FEATURE
By Mark Miller
F
or nearly four generations, The Nook Restaurant and Ran-Ham Bowling Center had been St. Paul, MN, neighbors, separated by a brick wall, a stairwell and different owners. While the stairwell remains, the wall is gone and the same people own both establishments. Under young entrepreneurs, Ted Casper and Mike Runyon, The Nook has become a nationally-recognized burger joint, while Ran-Ham has returned to its glory days. Though it took nine years during the 2000s to make it happen, they’ve created an entertainment experience unlike any other. “The Nook was in need of more space for the dining area. That was our number one objective, to have more space for
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our diners,” said 37-year-old owner Casper. “People would come in every day and say, ‘You guys should put these two places together.’ Everybody always believed the two places should be together, and it kind of worked out for everybody. We’re able to provide more space for our diners.” Casper and Runyon attended Cretin-Darham Hall High School, a private, Catholic institution across the street from their businesses. As kids they ate at The Nook and bowled at RanHam. When college turned out not to be their thing, the childhood friends looked elsewhere. Since Casper’s father and grandfather were both restaurateurs, he figured he’d follow them into the family business and brought Runyon with him.
FEATURE But at age 20, the dynamic duo weren’t even old enough to have a liquor license, so their fathers, Tom Casper and Pete Runyon, had to be the official owners of The Nook when they bought it in 2000. Two years later, the dads turned over ownership to the sons, and soon thereafter, they also bought Shamrocks in St. Paul. Ran-Ham, which opened southwest of downtown St. Paul around 1928, near the intersection of Randolph and Hamline streets, was owned for more than 20 years by Steve Steiner. After some dealings with the building landlord and Steiner, the sale to Casper and Runyon was made in 2009, with Steiner retained as the center’s mechanic. “We worked it out for him to help us run [the center] and guide us, because we had no idea how to jump around those machines,” Casper said. “We’re not mechanics, and I’m too big and clumsy to be climbing into those machines. It all worked out.” Until Runyon and Casper bought Ran-Ham, it had virtually been frozen in time for many years. They kept the old AMF machines, above-the-lane ball returns and hand scoring, restored the original wood lanes, and updated other equipment to 1960s standards. The only new amenities were some wood paneling and a mural painted by a local artist alongside lane one. “Everything else is original — the tables, chairs, the benches, all originals,” said Hannah Moen, one of the dual facility’s managers. “It was updated to our version of modern.” Matt McNiel, a national champion competitor, who started a classic draft league there this year, said, “Bowlers are able to enjoy a blast from the past if you will.” Ran-Ham only charges $4 a game for adults, $3 for kids, seniors, and students, with $1.50 shoe rental. “It’s really a throwback. People can walk back in time when they walk down the stairs,” Casper said. “I think everybody in St. Paul bowls there just for fun at least once a year. It’s just one of those old bowling centers that’s been there forever, that if you know about it, it’s something you have to do at least once a year, especially in the winter months when there’s not a whole lot of golfing to be done or fishing to be done around here.” Food-wise, Ran-Ham’s previous choices were limited to snacks and bowling center pizza. When the two businesses joined together, that allowed even more people to enjoy the world-famous food at The Nook, thanks in part to appearing on The Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show twice. The Nook burned down the week before Christmas in 2010. Though the fire did not affect Ran-Ham at all, the restaurant was closed for about six months. The signature sandwiches are hamburgers stuffed with cheese. One is called The Juicy Nookie/Juicy Lucy that’s stuffed with American cheese. In all, The Nook features 32 varieties of burger and a good selection of local and outside beers. Since 18
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Left, co-owner Ted Casper, far right, co-owner Mike Runyon and their families.
the businesses became one, it’s received several local awards including Best Neighborhood Spot, Battle of the Burgers and Happiest Hour. There are leagues on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights in the fall and winter. Thursdays through Sundays and every day in the spring and summer, it’s open bowling featuring college students, business people and families. There’re plenty of parties especially during the winter holiday season, plus celebrations for youth birthdays and grooms dinners. “We are busy from the minute we open our doors until the moment we shut them,” Moen said.
NEW TWIN CITIES CLASSIC DRAFT LEAGUE CHOOSES RAN-HAM FOR TOUGH CONDITIONS Classic draft leagues used to be quite popular long ago but have diminished considerably in recent times. Matt McNiel wanted to help bring one back to his home area of Minneapolis-St. Paul, and chose the venerable Ran-Ham Bowling Center as the venue. The Wednesday night league was formed by McNiel, the only person to win three United States Bowling Congress all-events titles and a member of the 2015 Wichita State University team that won the 2015 USBC Intercollegiate team championship. The AnheuserBusch Classic that lasted 28 Wednesday nights ended the first Matt McNiel creator of the Classic Draft League at Ran-Ham. week of April.
FEATURE
“It was a Field of Dreams-like thing for me,” said McNiel. “I always wanted a classic draft league with better players, more difficult lane conditions, honest scoring, if you will. I just kind of took the initiative. If no one’s going to run something like this in town, I guess I better.” McNiel had been talking with Ran-Ham’s owners for a couple of years, and when he finally received a $6,000 sponsorship from local liquor distributor Capital Beverage, the league was a go. There were eight teams all named after Budweiser products. Each had up to six players rotating into the three available spots. McNiel expects to expand to four-player teams in 201718. “It’s really become the talk of the town here in the Twin Cities area,” said the 31-year-old McNiel, who works for Target as a global crisis management senior technician. “Our Facebook page has a lot of followers including (Hall of Famer) Marshall Holman. We’ve got a lot of interest not only locally but across the country as well. It’s pretty cool when I go to tournaments and people ask me about it. To get the recognition that what you’re doing is really good, people tell me that they wish they had it in their area. Hopefully, this is a renaissance, if you will, of our typical league spot. I would like to see more people my age get involved in the sport and bring back honest scoring and honest conditions.” To illustrate how tough the lanes were, the highest game was 299 by Junior Team USA member Brian Crane. There were only three 700 series and McNiel had the highest average of 202. “Nobody is really in it for the average or honor counts,” McNiel said. “It’s more about having good competition, a fun environment where skill is rewarded, good spare shooting is rewarded, and good shot making is rewarded. It’s not an average 240 or 250 every week and go home type of league. The league is a lot more engaging.” “You might bowl your best game on a synthetic lane then come to our place and have to adjust your game to the old lanes,” said Casper, co-owner of Ran-Ham. “It’s a throwback. It’s meant to be fun. Sometimes I get the real serious bowlers who get mad, but I say, ‘Look, this is how 20
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the Ran-Ham is. It’s like golfing on a different course. If you golf the same golf course every weekend, you’re going to get good at it. If you go to a different one, it’s going to throw you off a bit.’ ” The league charged $30 in weekly fees and paid $5 for each of 32 available weekly points with the winning team splitting more than $3,400. The Nook even offered a deal of a burger, fries and a beer for $9.99, plus $7 pitchers of beer. The league features a good mix of young and middle-aged bowlers. Other top names competing this year included former Team USA members Sam Lantto and Eric Vermilyea and three-time USBC champion Charles Vashaw. None of them would have bowled at Ran-Ham had McNiel not discovered the wonders of the vintage center just a few years ago. “It was kind of a forgotten center for many years. I found out about it from (former Team USA member) Scott Pohl,” McNiel said. “We actually used it as practice for the Petersen Classic (in 2013). It was kind of a good place
All old school scoring at Ran-Ham.
to get in that Petersen Classic mindset. I walked in there and saw so much. I’ve heard from other bowlers that there used to be a lot of tournaments there back in the day. I wanted to have that, so younger generations could enjoy it as well.” ❖
Mark Miller is a freelance writer, editor, and public relations specialist from Flower Mound, TX. He's the author of Bowling: America's Greatest Indoor Pastime available at Amazon.com or directly from him at markmywordstexas@gmail.com.