New family entertainment center on the way,

Get ready, Tehachapi — there’s a new family entertainment center on the way.

Plans call for a newly constructed 31,500-square-foot building to include a stateof-the-art 16-lane bowling alley.

P-Dubs Restaurant will provide food service and a lounge area will offer a variety of locally home crafted beers from the Tehachapi Mountain Brewing Company.

In addition, two meeting rooms, each more than 2,000 square feet, will offer residents, businesses and nonprofits a place to hold their meetings. The center will be built on Santa Lucia Street between Valley Boulevard and Commercial Avenue in the Old Town area of greater Tehachapi.

“We plan to break ground in the next few weeks and be in operation by the late summer of 2022,” said owner Kenny Harrison. “Local kids need a safe, clean indoor place to go to meet and socialize. Adults are also in need of more family-style entertainment. As the owner of P-Dubs, this is a perfect community fit for me and my business interests.”

Tehachapi for many years had a popular bowling alley in the former Mountain Crossing complex on the south side of Tehachapi Boulevard. Known as the Mountain Lanes Bowling Alley, it opened in 1963. Expansion soon followed with the addition of a restaurant and lounge area. Not long after, a 28-room motel was built on the property. In keeping with the bowling theme, the hotel pool was built in the shape of a bowling pin. The bowling alley, restaurant and lounge eventually closed, and in May 2012 the entire building was demolished. There is currently a series of hotels and the Midori Sushi Restaurant along that part of Tehachapi Boulevard.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DUANA PERA In 1963, residents of Tehachapi celebrated the Mountain Lanes Bowing Alley opening on Tehachapi Boulevard. The success of the business led the owners to add a restaurant and lounge. Not long after that, the owners built a 28-room motel on adjoining property. The hotel featured a bowling pin-shaped swimming pool, which can be seen in the upper right-hand corner of the photo.

NICK SMIRNOFF / FOR TEHACHAPI NEWS A sign advertises the forthcoming Mountain Bowling entertainment center. The new 31,500-square-foot complex is on Santa Lucia Street south of Valley Boulevard in an area of Tehachapi Valley known as Old Town. This view is looking east.

NICK SMIRNOFF / FOR TEHACHAPI NEWS In May 2012, after more than 40 years of operation, the old bowling alley and restaurant complex was demolished and the property was sold.