Milk District bowling alley gets rolling again as Primrose Lanes

Just eight of the 32 lanes that made up Colonial Lanes in Orlando’s Milk District neighborhood remain inside a new venue opening Friday, but some wood from the lost alleys remains a striking feature.

For example, the bars at what is now renamed Primrose Lanes are marked “Original Lane 18” and “Original Lane 19.”

“We like to respect the past,” said co-owner Keith Mawardi. “We appreciate the past and our history and now we want to showcase that to everybody.”

Colonial Lanes opened in 1959 and shuttered in 2018. Part of the bowling alley was demolished to make way for storage units before the three Mawardi brothers purchased the remaining building in 2021. Another part of the building had also been leased out for a gym.

The 1950s are roaring back in the Milk District. The bowling alley’s return to life comes as another nearby property dating back to the 1950s, a former service station called Hoods Up, hits the market after decades of being vacant.

The three brothers opening Primrose Lanes — Romi, Keith and Daniel — are behind popular downtown nightlife spots such as Mathers Social Gathering as well as restaurants that include Plantees in Orlando’s Mills 50 neighborhood.

Inside their latest venture at Primrose Drive and Livingston Street, bowling pins form a lighted, centerpiece arch. The pinsetter machines are exposed for customers to see as they play.

The cuisine isn’t the usual bowling alley fare of hamburgers and fries.

Looking out on the lanes through glass windows is a sunken bar and restaurant run by chef Jason Campbell, formerly of Luke’s Kitchen in Maitland. The menu includes oysters, pan-fried snapper, and pastrami and frites.

“Nothing you’d expect at a typical bowling alley,” Keith Mawardi said. “Every food is elevated.”

The bar serves up espresso martinis, lemongrass mules, and returning from Colonial Lanes, the “Mind Eraser,” made with vodka, coffee liqueur and soda.

There’s also a cafe serving breakfast as well as the same hot beverage as The Robinson Coffee Room in downtown Orlando, another Mawardi venue.

“We’re not even a bowling alley. When I tell people what we are, we’re a restaurant and bowling club,” Keith Mawardi said.

Hourly bowling rates could be adjusted, but are currently expected to run $14 per person between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., $19 per person between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m., and $24 per person between 8 p.m. and 1:30 a.m.

“I see you having a business meeting at 12 o’clock with a martini and eating pastrami and frites,” Keith Mawardi said. “I also see someone coming for Sunday football, renting out a section, bowling, and watching an NFL game. I also see families coming in during the day and having a coffee. I also see people dancing and turning up a little bit after let’s say 8 p.m., after dark.”

The Mawardi brothers’ company paid $2.575 million for the property in 2021, records show, and Romi Mawardi said they spent several millions of dollars on upgrades. They did not give the specific cost of those improvements.

“It’s a very large investment,” Romi Mawardi said.

Billy Morrissey, who started at Colonial Lanes in 1994 and worked his way up to assistant manager and head mechanic, is now head of bowling operations for Primrose Lanes. Before working there, he had been going to the bowling alley since 1974 when he was a child.

“The appearance of Colonial Lanes has changed into Primrose. It’s still the same place it’s always been,” Morrissey said. “It’s a place you come to meet your friends, have a good time, entertain, drink, eat. That’s the heart of what Colonial Lanes was to begin with, and that’s still going to be here.”

Primrose Lanes has about 110 employees, a number that is expected to grow, according to the Mawardi brothers. The business is set to be open from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily.

A few blocks from Primrose Lanes over at Bumby Avenue and Robinson Street, real estate firm Atrium Management Company has been tapped to handle the sale, lease or redevelopment of the Hoods Up property. Broker associate Alexander Spock said it’s being marketed without a price and buyers can reach out to him.

The building has been vacant since a car repair shop closed there in the early 1990s, a news release said. Property records indicate it dates back to 1957.

Atrium has launched a website for community input on the building’s future. Those who have walked by it might remember it for having pool noodles visible through the windows.

“Hoods Up has become this cultural icon because it has been the most prominent storage unit for 30 years,” said Angie Folks, executive director of the Milk District Main Street program. “It’s been a visible storage unit.”

Whatever ends up going in there will immediately get a lot of attention, Folks said.

Preserving the Hoods Up building is important to the Milk District, Folks said, as is the restoration of Colonial Lanes into Primrose Lanes.

“What they’re doing with the [Primrose Lanes] space and modernizing that historic building is nothing short of remarkable,” Folks said. “Anything in the district that we can preserve we will try to do so.”