Big Al's Opens in Beaverton

We attended the "soft" opening of Big Al's tonight. At $15 apiece, they raised $15K for the Beaverton Police. 

This place is a bit hard to decipher. It's part adult and part kid. It's also BIG. So let me just run through what I liked, what I didn't like and what I couldn't figure out.

• This place is primarily about bowling. There are two bowling alleys and they're both very nice. But it's not like an old time bowling alley because it's not just bowling. We didn't bowl because the lines were too long. Better to come back later and try that. 
• The building is well laid out and organized. The games (mostly for kids) are upstairs. The bowling and sports bar are downstairs. 
• The food tonight was not great and barely good. But, it was a buffet. At $15, a buffet isn't going to be good, just OK. This worried me a bit. I hope this isn't any indication of what it'll be like on a regular basis.
• The Sports Bar is fabulous and to me the highlight of the place. It's like Vegas. A big terraced room with tons of tables and booths. The whole back wall is video screens and there are nine altogether, including one big one in the middle. In addition, there's a ticker with game updates and stats running across the top. This will be a great place to watch NFL, assuming they get all the games and have sound on the feature game. 
• The mobile phone reception is awful in the place, at least for AT&T.
• There was no wifi and I would consider that a HUGE oversight and a must add. People are too hooked on their phones and want to be abel to use them even if the reception is crappy. 
• When we asked about the menu for NFL Sunday mornings, we got kind of a blank stare. Not sure they're planning on serving breakfast on Sunday morning. Another potential massive oversight. They could essentially keep people there for three meals on Sunday IF they play their cards right AND have decent food. 
• The upstairs game Arcade looks really fun, even for adults. Lots of ways to blow money. 

Overall, Big Al's is a helluva beautiful place and it should do well if they can draw decent crowds during the week and not only on weekends. It's also about a mile from our house, so you can't complain about that. We will absolutely give it the benefit of the doubt and several tries. But, a beautiful building won't be enough without excellent execution on why people will come there -- to have fun. 

Posted via email from CFH