Big Al's
Last year, we noticed a huge construction project starting just
on the edge of town - right before you leave civilization and continue five more
miles to our house. As the weeks went by and we would occasionally travel by the
building site when we were in town, I became amazed at the sheer size of the
building. I decided it was going to be one of those mega-jumbo multi-screen
movie theaters.
Wrong. A few months later a sign declared the monstrosity was going to be
Big
Al's. They opened a few weeks ago.
Doesn't it look like a Cabela's with a bowling alley?
Big Al's is the second in a now-chain of "family entertainment centers".
Assuming your family entertains themselves drinking beer.
This is the lobby of Big Al's. Two floors of
entertainment. The center desk is where customers can rent bowling shoes
and choose their weapons.
Big Al offers over 60 lanes of bowling. This is the
"normal" bowling alley - they also have a dark bowling alley with black
lights, strobes and hot music. The seizure-prone should avoid this
space-age-bowling area - too much stimulation.
Patrons were actually dining at the bowling lanes. Full
plates of food and glasses of wine! On the lower floor at Big Al's is a
massive sports bar, an ice cream parlor, pizza, several small bars and
other food outlets. The entire facility is smoke-free. Plenty of free
parking. Big Al has 200 employees!
If you want to have a private party - you can have it at Big
Al's!
Almost all of the upper floor is devoted to video games
of every sort. I am not the right person to describe the video games,
because - except for one memorable Whack-a-Mole experiment in
the early 1980's - I have never really paid much attention to this part
of our culture. It was also quite dizzying and noisy and there were
really a lot of people having a very grand time. Adults and kids. Looked
like a popular date-night spot too.
Apparently, if you score enough points on the arcade
games, you can earn a bunch of junk cool prizes!
(TRUTH: The Lovely Lisa, circa age 7-10, would have loved this place.)
Excuse the quality of this photo, but... also on the
upper level of Big Al's are several smaller bars, a bowling ball store,
pool tables and this very cool golf simulator.
DT and I parked ourselves in the huge Sports Bar on the lower
floor. Big Al has a 56-foot-long television that can be divided into as many as
48, or as few as 3 TV screens! On one screen! Fifty six feet wide! Amazing. The
menu is very typical of what you would expect at a sports bar - wings, nachos,
burgers, sandwiches, salads, etc. We watched the Oklahoma State Cowboys beat Texas A&M
with a last-second field goal and enjoyed very decent Buffalo Wings.
We may have had a few beers too.
Until my next update, I remain, your "we'll be back" correspondent.