Door County Sandbox — Restaurant in Sturgeon Bay

I recently checked this place out. Despite knowing about it for the past year, I realized I had a misconception.

I thought it was a 'special occasion' kind of place. You know. Get a group together to play indoor golf, throw axes, etc.

It's not. I mean, sure. It is. But it's also a great local bar. You don't need an occasion or a group. All you need is the desire to go to a bar, have a drink and a little bar food, and enjoy yourself.

The space is great. Clean. Plenty of character. Lots of room at the bar and ample tables. The TVs are huge and the sound is beautiful. If you want to listen to the big game as well as watch, it's the best place in Door to do so. Plus there is a pool table, dart boards, gaming machines, a juke box.

It's a full bar with a good tap list and cocktail menu. They have HH specials, too.

The menu is solid with all your bar food favorites - appetizers, burgers and handhelds, pizzas, salads. I've had the personal pizza and the boneless wings, and both were plenty tasty.

And the staff is great.

So sure. Bring a group of friends for a special outing to play golf, throw axes, ride the race car simulators.

But don't let that stop you from visiting before then. It's a fun bar. The perfect place to grab a drink and a bite and unwind after a long day, or to watch some sports with a few friends. If your team wins, you can celebrate with another round. If your team gets beat and you need to vent some frustration, you can throw axes. That's a...

We went here with some friends to give it a go. I have been wanting to try this place out for awhile to go axe-throwing! The place was very large, and the staff were friendly enough and helpful. We didn't order any food as we had come from dinner at home but we did grab a few drinks. The place is pretty huge and the menu looks good enough. There were a lot of people hanging out at the expansive bar they have but nobody being too rowdy. They had golf, axe-throwing, dart-throwing, and other games in the building for those who wanted to play. We all went for some axe-throwing and had a blast. The axe-throwing games were fun to pick from but it did appear the sensors of the projectors against the wood were a little sensitive and required manually changing the score after each throw that landed to reflect accuracy. Not a huge deal but something that might need to be re-callibrated. The only other remark I would make would be to offer a larger variety of axes. They had a single hatchet for everyone to share and rotate through and some ninja stars. I would love to see a few other options for axes as well; big, small, and even a 2-hander would be great. Overall, we will definitely be back, and we will grab food next...

Overall, DC Sandbox has been an excellent addition to Sturgeon Bay! I've never experienced an issue with the food quality, or mistakes being made. It's also nice to have something to do in town (ax throwing) - especially for us locals during the winter!

However, I do think improvements could be made to staffing and customer service. While I don't find that the servers or bartenders are ever rude in any way, they can certainly be inattentive. I've gone in to pick up a take-out order and not been offered a drink (an easy upsell,) I've waited 10 minutes for a drink before, waited a long time for a sauce cup, etc. I don't mind waiting, ESPECIALLY if it is busy, but at DC Sandbox, it becomes excessive. That said... the apparent inattentiveness MIGHT stem from a lack of staff or poor scheduling decisions. On Labor Day, there was ONE server/bartender working during dinner! ONE person to take all of the orders in a FULL dining room AND make the drinks. This is not feasible even for the most skilled and experienced employees.

Understanding that the workforce is difficult to navigate these days - improvements to customer service overall and perhaps stronger scheduling to avoid delays would easily bump this up to a...