Extreme Makeover Creates Strikingly Different Bowling Experience
AMF Melville Reopens as 300 Long Island
Melville, N.Y., January 2, 2007 -
The new place to be seen on the Island has all the trappings of an upscale entertainment and sports lounge—made-to-order cocktails, mouth-watering food, flat-screen televisions, a state-of-the-art sound system, and nine private lanes with its own full-service bar.
But it also has something you won't find in your typical tavern: wait service at each of its 49 lanes — and much more.
Bowling as you know it has changed forever.
Welcome to 300 Long Island, a strikingly different entertainment concept that is as much about picking up the tab for drinks with friends as picking up that 7-10 split. It’s a whole new frame of mind: a bowling center with so much style that if it weren’t for the familiar sound of crashing pins, you just might forget where you are.
AMF is launching additional 300 locations in New York City at Chelsea Piers as well as Austin, Atlanta, Dallas, and San Jose. Visit www.3hundred.com for details.
300 Long Island is located at 895 Walt Whitman Road, Melville, NY 11747, 631-271-1180. www.300Longisland.com.
The newly renovated facility, formerly known as AMF Melville Lanes, is equipped with many extras such as plush lounge and lane-side seating. The added comforts and sophistication will appeal to competitive bowlers, weekend birthday kids, buttoned-up corporate types and bar-hopping 20-somethings alike. From traditional daytime bowling to its digitally enhanced Xtreme® bowling experience, visitors to 300 Long Island are in for a few surprises.
“We’re hoping to change people’s mind about what they should expect from a bowling center,” says Adam Hirsh, 300 Long Island’s general manager, “everyone—and everything—from fundraisers and corporate teambuilding events to summer bowling camps, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, and Sweet 16 parties. Whatever our community needs, we’re ready to provide our guests with a strikingly different bowling experience...every time."
That experience starts with customer service as customers are greeted, checked in, and promptly escorted to the equipment room. While there, guests receive a pair of bowling shoes and are custom-fit for their ball—no more roaming the alley for a ball with a good finger-fit. With the right tools in hand (and on foot), customers are escorted to the lanes and greeted by a lane captain who enters their names in the scoring system, and takes them through the new, appetizing “300 Grill” food and drink menus.
“The change-over at our Melville facility represents a significant step forward in the evolution of AMF’s bowling center business throughout the U.S.,” says Paul Barkley, senior vice president, AMF New Center Development. “The bowling industry hasn’t kept up, quite frankly. We felt that if we could elevate the bowling experience to a level that customers see and appreciate in other entertainment venues—like better restaurants and movie theaters or unique retail shopping centers—we would supercharge the business to a whole new dimension of fun.
What else makes 300 Long Island so strikingly different? Customers searching for a unique entertainment and meeting experience will enjoy:
- Private party space called The Back 9, featuring nine bowling lanes and a full-service bar with special back-lane screens for viewing feature films and videos.
- Dedicated, onsite event planners for business groups and individuals wanting a unique setting and decor for a meeting, party, or family celebration.
- Enhanced foodservice for banquets and buffets.
- Fully equipped meeting room with seating for up to 125, wireless DSL internet access, LCD projector and projection screen with TV and DVD/VHS available.
- Sophisticated lounge and sports bar with an upscale cocktail menu.