When the sun goes down in East Orlando, entertainment choices fade into darkness. The many parks and shopping plazas sprinkling the area close long before bedtime, leaving many young families, singles and hipsters wondering, ‘Now what do we do?’ Six business partners plan to change that with a 50,000-square-foot entertainment complex called Firkin & Kegler, which opened Monday on Woodbury Road near the Waterford Lakes Town Center.
“Everything is on the west side,” said co-owner Paul Flesh. “This area is starving for entertainment for kids and adults. This place caters to both.” Firkin Pubs are largely located in Canada with more than 30 locations, but the company is trying to become an American staple.
The East Orlando owners were so attracted to the traditional English design and fare they decided to open eight of them in Central Florida — East Orlando being the first. The facility offers a 239-seat restaurant with outdoor dining and five full bars, 32-lane bowling alley, 40- game arcade and roomy 21-and-over upstairs equipped with dance floor, full bar, VIP rooms, pool tables and dart board games.
Owners expect the combination of old English charm and new-wave media to attract enough people to pack the nearly 1,000-person capacity center. In fact, once word gets out, they expect to have a waiting list. None of the owners are restaurateurs, which is why they decided to franchise, but they are very excited about offering a traditional English menu including bangers and mash, shepherd’s pie and eggs available to closing time.
“We wanted the Old World English concept because it is quaint and familiar for people, combined with the trendy and high-tech elements. It is old-meets-new and it turned out phenomenal,” said co-owner Patty Harp.
The group is responsible for several shopping plazas in East Orlando, including a new center at the intersection of Alafaya Trail and East Colonial Drive, the strip mall on Woodbury Road, Waterford Lakes Professional Park on South Alafaya Trail, and several others in Clermont and Georgia. They were especially passionate about Firkin-Kegler because of their love for bowling.
“We knew we wanted the bowling component because, as bowlers, we felt there was not much being offered here,” Harp said. “We did not want to be the run-of-the-mill bowling alley.” Features like theater-sized screens at the end of each lane so that movies, sports channels, and even family films for birthday parties can be viewed while bowling; black lights built in under the lanes, making it resemble a black highway; and plush, curved table seating at each lane were designed to set the center apart from the average alley.
“We cater to the league bowler and the recreational bowler. We know what bowlers expect and how they want to be treated,” Harp said. Although Firkin & Kelger sounds like a kid’s heaven with an arcade, roller ball, and full-swing golf game — the kind used to test professional golf clubs — the group wanted to offer something to young adults turned off by a Chuck E. Cheese-like environment.
The center’s downstairs is 18 and over after 9 p.m., while upstairs is for those 21 and over at all times. Plus, the center employs a strict rule that parents must always be present, thus avoiding one parent showing up with a van full of the neighbors’ kids unless a private party was arranged. “We are not going to let the uncle bring 20 kids and turn them loose.
All kids must be with their parents,”Flesh said. Since construction began in March, people have stopped by the location to ask what was coming. Rumors of an iceskating rink, a roller-skating rink and a Dave & Buster’s restaurant surfaced. The group neither denied nor confirmed anything, believing that any attention paid was good buzz. “People have been very curious for a long time,” said co-owner Brent Baldasare.
“We have had a lot of people stopping by, especially as we got closer to opening.” Firkin & Kegler will become a big employer with about 120 employees. More than 500 applications have come in through the Web site and 200 were collected during a six-day tent event. The center also garnered attention from advertisers both on a local and national scale.
One of the full bars is named the Budweiser Lounge after Anheuser-Busch Companies agreed to sponsor it, and advertisers have contacted the center about slots available on the digital bowling score screen. “We have had a lot of interest in many different forms,” Harp said. “There are so many people here looking for something to do. I think people will really fall in love with this place.”
