Billy Hardwick's All Star Lanes — Local services in Memphis

We got there and there were two people at the front desk that ignored us for about 4 minutes as we stood right in front of them. Literally we stood right in front of them, as they chatted back and forth and couldn't even say "hey, we'll be right with you in a minute". Finally, we were able to get a lane for our group.

I then stood in line at the bar window to get a pitcher for our group. The bartender was standing there so I thought this would be simple. I went up to the window, and he ignored me for 5 minutes as he input receipts into the computer. I understand that you have to do that, but you can't turn to me and say "just a second, i have to put these in the system."? He finally turns to me and says that the bartender went out and will be back in a minute. Okay? You couldn't have said that when I first walked up? Same thing happened to my friend, but when they waited in line, they said the credit card machine went down.

Went to go renew our lane for an hour and the guy at the front desk ignored me again for about a minute as I stood there. Bro, just say, "just one second". It's literally that easy.

The only reason this place gets two stars is because they do have good food for a bowling alley. It's legit pizza, fried food, etc. We all enjoyed it. And the prices on a Friday were pretty good. $10 per person for an hour. The only downside is that we waited so long in different lines after we paid for our lanes that we didn't get a good amount of bowling done in the first hour. But, maybe that's their business plan, hold customers hostage in line to reduce bowling time and make them pay another hour. Who knows.

Overall, they must have had their B-Team on shift this Friday night (I hope), as they absolutely did not give a single crap about any single customer, at least from our group. Terrible customer service, everyone employee seemed unhappy, and literally no interaction with the customer. No "how you doing, be with you in a minute", or anything. Just silence as you sat in...

Went twice on a Saturday. First I bought a new replacement ball at the pro shop and couldn't recommend them enough. Knowledgeable, quick, and friendly. Bought an hour of time and hopped on a lane that was consistently scoring incorrectly, but I was just testing new ball so no big deal. A couple times it took over a minute for the ball to return.

Visited later that night with friends and realized the alley sucks. Employee at concession paying attention to anything but customers, so just placing an order took forever. The lane we were on was incorrectly giving us open scores when we were getting spares and the score monitor ended up freezing completely along with the lane next to us. After failing to reset the monitors they put us on another lane. Wouldn't you know it, this lane was also not scoring correctly, although not as often as the others. They ended up comping us 25 min for the lane switch even though it took longer than that.

Pizza was surprisingly good and so were the pickle fries. They close fairly early on Saturday (11pm) compared to most other alleys, and they start the closing process very early. Around maybe 10:30 they turn the lights on and blast the music. I couldn't even buy a refill for my soda because the concession register turns off before closing, so I had to buy a drink from the vending machine that doesn't have a card reader.

Trust me when I saw that the only reasons to go to this alley is because of its location and...

I’m beyond disappointed with my recent experience at this bowling alley in Memphis. After a certain hour, it became clear that management has a problem with serving a specific demographic—namely, Black patrons. Staff suddenly refused to provide basic amenities like ice with drinks, under the false and offensive assumption that customers were sneaking in alcohol.

Let me be clear: this kind of discriminatory, targeted policy is unacceptable and reeks of racial profiling. It's obvious the staff was making judgments based on who was in the building rather than any real behavior.

To treat paying customers this way is not only unprofessional, it’s blatantly racist. If your business can’t operate without resorting to discriminatory policies after dark, you shouldn’t be open at all.

I’ll never return—and I’ll be making sure my friends, family, and social media networks know exactly what kind of establishment this is. Do better, or prepare to be held...