Middleport family opens cornhole tavern as tribute to Donna Szczesny

Jim Szczesny and his sons, Mike Moxham and Chris Szczesny, turned the old lease at 79 Telegraph Road in Middleport into DLS Cornhole Tavern, a place built as much for play as for memory. The bar is a tribute to Donna Lee Szczesny, the family’s wife and mother, whom they called Momma Shez, and it gives cornhole a permanent indoor home in a region where the game has usually lived in backyards, bars and seasonal events.

The setup goes well beyond a board or two. Jim Szczesny said the space has nearly a dozen courts, glow-in-the-dark accents, a pool room, darts, arcade games and a kitchen serving burgers, chicken fingers, pizza, fried foods and drinks. On weekdays, walk-ins can play four round-robin games to reach a double-elimination bracket, while Saturdays bring two tournaments, one for beginners and one for advanced players. Jim Szczesny said the tavern has drawn upward of 50 players on Saturday nights, a sign that a dedicated indoor cornhole venue can sustain regular traffic, not just a one-off crowd.

The family’s tie to the game runs through Donna Szczesny, who died on Jan. 24, 2024. Her obituary says she was born March 4, 1955 and enjoyed watching cornhole, a detail that now sits at the center of the tavern’s name and décor. Jim Szczesny said the family used to play at Scruples, where Donna would be there cheering them on, and that memory helped turn cornhole into the right anchor for the business.

That choice fits the sport’s own rise. The American Cornhole Organization says it was founded in 2005 by Frank Geers and held its first Nationals Championship in December 2006 in Northern Kentucky, after helping publish rules for recreational and tournament play. Histories of the game describe cornhole as a safer, easier-to-set-up alternative to horseshoes, one reason it has spread into bars and community spaces that can host consistent leagues. DLS Cornhole Tavern follows that path with prize games of its own, including a dice-roll contest that sets the points scored, a skee-ball board and a tic-tac-toe throw with a cash prize starting at $230.

For Middleport players, the result is a venue that serves three jobs at once: tribute, social club and tournament site. At DLS, the game is not an afterthought on the side of the room. It is the reason the room exists.