A Smart Food and Beverage Strategy: Inside Andy B's Oklahoma City

BCM (Bowling Center Management) magazine featured the new Andy B's Bowl Social in its February 2024 issue. Here's a look at the story.

Andy Bartholomy knows numbers. After operating traditional bowling centers—built when leagues were king, featuring amenities rather than attractions—those numbers motivated him to go a different direction. That's how the first Andy B's entertainment center came to be, and why others have followed, the most recent in Oklahoma City.

"It's almost not fair to call it a bowling center," Bartholomy has said of his other locations. "It's an entertainment center."

Key takeaways from the article:

• An attraction lineup, not just amenities. The OKC venue features axe-throwing lanes with automated scoring and a large arcade stocked with cutting-edge games, reinvented classics, and redemption prizes.
• Reinvented bowling. The venue has 14 "traditional" lanes equipped with string pinsetters, an eight-lane VIB (very important bowler) area, and four lanes of duckpin bowling. All bowling and axe throwing is priced by the hour.
• F&B as a revenue driver, not an amenity. Where food and beverage was treated as an add-on at the traditional centers Bartholomy acquired, it stands front and center at his Andy B's locations. The Branson, Missouri location's chef-inspired menu includes a dozen appetizers, seven sandwiches and burgers, seven pizzas, and more.
• A deliberate soft launch on the menu. At OKC, Bartholomy opened with a limited menu—six appetizers, three snacks, one sandwich, one burger, five pizzas, and a two-item kids' menu—giving the team time to perfect dishes and get the right personnel in place before rolling out the full food experience.

Dining industry professionals note that opening with a limited menu accomplishes two things: it ensures quality in the items offered, and it leaves happy customers wanting more and planning a return visit. Not a bad strategy for any proprietor thinking about revamping a center's F&B offerings.

At a Glance: Andy B's Bowl Social, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Proprietor: Andy Bartholomy. Bowling: Brunswick Bowling (Sync Center Operations, string pins, Spark Immersive Bowling, Duckpin Social). Furniture: Brunswick Bowling and Venue Industries. Design and Architecture: Dynamic Designs. General Contractor: Timberlake Construction.

Read the full feature from BCM magazine here.