El Camp Lanes

Wouldn’t go here. The owner is mean and nasty.

I am still in shock over my experience here last night!!!
It was our anniversary, so we took my son and his girlfriend out with us to dinner. We were supposed to go to a Japanese steakhouse in Erie, but thanks to the terrible snowy weather, we ended up staying in town instead. After dinner (at our FAV Italian restaurant ever!), we didn’t know what to do. We’ve been here for almost 4 years, but entertainment is limited unless you wanna hang out at a bar or go out to Erie or Cleveland.
We decided to stop in at the local bowling alley next to the football stadium to see if any lanes were open. We walked in and there was a pile of shoes in the entry, which I thought was weird. I had never been to a bowling alley where you take your shoes off at the door. On the right was an old guy behind a bar (come to find out later, this is the cratchety owner), a woman in a pink hoodie on a bar stool and a nicer man standing near her. As we started to walk off of the mat at the door, the lady and the old man began yelling (and yelling is NO exaggeration) at us something about taking our shoes off and reading the sign. The nice man standing by the lady smiled and tried to explain to us that we need to take our shoes off so they don’t slip and fall in their bowling shoes. At the same time, the woman is making faces at us and accusing us of reading the signs but ignoring them. The old man is making faces at us and mutter something about something. I asked them what signs. The woman rolls her eyes and tells the nicer man that we read the signs, and she turned half-​way around on her bar stool so that we mostly just see her back. The nicer man smiled and said there are signs posted asking people to take off their shoes. I look down and at about hip level is a small blue chair like what you would see in a lunchroom for an elementary school with a handwritten sign. We turn around and leave. As we leave, I notice a white piece of paper on the entry door, which I had not had the opportunity to read because my 17-​year-​old son had so politely held the door open for us when we first went in.
I was so embarassed by this incident. Can you imagine walking into a place for the first time, excited to do something new in the town where you recently moved to and as soon as you get through the door, you are yelled at like a puppy who just peed on the new carpet? It was humiliating.
We ended up wandering down the road a ways to the Ashtabula Mall to see if any good movies where starting soon and we bumped into a long-​time resident of Conneaut. We told her what had happened and she laughed and said that was not an unusual experience for that place. She stated that she has lived here her whole life and she always hates when they go there because the owner is mean and cranky all the time and the regulars act like they run the place.
It was a horrible end to an otherwise lovely evening. I would not recommend this place to even my worst enemy (although if I had a worst enemy, they would probably get along wtih this guy!). Instead I would recommend running down to RedBox at Walmart in Ashtabula or the Circle K at 193 and I-​90 or watching reruns of something on Hulu before stepping foot in this place… ever.