Duckpin bowling coming to Franklin

A Johnson County business owner plans to bring a duckpin bowling facility to 27 W. Monroe St. in downtown Franklin.

Pat Hagan bought the 10,000-square-foot building for $250,000 in January 2017, after long-time business Smallwood Appliances shut its doors. After considering different uses for the building, Hagan decided on duckpin bowling. He’s a fan of the duckpin bowling lanes in Fountain Square, and figured that downtown Franklin needed an activity-based business to complement its downtown restaurants and its historic Artcraft Theatre.

“It’s a fun game—anybody can play,” Hagan told IBJ. “It just seemed like a good fit in this building.”

Hagan’s working name for the project is Franklin Duckpin Bowling, though he has solicited name ideas from family and friends and hasn’t yet selected an official name.

The building has about 4,500 square feet on the ground floor, a second floor with about 1,400 square feet and a basement of about 4,250 square feet. It was built in 1930, according to property records.

While awaiting the necessary approvals, Hagan has already begun working on the interior, removing carpeting, paneling and plaster to reveal the wood flooring and exposed brick walls beneath. The completed space will have a “light industrial” look to it, Hagan said. “It’s a cool space.”

Pending state and local approvals, Hagan hopes to be open this spring after installing 10 duckpin lanes. The bowling alley will have beer and wine service and concession-type foods provided by a local restaurant or two—think pizza, hot dogs and wings.

Because he works in telecommunications—Hagan also owns Blue Top Communications, a Dish Network operator—he also plans to add numerous televisions that will air sporting events.

Duckpin bowling, which is mostly found on the East Coast, is a 10-pin bowling variant that uses smaller balls and pins than does standard bowling, and which allows three throws per frame instead of two. The game is much more challenging than traditional bowling—according to the National Duckpin Bowling Congress, the all-time men’s high score, set in 1992, is 279 points of a possible 300. The women’s record, set in 1973, is 265.

In other news of the week:

— Dos Hombres Taco House opened Jan. 11 at Circle Centre, in the third-floor food court space vacated three years ago by burger joint Jonny Rockets. The “dos hombres” behind the new quick-serve restaurant are brothers Pedro and Javier Gracia.

“Ever since we were small, our parents taught us how to cook and passed down our great-grandmother’s recipes,” Javier Gracia told IBJ. The brothers were born in California, raised in Brownsville, Texas, and moved to Indianapolis with their families about 15 years ago.

Dos Hombres plans to open a second location in February or March at Castleton Square Mall, Javier Gracia said. After that, the brothers have their eyes on a third site in the Nora area mid-year. “We don’t want to give details until it’s more concrete,” Javier Gracia said.

— The Indian grocery chain Patel Brothers is moving its 4150 Lafayette Road store to a new, larger space at 4959 W. 38th St. The move, which should be complete within the next four months, will take the store from its 9,000-square-foot space into 20,000 square feet that will include a bakery, a deli with fresh Indian food and an expanded produce section.

Patel Brothers has more than 30 stores around the U.S., including a second store here at 6302 E. 82nd St. The grocery chain’s corporate parent is Skokie, Illinois-based Raja Foods LLC.

— Huntington Learning Center, a tutoring center, will open soon at Glendale Town Center, 2635 E. 62nd St., Suite 2020. Huntington will take a 2,539-square-foot space previously occupied by Monical’s Pizza. The business should be ready to open by the end of February, according to Kite Realty broker Andrew Hasbrook.

— Scarlet Lane Brewing Co. LLC has opened its third location, a tap room at 4601 N. College Ave. in Meridian-Kessler. The property, which formerly housed Big Al’s Superstore, has been redeveloped into a multitenant retail space.

Scarlet Lane, owned by the husband-and-wife team of Nick Servies and Eilise Lane, launched in 2014 in the Hancock County town of McCordsville, where it has both a brewery and a taproom. The couple opened a second taproom last fall at 2033 S. Meridian St. south of downtown Indianapolis.

— Detroit-based Belle Tire will have a grand opening Jan. 28 for its newest Indianapolis-area store, at 198 S. Marlin Drive in Greenwood, just east of Indiana 135 near Meijer. Belle Tire announced last year that it planned to enter the Indianapolis market in a big way, opening as many as 25 stores. The retailer entered Indiana in 2015 and currently has 15 local stores, including two in Indianapolis.

— Chuck E. Cheese reopened its Castleton location at 5501 E. 82nd St. last week after a major remodeling. The pizza chain says Castleton is among the first of its more than 500 stores to receive the upgrades, which include a light-up dance floor, new furniture, lighting and color scheme, and enhanced menu items including wraps, sandwiches and a salad bar. Gone is the animatronic stage show—instead, Chuck E. Cheese will make live appearances hourly. The chain has also done away with tokens, moving to a “play pass” concept that offers unlimited play for set periods of time. 

Finally, a couple of closings:

— Super Bowl Pho, at 5603 E. Washington St. in Irvington, has closed. The business told IBJ that it closed because of a lack of both employees and customers. “The support for our kind of food wasn’t there,” Super Bowl Pho told IBJ via Facebook.

— White Castle has closed at 3329 S. East St. on Indianapolis’ south side. According to a sign posted at the location, the last day of operations was Dec. 24.