Lawrence business owner Matt Baysinger doesn’t play around when it comes to having fun.
“I think ‘fun’ is a word that almost is like a cheesy word,” he said. “… It seems almost superficial, but I just am of the belief it’s one of the most important things we do.”
That’s why married couple Matt and Emily Baysinger are merging two of their downtown businesses under the same umbrella of Recess Lawrence, a fun emporium for tots, adults and everyone in between.
Formerly, Blade & Timber Axe Throwing and indoor miniature golf spot Sinkers Lounge lived under a green, decades-old awnings at 722 Massachusetts St.
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Now, Recess hails the unsuspecting joy-seeker with multicolored awnings that feel like the inside of a rainbow nylon parachute from P.E. class.
Inside, Recess offers a playground of axe throwing, mini golf and tabletop golf, darts, an ice cream parlor with a booze-infused flavor for the adults, a cocktail lounge/event space, an events calendar and an interactive museum with retro arcade machines on the horizon.
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For Sarah Robinson, general manager, it’s what so many family entertainment centers promise but fail to deliver.
“This is for adults and for kids … when kids come, I give them little rubber ducks and I blow bubbles in their face, and when adults come, I give them free little samples of boozy ice cream,” Robinson said.
Baysinger has kids ages 9, 11 and 13, and so being a business owner means asking, “What do my kids need in Lawrence?”
“Twelve years ago, when I opened Mass Street Soda, it was like, Lawrence needs cool, fun, whimsical stuff. And then we opened the escape room because I like to play escape rooms,” he said.
Matt and Emily Baysinger own the building at 722 Mass and, along with Robinson, they have spent months brainstorming how to maximize the fun and the approximately 9,000 square feet. Then it hit them.
“There’s not a more fun food than ice cream. No one eats ice cream for health purposes, right? Like, it’s a joke to think that there’s protein ice cream,” he said. “… Look, just enjoy it.”
In addition to 24 sober flavors available to all ages, the ice cream parlor at Recess will be the first establishment sanctioned to sell booze-infused ice cream in Kansas.
Baysinger said he met with Kansas Alcoholic Beverage Control to make sure his operation was up to code. The team has sourced their favorite ice creams from creameries in Kansas, Florida and beyond for the 24 nonalcoholic flavors, but their whiskey vanilla must be made in house.
It’s churned with whiskey from J. Reiger & Co., a Kansas City distillery, and stored 15 degrees colder than its fellow flavors since the alcohol changes the freezing point. It would take quite a few scoops to get most adults drunk, but the ice cream is 3.8% alcohol by volume.
Baysinger and Robinson have grand plans for more boozy-infused flavors — like a Mexican hot chocolate that’s currently in testing — but they said they want to take it slow to get it right. For now, Recess is focusing on scoops and cones, but over time, Baysinger wants to add gluten-free cones and toppings, and someday, make all of the flavors in-house.
Robinson was daydreaming about being off the clock and taking her boozy scoops down to the Pac-Mac machines in the basement, where they plan to open the interactive arcade museum later this year.
She said it can be hard to make friends as an adult, but Recess is fighting back with its events calendar that Robinson compared to camp for adults. For example, they’ll soon host their first “Morning Recess,” where electronics are banned for three hours and folks can read, craft or chat while enjoying coffee and treats from Barker.
“This store, it’s a solid vehicle to give back to a community,” she said. “And I feel like the more regular things there are for people in Lawrence to do, the quicker we can stamp out the loneliness epidemic that we’re all feeling.”
As Recess metamorphizes, its hours are changing. Stay up to date by checking its Facebook page at this link. Check out the website at recess.bar.
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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at [email protected].
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