Vent your rage by flipping over some furniture,
New venture lets you take out your anger by tossing a table
Angry children can stomp on sandcastles, break Lego or hurl food at walls.
But there have never been socially acceptable ways for adults to cope with red-faced anger — until now.
A new business venture in Toronto is offering the chance to flip a table — and everything on it — without consequences. It’s destructive. It’s messy. And strangely satisfying.
Toronto’s only “table flippery” lies down a discreet flight of stairs off busy Gerrard St. in East Chinatown.
At Ye Olde Dandy’s you don’t just flip a table of cutlery and food — you can toss anything from pyramids of party mugs to squishy toy spiders, doll houses or love notes from an ex. The more elaborate the setup, the more you pay, from $5 to $20. Ye Olde Dandy’s co-owner Matti McLean said he wanted to create a “space where you can come and be violent for fun.”
“A lot of people have that moment of anger where they’re just like ‘I’m going to be so angry I need to let my anger out on something,’ ” McLean said.
Table flipping can offer that healthy release, he said.
Ye Olde Dandy’s opened quietly three weeks ago and so far 40 people have lined up to flip a table.
One customer came in and laid out notes from her ex-lover, rose petals and other items on the table — before sending it all airborne.
Last week, a duo sat down at the table and played a board game until one person grew so frustrated by the game they flipped the table, surprising the other player, McLean said.
On Wednesday, this Star reporter tried her hand at table flippery.
To prepare, the table was piled high with Jenga pieces, foam shapes, feather boas, rose petals and a plastic lizard — all carefully laid out.
Even though you stack the table with the intention of flipping it, there is something aggressive and unnatural about actually going through with the act.
I felt like a naughty child and found myself squealing at all the mess I had created.
McLean always films his customer’s flips in slow motion and said you can learn a lot about a person by watching their reaction in the seconds that follow.
Some people look revved up, others nervous or guilty.
One woman curled up and hid her face in her hands as the table and its contents crashed to the ground. I just giggled. The art of table flipping has been documented in pop culture for decades.
It’s an easy way to amplify the conflict in any movie scene: from the various movies that picture Jesus overturning moneylenders’ tables to Brad Pitt flipping his desk in Moneyball or the notorious, much-discussed table-flip in The Real Housewives of New Jersey TV series.
Table flippery is for anyone out there who feels like the punching bag is losing its appeal, beer won’t suffice and a screaming match isn’t an option.
You can flip a table at Ye Olde Dandy’s for $5 until Tuesday; the price will then increase to $10.
And, if you want to smash breakable items in your table-flipping rage — it will cost you double.