‘It just brought people together.’
July 31, 2020
THE LAST ROUND: “Capturing the magic?” a bowler asked me as I pulled out my camera to document the final days of Dart Bowl, the old school bowling alley of nostalgic charm and legendary Tex-Mex. I nodded and smiled through my mask, beginning to snap photographs of the venue’s magic as it came to a close. Photo by Madelynn Niles.
For Elena Rangel, birthday parties, promotions at work or a retirement all meant one thing: a trip to Dart Bowl.
“It’s been a family tradition to go for special occasions,” she said. “Me and my cousins would always play PacMan and air hockey in the arcade while the parents bowled a round.”
When asked her favorite part of the Dart Bowl experience, Rangel’s answer was, without a doubt, the cafe.
“That’s kind of how we know the Dart Bowl,” she said. “We knew the people running the cafe. My grandfather knew the chef Peggy really well, and my brother used to work as a cook there when he was around my age, so he knew her really well too.”
Enchiladas, Rangel noted, was her favorite dish by far.
“One of the classics,” she said.
She immediately texted her family when she heard Dart Bowl was closing.
“We were really sad to see it go,” she said. “It was an amazing place, and it brought a lot of people together — from coaches to kids to students, and also just families that maybe haven’t seen eachother in a while.”
“It just brought people together.”