Craig Worral had never seen anything like it. A packed warehouse, filled with families, couples and co-workers throwing around a pigskin and enjoying a sport no one outside of the Midwest had yet seen.
Worral looked around the room, then at his friends, who would become his team of initial investors, and with that one look they were decided — they were bringing fowling to Texas.
Fowling Warehouse, an entertainment venue that first opened 10 years ago in Hamtramck, Michigan, is a mashup game of football and bowling. Groups come in and split into two teams, facing each other to throw a football at 10 bowling pins.
“Football [and] bowling is even bigger in Texas,” Worrall, now the director of operations at Fowling Warehouse DFW, says. “Why not bring that home for everyone to enjoy?”
Worrall and his team pitched their idea to Fowling’s team in Michigan, demonstrating a desire to bring fowling to Texas, but bigger and better, with a full-service kitchen and a larger warehouse space than any other location in the country.
“Texas is a big state, so we felt pretty honored when they chose us,” Worrall says. “They were excited to see we were tweaking up the idea a little. We were just in the right place with the right ideas at the right time.”
Before long, they’d joined the Fowling Warehouse franchise and became the only people licensed to open a Fowling location in the entire state of Texas.
With the whole state at their disposal for their first location, the team had to find a location large enough to house all their plans with plenty of parking spaces. They wanted to keep true to the look of the original location, full of bright colors and open spaces.
“It had a really cool look to it — one we wanted to mimic,” Worrall says. “When we found this place, we bit off a little bit more than we could chew, but it worked out well for us.”
Now, that dream is accomplished, with a warehouse of over 70,000 square feet and a sprawling menu of food and beverages.
Fowlers of all ages and abilities come in, split into teams of five or less, grab a football (which comes in two sizes), and head to the bowling lanes. Facing each other, four feet apart, the two teams take turns attempting to knock the other teams’ pins down.
It’s harder than it looks, many players say. Footballs, with their irregular shape, are quite bouncy. Knocking over nearby players’ pins is common and you’d better keep your eyes on the ball or you might get hit. This is all part of the challenge. To add to it, the red-cladden center pin serves as an end-all. If a player hits it and no other pin, it’s an automatic win, dubbed a “bonk.” Successful bonks get a ring of a bell, bringing attention from players across the warehouse.
“We’re here for everyone,” says Raegan Cowell, the director of private event sales. “Anyone can fowl. It’s an all-inclusive sort of thing that anybody can come [to] and have a really good time.”
Though they’re serving private events of 800 people, like their annual New Year’s Eve party, corporate parties and Chamber of Commerce business festivals, Fowling Warehouse can accommodate 1,800. Fowling greets walk-in guests and parties with their rustic colors, big space and sporting games on.
“It’s still a slow process,” Worrall says. “We’re still educating people on what fowling is. Just getting them to say the name right is half the trick.”
To attract more customers, Fowling hosts numerous events with food, drinks and activities like Friday Night Flights, trivia night, ladies night and seasonal events.
Their menu features a vast array of appetizers, pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, salads and sides for pregame and during-game snacks. They also offer shots, bombs, warehouse specials and alcoholic beverages.
“Entertainment [venues] are one of the fastest growing areas in the hospitality industry,” Cowell says. “There’s some that have been around forever and others that are just now popping up. [Fowling] is a mashup of it all — you can eat, drink and have fun.”
Fowling Warehouse DFW has also added video and arcade games, and a partnership with Plano Creamery to sell ice cream. Cowell said they plan to expand to new locations across Texas.
“We’re making a difference,” Cowell says. “We’ve got a direct effect on the way this business succeeds and how it impacts others.”
Fowling Warehouse DFW, 1714 14th St.
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