Couple converting former restaurant into axe-throwing venue
7 May 2022
News, New business, Small Business
Felicia Frazar The Seguin Gazette
A Seguin police officer and her husband, a recently retired paramedic, are taking an axe to the building that formerly housed Dixie Grille and converting it into an entertainment venue.
Sarah and Jessie Wallace are remodeling the abandoned building on the Interstate 10 access road just east of State Highway 46 to create Texas Axeholes, an axe-throwing establishment.
“Both of us really love doing activities when we go out,” Sarah said. “We thought this was a really fun way to bring people together. You can go out whether you’re on a date night or with your family or with people from work.”
The couple, with the help of Sarah’s father, are gutting the building to create the facility of their dreams. It will include 10 axe throwing lanes, a billiards area with pool tables and a party room for larger gatherings and celebrations.
“We’ve done axe throwing in the past and think it is a fun way to go out, have some fun, relieve stress and have a good time,” Sarah said.
Having spent the past two years working as a Seguin police officer, Sarah has gotten to know the community and the city, which helped solidify her and Jessie’s decision to open the business here.
“We both really fell in love with Seguin and agreed that this city has so much potential,” she said. “There is just not really a lot of things to do, so we really wanted to hone in on finding somewhere in Seguin to open up some type of entertaining business.”
They began looking at various spaces and opportunities, but the location of the former Dixie Grille and the building itself appealed to what they want to do, Sarah said. The building offered some unique qualities the couple liked, but they also saw the challenges it faces having sat vacant for more than a year.
“We’re fully demolishing it and restoring it, so it is going to look completely different than anyone’s ever seen it,” Sarah said.
While Sarah, Jessie and their family are handling a bulk of the renovation work, they are contracting local businesses to help with the rest.
“Since we’re a small business, we’re promoting small business in our city,” Sarah said. “That was really important to us.”
With deep roots in the first responder world, the couple plans to theme the business in the same fashion.
“Jessie was a paramedic for 20 years, he recently retired,” she said. “We both come from first responders families and a big theme you’ll see is a fire/PD first responder theme. We’re going to decorate it with cool, vintage, rustic photos of old school police stations, old school fire stations. We’re naming the lanes after some unique terms you would hear from the police or fire side.”
The Wallaces hope to open Texas Axeholes around mid-summer this year.
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