Bags away: A new cornhole hot spot is coming to this trendy Columbia neighborhood
The beanbags will soon be flying in Columbia’s Cottontown neighborhood.
Capital City Cornhole, a new business that will offer league, open and tournament play for the game that has become ubiquitous at barbecues and tailgates across the nation, plans to open soon at 1223 Franklin St. That’s in the building where Cottontown Brewlab was located, just down the street from The War Mouth restaurant.
John and Kimberly Gagliardi, who own the Random Tap bar and restaurant in Elgin, are opening Capital City Cornhole. The business will offer 10 lanes for cornhole play, arcade games, and plans to serve beer, wine and snacks.
“It’s an indoor cornhole facility,” Kimberly Gagliardi told The State. “We also will have an area people can rent for birthday parties, team-building events and things like that.”
While there will be league play — and the Gagliardis are expecting the spot to draw in serious cornhole players — Capital City Cornhole will also welcome more casual players.
“If you think of a bowling alley, it will be like that,” Kimberly Gagliardi said. “So, you could walk in off the street and, if there is a lane to be rented, you can rent a lane and shoot some cornhole bags. You can reserve a lane ahead of time. ... There will be some players here who are professional cornhole players, all the way down to beginners.”
Cottontown has continued to be a trendy neighborhood in Columbia. Aside from the aforementioned War Mouth, the neighborhood also is home to, among others, Curiosity Coffee Bar, il Focolare pizzeria (whose owners are up for a prestigious James Beard Award), a Gardener’s Outpost location, Indah Coffee, and the Vino Garage wine and beer shop, all of which are within a short distance of Capital City Cornhole.
Kimberly said the timing feels right for Capital City Cornhole to soon debut in the neighborhood.
“Oh, we are excited,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of feedback from people in the neighborhood, which is encouraging. We are happy, and we’re very excited to get open and be a part of the community.”
Cornhole has continued to rise in popularity, with millions of people across the world playing the game everywhere from backyards to driveways to festivals and beyond. A 2021 story from ESPN noted there are more than 100,000 members in the American Cornhole League, and professional matches are shown on the network’s airwaves.
The game involves players tossing bags filled with beans or resin onto raised, rectangular boards, each of which has a small hole at the top. There are a host of rules, but the stripped-down, basic gist is that a bag that lands on the board is worth one point and a bag that goes in the hole is worth three points, and games are played to 21.
There have been cornhole tournaments at the Gagliardis’ Random Tap for a number of years, including a popular St. Patrick’s Day tourney. Over time, the talent level and competition at the Random Tap tournaments continued to rise, and so did the enthusiasm for the game, Kimberly Gagliardi said.
“It just kind of grew from there,” she said.
The couple also took notice that there aren’t many large spaces where people can play cornhole, and they recognized an opportunity.
“So, we decided, ‘Let’s open it up,’” Gagliardi said, referring to the new spot on Franklin Street. “That way you can play any time of the year. Whether it’s raining or 100 degrees or 40 degrees, you can still play cornhole here.”
John Gagliardi said he is excited to bring indoor cornhole to the Cottontown area.
“This takes things to the next level,” John said. “It means a lot to have our own facility. The big thing is that it’s an indoor facility, without wind, without rain. Quite honestly, the boards react differently depending on weather conditions. You play outside, you play a certain set of boards. You play inside, you play a different set of boards.”
