Elle Cecil
Having come under new ownership at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wyncity Bowl and Entertainment has since flourished in the face of adversity.
New owners Jason Wallace and Sebastian Loader took over the business in June 2021 from the De Pellegrin family, who previously ran Wyncity Bowl and Entertainment for almost 30 years.
Sebastian and Jason each have over 30 years of experience in the hospitality and entertainment industry.
Now, the Wyncity team has entered the 2022 Wyndham Business Awards and are tossing up between the Tourism and Hospitality or Arts and Entertainment categories.
Functions and events manager Jonathon De Pellegrin has worked at the venue for over 14 years, having started when his family owned the business.
“During COVID, we couldn’t really do much as the entertainment sector is usually the first to be restricted and the last to come out of it,” Jonathon says.
“We really did feel the pinch.”
However, since the lifting of restrictions, Jonathon says the venue has experienced massive visitor growth as a result of the last two years of lockdown. With ten pin bowling, laser tag, dodgem cars and a variety of enticing arcade games, this family friendly entertainment venue has been flooded with visitors.
“People have been wanting to celebrate their kids’ birthday parties, get together with friends and re-socialise – a lot of people have had time to ponder and have come to the conclusion that they have really missed that social connection,” Jonathon says.
“It seems like we’ve had two years of business in the last six months to make up for it!”
After being recommended to enter the 2022 Business Awards by the Wyndham City Council, Jonathon, Jason, Sebastian, the venue’s general manager, Phil Boniwell, and the marketing team came to the decision to enter the awards.
“It took us a few days to put our entry together, but we really wanted to do it right,” Jonathon says.
“The first day was all about brainstorming. Day two was expanding on the ideas from that brainstorming and then the third day was really refining those concepts correctly into answers.”
“It was really good to take a little bit of a step back and holistically look at all the facets of the business – we’re definitely excited to see how we go at the awards but our focus is and always has been on our customers’ experience.”
Wyndham Business Awards entries close on Friday, June 3 for the category awards and Friday, June 17 for the People’s Choice Awards. To enter or nominate a business for an award, visit: www.wyndham.vic.gov.au/businessawards.
