Toronto's Backyard Axe Throwing League, or BATL for short, is opening up a new location inside an oft-derided shopping mall.

The popular beer-and-axe-throwing league moved indoors and into 213 Sterling Road back in February 2011. Since then, the company's expanded across southwestern Ontario, but founder and CEO Matt Wilson says earlier this year he got a notice telling him he had about 40 days to vacate his original space.

He wanted to stay in the same neighbourhood and started looking for BATL's new west end home. Eventually, he landed on a rather unconventional spot: the Galleria Mall.

He's taking over part of the now-shuttered Zellers. The massive, big-box store was slated to become a Target, but clearly that never happened. Today, Planet Fitness takes up part of the space, but there's still plenty of room for BATL. "It's definitely the right fit for us," says Wilson.

And despite the mall's incoming redevelopment plans, Wilson hopes to stay there for the next three to five years.

Photo of BATL at 33 Villiers St. by Jesse Milns.