Some people may not know that that there is a fully functioning bar at East Hampton Bowl featuring draft beer specials, a pool table, a dartboard, and video games. With food available at the snack bar and space for a kitchen, which outside caterers used to set up, Mr. Patterson regularly opens the alley for soirées beyond small-scale children’s birthday parties. Recently he even hosted a wedding there for nearly 200 people.
Primarily, “the direction of the industry is towards the entertainment side of the game, as opposed to the sports side,” he said. Even so, there are still plenty of die-hard bowlers, many of whom come from as far away as Westhampton Beach, and many leagues meet on a monthly basis in a more casual setting.
The 16-lane alley, which was built in 1960, was bought by Mr. Patterson in the late 1970s. Since then it has undergone two major interior renovations, the most recent of which was in the mid-1990s. Lanes are resurfaced with a special bowling-specific resin annually, but a complete resurfacing will be done in the first phase of the project, to be completed by the Fourth of July. The alley will remain open, with one or two lanes closed at a time during the process.
The most exciting aspect of this phase, Mr. Patterson said, is computer technology that will include a touch-screen scoring system, flat-screen video monitors, and new games to keep the bowling interesting for children and adults. Adults will be able to incorporate poker into their scoring system, and huge monitors will eventually be installed above the lanes so that the names of advertisers or slide shows of children celebrating their birthdays can be displayed.