ELLSWORTH, Maine — The bar at Hancock County’s only candlepin bowling alley is open again with a new owner and name.
Strike N’ Slice re-opened for business last week after owner Ryan Lounder got needed health and liquor permits in his name from the city and the state.
The bowling alley is one of less than two dozen candlepin bowling alleys in Maine, the number of which has been shrinking. It is the only one located in Hancock County.
Autumn Mowery, owner of bowling alley D’Amanda’s, took over the business last year from her mother and stepfather, who had bought it in 2020. Mowery, 20, is engaged to Lounder and lives with him in an apartment above the bowling alley.
Mowery had been running the bowling alley and the bar at the same time, but found the combination of tasks to be challenging. Lounder, 22, who also owns 207 Collectibles next door on Eastward Lane, offered to take on the bar business so Mowery could focus more on the bowling alley operations.
The two businesses have different busy hours, he said, so that’s made running both work. Strike N’ Slice tends to be busier later in the day, after business at the collectibles shop next door has begun winding down, Louder said.
“That’s how it goes, for the most part,” Lounder said of shifting his focus from the collectibles shop to Strike N Slice each afternoon. “It’s a very short commute.”
He also owns and operates Ellsworth Shed Company, a lease-to-own business for pre-made sheds on the same property.
Lounder, who has two employees to help out at the bar, said he has kept the menu mostly the same, offering salads, burgers, pizza and sandwiches. They have a variety of beers and other drinks and hope to have more Maine brews, and he plans to add more seating, he said.
The bar still has two pool tables and dart boards.
“The ping pong table is new,” Lounder said, adding that he is still contemplating whether the bar might have trivia nights or similar activities.
“We’ll be doing different events, but right now I don’t have anything planned off the top of my head,” he said.
Strike N’ Slice is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and open from noon to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. On Sundays, it is open from 3 p.m. to midnight.
