Post-lockdown rec options grow with return of bowling, mini golf, more in Modesto area
As COVID-19 pandemic restrictions continue to be lifted, Stanislaus County is getting back to the business of having fun.
Escape Modesto, McHenry Bowl and Funworks have reopened — the latter two only partially — and a few similar businesses are working to follow suit.
Yosemite Lanes reports on its Facebook page that it will be back June 19, the website of John’s Incredible Pizza Co. says its Modesto location will reopen June 18, and an employee at Chuck E. Cheese’s — which currently has only takeout and delivery pizza — said Sunday that it’s hoping for a June 22 reopening of its dining room and gaming area. The Chuck E. Cheese website shows that locations have reopened in 15 states, but not California.
The website for Boomers amusement center on Bangs Avenue simply says it remains temporarily closed because of the pandemic, but its Facebook page says it is set to reopen Wednesday, July 1.
Meantime, two other local attractions, Ten Pin Fun Center in Turlock and Rockin’ Jump in Modesto’s McHenry Village, remain closed.
Ten Pin
Ten Pin General Manager Mike Eggert says it will be reopening June 29. He said there are social-distancing floor stickers throughout Ten Pin now, as well as signs encouraging social distancing and hand washing. There also are hand sanitizing stations at both entrances and throughout the center, he said.
Plexiglas shields have been put up at all service registers, and all employees will wear face masks and have their temperatures checked before starting each shift.
“All games in the game room have been reconfigured 6 ft apart for social distancing,” Eggert said in an email, and Ten Pin will dedicate a cleaning crew to keep games clean. Also, gloves and individual alcohol wipe packets will be available for guests to use in the game room.
In the bowling alley, only every other lane will be open, he said. Bowling balls have been removed from the racks adjacent to the lanes and placed in a separate room for cleaning and disinfecting, he said. Balls will be distributed from this room by a team member once they’ve been thoroughly cleaned.
“This week, every team member will be required to attend a structured, specific, detailed COVID-19 training class to educate them on risks and precautions of COVID-19 in regards to re-opening Ten Pin Fun Center,” Eggert said in his email. “Every team member will sign a training checklist and acknowledgement form. This is MANDATORY before working at Ten Pin.”
The Rockin’ Jump website says just that the trampoline center is “closed until further notice,” but posts on its Facebook page tease “makeovers” at the location, promise strong sanitizing efforts and indicate reopening is coming soon. Turlock’s trampoline center, Get Air, says on its website that it’s reopening June 19.
Funworks
Several families quickly lined up at Funworks on Coffee Road after it opened at noon Sunday. The amusement center had open its miniature golf, batting cages, pizza kitchen, Teddy Bear Factory and half of its gaming space, including Highway 66 Bowling.
The Lightning Raceway go-carts would reopen the next day, shift manager Davin Middleton said. “We do require a mask in the pit area, but not while you’re on the racetrack, just while you’re in closer quarters” with the other racers, he said.
Sanitizing putters and golf balls is a simple enough job, as is cleaning batting helmets, Middleton said, but the games are another matter. It now is one employee’s sole job to continuously go from game to game with a spray bottle and cleaning cloth to disinfect them.
Other employees will regularly wipe down door handles and other surfaces, Middleton said. “It’s a peroxide we’re using ... recommended on the CDC website,” he said. “It takes 45 seconds to kill viruses, instead of another cleaning supply that takes like three minutes.”
Batting cages, golf and food have been open since June 1, but Funworks didn’t trumpet the soft reopening, Middleton said. He believes the CDC recommended such businesses not boldly advertise their return, so as not to be bombarded with customers, he said, so Funworks did some social media and a few signs, but that was it.
“People have slowly been coming in, and now that we have the games, it’s been starting to pick up a lot. The games opened Friday,” Middleton said.
There’s no date set to open other attractions including the Splashworks Pirate Ride, the Hologate game, the XD Theater, the bumper cars and the Freddy’s Tree House play area.
McHenry Bowl
In the months since its doors shut, a lot of maintenance and improvement work, such as painting, putting in sneeze shields and placing social-distancing markers on the floor, has been done at the bowling alley, owner Garrad Marsh said by phone Monday.
“As soon as we got notice that we could open, we contacted all the employees we laid off, about 30, for a meeting on safety and how we are going to operate,” he said. “Thursday, all 30 showed up. That was pretty neat — we weren’t sure that was going to happen.”
Word of the reopening was sent to all bowling leagues, which had their seasons cut short, Marsh said. One league had chosen to disband, but all the others have returned, with about 80 percent participation, he said.
“The league I bowl in this afternoon has 26 teams of all seniors, and we know one team is dropping off,” but that was in part because of one member’s back and neck surgery. The team’s other members were concerned enough about COVID-19 risk that they decided not to return, Marsh said.
For league bowling, lanes are open in pairs, but for public bowling, every other lane will be open. The bowling alley opened Friday, and Marsh described weekend business as active but nowhere near full capacity. It was a good way to ease back into business. “Summertime is normally slower anyway, and it was a nice, steady business,” he said.
Among new safety measures in place are tags at each open lane. When the lane is ready for use, it has a green marker on a table that reads, “Safe, sanitized and ready to roll.” After its use, bowlers leave a red marker that shows it needs to be cleaned.
Customers who use McHenry Bowl’s balls and shoes are asked to leave them at the lane, where staff picks them up for sanitizing. Staff — wearing shirts that say “Confidently clean” on the front, “Clean crew” on the back — also clean the ball return machines and other surfaces at the lane.
Customers who go through the racks to pick out just the right ball also are given disinfectant wipes to clean any balls they touch besides the ones they select, Marsh said.
On the concourse, every other table has been removed, further promoting social distancing, he said. “We’re trying to be safe and diligent every way we can,” Marsh said.
Escape Modesto
The escape-room attraction at 912 11th St. in downtown announced May 25 on Facebook that it was offering a limited time grand reopening promotional special.
The post promises safety measures including private bookings, sanitized rooms, mask-wearing hosts, required hand-washing by guests, temperature checks of employees as they arrive for work, and “uber-safe physical distancing between host and guests.”
All three rooms — King Tut’s Treasure, CSI: Modesto and Prison Break 2.0 — are open, co-owner Seri Mitri said.
“Before, we would open and allow mixed groups to book together,” he said in a text to The Bee, “but right now we are only allowing private parties in a room with a limited-time, discounted price.”
Generally, business hours are Wednesday through Friday nights, and all day Saturday and Sunday. But business is by appointment only, and bookings can be made on escapemodesto.com.
None of the added precautions have affected the escape experience, Mitri said. “The games are still played the same and just as fun as ever.”
John’s Incredible Pizza
A major change awaits customers of the pizza parlor and entertainment center on Plaza Parkway. It’s adapting from a buffet to a new “all-you-can-eat endless menu,” marketing director Brad Jashinsky told The Bee via email. Using the John’s Incredible app, guests order from their table, using their own smart phones, and the food is brought to them.
“You’ll have two hours to dine, which starts with your first order,” the company website says. “Save your receipt if you play and get hungry!”
More on what John’s is doing can be found at johnspizza.com/SafetyUpdate.
This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 1:23 PM.
