Aberdeen based entertainment giants Codona’s have now completed a £1.4 million refurbishment at their site at the beach. The works include a complete renovation of their ten pin bowling lanes, upgrade to their bar and pool area, including a new ‘street food’ offering, brand new AR Darts (Augmented Reality) and a complete ‘face-lift’ to the exterior of their beachfront buildings.
The bar and pool area has taken on a completely new style. The design concept is a ‘mash-up’ of Far East and ‘Big Lebowski’ street art bringing a cool, alternative urban edge to the space. Aberdeen based street artist ‘Reckless’ has been involved with the design and has created some stunning art pieces in the pool area, on the bar frontage and down the side of the bowling lanes.
New neon signage, oversized festoon light lane numbers and a giant ‘bowling ball’ selfie heart, have also been added. They have partnered with ‘Backyard’, the seasonal outdoor street food and drinks concept and brought it indoors so it can be enjoyed 364 days a year.
The street food offering now includes a number of new collaborations;
- 'Dirty Dogs' - the gourmet hot dogs are served with a choice of “DIRTY “ toppings including handmade chilli, jalapeno and hot sauce.
- ‘We Crumble’ was the runaway success at Backyard at the beach this Summer. The choice of sweet and sticky fruit base, crunchy crumble topping and lashings of custard has gone down a storm.
- ‘The Hot Chip’ started life at the Christmas Village in 2023 and has built a loyal following for their skin on French fries with quirky fully loaded toppings.
These three new partners along with their existing Big Manny’s Pizza collab brings together an awesome collection of ‘street food’ all under one roof, 364 days a year.
To compliment the new street food menu they have partnered with Belmont Street based booze connoisseurs ’10 Dollar Shake’ to update their cocktail list. The drinks have a nod to the famous ‘Big Lebowski’ movie and include ‘The Dude Abides’ a vanilla vodka based white Russian, ‘The Jesus Rolls’ a blanco tequila spicy marg, as well as no alcohol option ‘Careful Man, There’s Beverage Here’ a Strawberry fruit puree and Sicilian lemonade quencher. Fierce Beer and House of Botanicals are also partner suppliers for craft beer and spirits.
The brand-new bowling lanes and pinsetter machines were installed by world-leading manufacturer AMF and the system includes cutting edge technology which enhances game play and reliability. The lanes have also been enhanced by new ambient LED lighting, which is fully controllable, allowing different atmospheres to be created during the day - fun and bright through the day and darker in the evenings. Coupled with the new, modern seating, tables and flooring the whole bowling experience has been taken to another level.
The final piece to the jigsaw is the brand-new AR darts (Augmented Reality). They have built two new dedicated oches which allows up to 8 people to enjoy the various ‘easy-to-play’ darts games. Forgetabout having to add up your score and the normal mundane game of 501 darts. This concept has a choice of really fun, interactive games that are digitally projected on to real darts boards. Scores are kept automatically and the games can be enjoyed by anyone, from the absolute beginners to the wannabe Luke Littlers.
Alfred Codona commented" “For the refurbishment, we did extensive research, visiting a huge number of bowling alleys in the UK, US and Dubai. We are very proud of our whole team, who put in a massive effort over a long period of time, to get the project completed to such a high standard.
“We are delighted with the finished result and believe our customers will love it too!"