put a wiffle ball into a basketball hoop.  The playing court is approximately 4,000 sq. ft. and similar to an ice rink combined with a basketball court.  Like I said… strange, but ridiculously fun, especially for a birthday party.  Here’s the breakdown.
• You can drink, cater food and they even have big screen tvs and couches if you’re not playing.
• They have locations in Novi, Clinton twp and Ann Arbor
• Cost starts at $200/hr, but with 10ppl playing at once and room for people to switch out after 10min games it can be very affordable

Birthday Party Ideas #3: Detroit Dart Club

• Looking for something a little different for your birthday party ?  Detroit Dart Club is something you should definitely check out!   So what is it exactly ?  They provide big dart guns and you run around their space battling it out w/ friends!
• Lets get the most important rule out of the way first: You can bring your own alcohol! (and food)
• A private party is a minimum of $300 for up to 12 participants. For more than 12 participants, it’s a flat rate of $20/player for each additional player so it’s super affordable.
• They also have virtual reality dart wars.  What is it like ?  Some examples are here and here.  It is a flat rate of $200 for a private party.  They recommend roughly 8-12 participants for the best experience

Birthday Party Ideas #4: An Easy to Plan Home Activity

• You want to have small birthday party at your house, but it’d be nice to have an activity.  That’s where Adults and Crafts comes in.  They give you the exact supplies and directions that you need so there is virtually no setup required at all.  You just buy their kits and focus on what is important, hanging w/ your friends.
• This video shows some of the crafts and does a great job showing what they’re all about
• Adults & Crafts was ranked in the top 10 subscription boxes on USA Today.  It’s also becoming more and more popular nationwide on the TODAY Show, Buzzfeed, Mashable & Pure Wow as well.  Other people are doing it, maybe you should too! 😉
• Full disclosure:  Our former driver, turned manager & current friend, Kevin Black, started this company after retiring from The HandleBar so we’re super proud to help him get the word out.  If you enjoyed him as your driver we’re sure he’d love the support.  That said, we wouldn’t share the idea if we didn’t try it for ourselves and actually like it.  Our favorite is the wood burning party pack

Birthday Party Ideas #5: HandleBar Detroit Birthday Tour!

• You know that you want to have some friends and family together, but you’re not sure what to do.  You could have people over to your house, but then you’d have to clean up.  Your house also isn’t setup for a big gathering so you’d have to limit the guest list.  You could rent out a venue, but that could get really expensive.  It’s all so overwhelming!  Unless…
• Book one or more HandleBar Pedal Pubs for your birthday party.  It’s BYOB so you don’t have to stress about having the right drink choices or snacks for the picky people.  Our Pedal Pubs are setup like giant picnic tables so it’s great for catching up with friends you haven’t seen in a while and forcing conversation among everyone.  We stop for photos and to use the bathroom so there is also plenty of opportunity to change seats.   The photos we get of you guys ensure that the experience is properly documented for Facebook and Instagram.
• You can play your own music similar to renting a venue out and dance up and down Woodward.
• HandleBar handles all of the corralling of people during the tour so you can show up and just enjoy the moment.  It’s almost like hiring a party planner!  No need to stress about things not going right.  And starting at $20/person it’s pretty economical.