PHOENIX, AZ – What began as a spontaneous purchase has evolved into a nationwide business model for Michael Siniscalchi.
That’s because Siniscalchi, who previously served as a trader on the Chicago Board of Trade and the New York Stock Exchange, decided a few years ago to buy a bowling alley while visiting his parents in South Carolina.
That decision prompted Siniscalchi to launch 810 Billiards & Bowling, a three-unit franchise that features bowling, billiards, a full-service bar, arcade games, mini-golf, and more.
After a few years, Siniscalchi will open the company’s first franchise location, 810 Billiards & Bowling, in May with franchisees Ronak and Poonam Manek in the Chandler Fashion Center.
From there, 810 Billiards & Bowling plans to open a location within the former Lucky Strike location in CityScape in downtown Phoenix.
The latter site has yet to open date, though Siniscalchi is thrilled to be growing in the state of Grand Canyon.
Patch spoke to Siniscalchi about his decision to move 810 Billiards & Bowling to Grand Canyon State and beyond.
Below is a transcript of that conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: Guide me through your decision to open locations in Arizona in particular. Why Arizona?
A: It was pretty organic in the sense that we started the business in South Carolina, opened our first three corporate stores here, and started the franchising process when we sort of put the third online.
And then we marketed nationally because I think one of the strengths of our concept is that it is not regional. It’s not based on specific regions, cuisines, or anything else. It’s universal.
Everyone in the country wants family entertainment and nighttime entertainment with quality food and drink. So we were really agnostics in finding our first franchisees.
And so it came about that the first people to come on board were the Maneks. They were in Chicago at the time, but they knew they intended to move to Phoenix in the coming year.
And that’s where they wanted to open the business. That brought us to the Chandler location, which we are expanding as a franchise, our first franchise location, and as a by-product of that, we started talking to the same landlord who was the landlord for the former Lucky Strike room, in downtown CityScape , and finally drawn up a contract with him so that we can take it over as a corporate business.
This is how we ended up in Arizona and brought Arizona to South Carolina as the first place, which doesn’t make my trip easy, but is fine.
Q: What is it about opening these locations in Arizona that attracts you and how does that fit with your future growth strategy?
A: I think it’s often the way a franchisor really handles a very geographically focused growth strategy. We really don’t really need that because our supply chains are simple.
And our providers are national and it really is a much larger type of real estate-oriented investment.
So we just try to find the right people and then go to where they are. But until after Phoenix I had never spent much time there. I think I’ve been there once or twice but I love it.
The city is booming and, relatively speaking, appears to be round and business-friendly. And they want new companies to come there. And they have many young and growing populations who support us.
So there is certainly a lot of competition in the broad Phoenix market. Main Event is kind of an expanded concept that is similar to us.
But overall it’s such a big market that so many people move in there every day. We’re really looking forward to opening in the state, and the Phoenix area specifically, where I don’t know how it compares to the rest of the country, but it seems like it has to be one of the fastest growing areas in the country right now.
Q: Take me through how you started with 810 Billiards & Bowling and how you got here.
A: So I’m a New Yorker who went to school, originally into engineering, moved into finance, got my CFA after school, and got into market making for stock options. So the proprietary trader for a small group called Group One Trading that had me in Chicago and New York.
I worked on the Chicago Exchange for a couple of years and then the New York Stock Exchange for the past few years. And because there were other concepts similar to the Brooklyn Bowl, that was a big one when I was in New York and we just always had a great time there.
But they really only existed in such incredibly dense, high income and incredibly dense population centers.
And I was just thinking, “Why can’t we figure out how this model works so everyone in America can find it accessible, affordable, and get a lot of value from it?”
Since everyone clearly loves the experience, we just need to figure out how the model works in smaller areas.
And I was down in South Carolina visiting my folks who had retired here and came across the North Myrtle Beach Bowling Center, a traditional 32-lane league center that was in need of repair and a bit of TLC.
It turned out to be available and we actually had a strange moment where I made her an offer on this property and the owner declined. And we have continued our lives and time to raise families. So I’d been trying to get out of town anyway and got a job in Rochester doing portfolio management for a wealth management firm when they’re there and then she called me back when we were on the way up to go in Rochester shopping. And she said that three or four months later she changed her mind to sell it to us. And we said, “Hey, let’s do it.”
We jumped in at the end of 2014 and closed this place and started a wall to wall renovation. We took out 12 lanes, created a six-lane back alley for events and 14 lanes up front, and this shop and concept was born.
And then we spent a couple of years playing around with it, fixing it and figuring it out. And now we feel pretty good with the solutions we have and have been able to support our franchisees. And so far so good.
Q: How would you describe how 810 Billiards & Bowling differs from the competition and how it can make a name for itself in a market like Phoenix?
A: There are definitely some similarities between us and some other concepts. But we’re a bit different in terms of demographics and what we focus on.
So where others have a very large part of their space for arcades and games or family entertainment. And we absolutely draw families and love to host children’s birthday parties and family businesses during the day. We have an arcade, but it’s a little arcade that you see the first time you step into the room so kids can have fun while mom and dad go for a beer at the bar.
This way we keep the arcade very separate from the rest of the room. So we have an upscale atmosphere in a sports bar in the rest of the room that doesn’t feel like a restaurant or sports bar, but like a huge, oversized fun park.
And so we focus a lot more on food and drink. We are very proud of the food we offer. We do a lot of things from scratch. And a big part of what we’ve developed as a brand as we’ve grown are our signature foods, and we really look forward to bringing this higher quality food to the entertainment area in Phoenix.
I think it fits well. But we’re definitely more young adults in the evenings and groups of friends. In the evening it is much more of a bar or a restaurant, whereas it used to be more of a younger family.
Q: What do you see as the future for your location in Phoenix, especially in this corridor in downtown Phoenix?
A: For now, we need to focus on what lies ahead, successfully open these two stores, and make sure our early franchisees feel fully supported by this process.
But when I zoom out a bit I think it works fine. Whether with the Maneks out there building additional units or for other franchisees in the market, this downtown business does us well.
For spoke and wheel or hub-and-spoke models, where we have a presence in the city center so that we can somehow anchor the market. And then we can find some good people there who can help any franchise company that is building up in this market or area of the country.
Q: What would you like people to read this story to learn more about your surgery?
A: Well, we certainly want to be the value position players in our industry, but we believe we are delivering a lot of value with our food and entertainment offerings. We have more things under one roof than anyone in our industry can compete with.
And when it comes to those that offer similar venues, we want to win the service and the added value for the customer.
Many of our competitors have always had problems with service. And that’s what I learned when I got into the industry, and it’s a unique challenge.
However, we have developed fairly dynamic new platform solutions that have enabled us to deliver the customer service we have come to expect while making it efficient and cost effective for our franchisees and ultimately our customers.
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