THE MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS at Mountain Run Bowling Center:

#1 -“Do I have to rent bowling shoes?”

Yes, unless you bring your own.  There are two reasons you cannot wear your “street” shoes on bowling  lanes.  The main reason is safety.  Bowling shoes are made with smooth, soft leather on the bottom which allows you to slide at the end of the approach as you release the ball.  Regular shoes will not allow this; and you would stick and fall.  The other reason is because the bottoms of your shoes could damage the approach -- dirt or grit can scuff up the surface of the approach.  For these reasons, regular shoes MAY NOT be worn while bowling.

#2 - “Why can’t I wear bowling shoes outside?”

See above.  We can’t stress this enough.  We realize it is inconvenient for you to remove your bowling shoes to go outside to smoke or run to your car; but wearing them outside could lead to injury to you if you stepped in something, or damage to our lanes by bringing in abrasives on the bottom of the shoes.  We have to enforce this rule to protect you AND to protect our approaches.

#3 - “Why can’t I bring my own food or drink into the bowling center?”

First and foremost, ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control) regulations prohibit this because liquor could be brought in to our facility, which is against the ABC laws.  Secondly, we sell food and drinks here, so it would not make good business sense to allow outside food or beverage.

#4 - “Why do you have a police officer in your building sometimes?”

We hire off-duty police officers as a precaution -- just in case there is a problem.  The very first weekend we were in business (back in January), there were groups of people who came to our center and tried to start fights among themselves.  We then decided to have a presence here to deter that type of conduct.  No one MAKES us do this; nor has there been a problem that required police other than as stated.