Kyra Stark went all out to decorate The Bull Pin, a bowling alley and sports bar, for the holidays.
She is not sure exactly how many ornaments and decorations she hung from the ceiling, but she plans to do a count when she dismantles everything after the new year.
Stark started collecting decorations about four months ago from garage sales and the dollar store. Her fiancée and business partner, Austin Sloan, hung wire netting from the ceiling in the restaurant and bar and then attached Christmas lights to the netting. Stark methodically hung ornaments for six days with the help of family and the team at The Bull Pin.
Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of ornaments.
She even recycled packing materials from the ornaments, like tubing, and figured out how to repurpose them as part of the decorations. And to hide all the boxes everything came in she wrapped the containers in wrapping paper to camoflauge them as presents.
Stark dressed the seating areas to make bowlers feel like they are bowling in Candyland. The ball returns and tables are covered in candy cane stripes, oversized snowflakes and candy peppermint decorations hang from the ceiling, holiday lights line each bowling lane, and giant LED wall lights panels flash moving images of Santa, his sleigh, and reindeer.
Three of local mural artist Michael Young’s nutcracker decorations, on loan from Visit Estes Park, stand sentry along one wall with several enormous inflatable decorations.
Flat panel screens above the lanes welcome bowlers to Holiday Town at The Bull Pen, and a larger-than-life animatronic Santa dressed in a cowboy hat and a rodeo buckle belt dances at the entrance to the arcade.
Walking through the bowling alley and restaurant is nothing short of a bedazzling, jaw dropping visual experience that shouts, “It’s time to party!”
Stark and Sloan, Estes Park High School graduates, bought the bowling alley, which had been Chipper Lanes, along with Brian Hauser in 2022 and began a massive renovation project to update the facility both inside and out, including a dog friendly patio deck that provides views of the Mummy Range
Stark, who is in charge of marketing, is proud of the restaurant and bar, “Our general manager, Erin, has done an incredible job with the kitchen. She has a scratch kitchen. We do burgers and we also do barbecue. We smoke our own brisket and pulled pork, and we have amazing cheese curds that are hand breaded, those tend to be the favorite,” said Stark. “There’s bar food, but it’s not your typical bowling alley bar food.”
The restaurant and sports bar also serves craft and dessert cocktails, more than 20 beers on tap, and snow cones with house-made syrups.
The Bull Pin is one of the area’s go-to private party venues for corporate and family events, said Stark, who remembers going to the old bowling alley as a teen and is proud to be a part of its next chapter. “This town means a lot to me,” said Stark.
The Bull Pin is located at 555 S. Saint Vrain Ave. To check out holiday activities—such as a Puzzle Palooza, a breakfast with Santa, and Christmas Drams: A meats, cheeses and sweets whiskey pairing event—and to know when the bowling alley is closed for private parties, check out their calendar here.
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