The Wild Game Entertainment Experience Is Longmont's New One-Stop Shop for Fun

Finding entertainment in Longmont can be a challenge, but the Wild Game Entertainment Experience may be the fix.

The 28,289-square-foot restaurant and entertainment center, which opened in a former Office Depot on Ken Pratt Boulevard this week, aims to be a kind of one-stop shop for fun that caters to Longmont’s growing family population by matching kid-friendly entertainment like bowling and arcade games with a restaurant and well-appointed bar.

The budding chain’s new location (the first is in Evergreen) will celebrate its grand opening this weekend, with live classic rock and country from Narrow Gauge on Saturday at 8 p.m.; on Sunday, Wild Game will be raising money for Longmont-based A Woman’s Work, a local charity that supports the immediate financial needs of women in the St. Vrain Valley.

Wild Game looks less like an arcade and more like someone’s second home in Breckenridge, with pallet light fixtures and weathered wood siding on the walls. Above the stone-faced gas fireplace, a mounted deer head keeps watch over a pair of leather armchairs. Herds of buffalo stampede through murals painted alongside the dining area and bowling alley. (Sports nuts, take note: The latter contains gigantic screens, positioned directly over the lanes).

On the culinary side, the restaurant follows the gastropub playbook closely, with burgers, pizza, tacos and sandwiches, wings and appetizers like roasted Brussels sprouts and Southwest egg rolls, and a draft-beer selection including taps from small local brewers like Funkwerks, Wibby and Crazy Mountain. The bar offers a happy-hour menu until 6 p.m. during the week; on a recent visit, $10 bought us a pint of Bandit Brown from Berthoud’s City Star Brewing and a plate of chips and citrusy, tangy guacamole.

Then there are the games. “There is nothing like the Wild Game in Longmont, and the city needed a place like this that's for adults, with darts, foosball and billiards, but where kids will also love to go, with the Game Zone, bowling and other kid-friendly games like cornhole and ping-pong,” says Ali Randall, a representative for the business.

That emphasis on whole-family entertainment is reflected in the building’s design, which seems aimed at keeping kids out of adults’ hair and vice-versa. The Game Zone, a small arcade that includes standard fare like Cruis’n World, Skee-Ball, basketball and knock-down games, along with the familiar prize-redemption desk, is tucked into a corner at the building’s far front. The adults’ space is The Loft, a small upstairs bar limited to 21-and-up patrons, with dartboards, a pool table, and a balcony with a clear view straight to the Rockies.

The Wild Game Entertainment Experience is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.