“It will never work.” That’s what the folks from Brunswick, the industry leaders synonymous with all things bowling said when Nancy Bessey and her daughter Sam White, drove up in their little RV to discuss their idea to open an entertainment facility in the relatively tiny town of Rangeley.

After living in the area for about ten years or so, Bessey had been toying with the business idea as a way of avoiding the downfalls of a business that depended on the weather.

Bessey, “I had been talking about how we needed some indoor recreation in Rangeley. Everyone was too dependent on the weather. People would sometimes cancel because they saw bad weather coming.”

Nancy Bessey and Sam White of Moose Alley

It was 2010 and at the time she was travelling and caddying for White who became a professional golfer in 2004 and was a member of the Ladies European Tour.

Bessey, “With all the players she hung out with and everything, we used to go to a few of these places around the country- bowling alleys, kind of indoor, a little more hybrid, more than just bowling alleys.”

The folks from Brunswick eventually warmed up to the idea.

Bessey, “It was a pretty fun meeting. Pretty funny. They pulled out the population density map and we don’t even register with a color.” She laughed and explained. “We don’t meet any of their regular marketing standards. But then, you know, I just told them what it’s like there and how the seasonality goes, and the population, and how we would meet all these, in a different way, we meet these marketing (points).

White chimed in, “They didn’t believe that.”

Bessey, “No, they didn’t believe it. ‘It will never work’”

She continued. “But then they knew I was going to do it anyway. So anyway, they got on board, and it all turned out great. So, we had one of their top design teams and picked our own architect to work with us. And they came up to Rangeley and of course fell in love and we had a good time designing the project. So that was kind of how it started.

And then also, I love the fact that I sort of enticed Sam. The girls would play intense golf from Sunday through Thursday and then they’re traveling to their next destination. So, by Monday evening they were usually looking for a place to kick back. I used to tease her- ‘Did we just buy a new bar?’

White laughed- “I’d always buy a few rounds” (For her friends she was touring with.)

Bessey- “And she’d say ‘Oh no, they’re paying me back mom’. So, anyway, there were constant new bar titles on my credit card, so I said, ‘You know Sam, what if you had your own bar?’ So that was one enticement because she wasn’t too sure given that she was in all these different population centers and traveling to Europe and stuff that Rangeley was for her. But luckily, she has come around and is just completely into it. So, it was kind of one of those things that was meeting a bunch of needs at the time, you know, and I had had my eye on the People’s Choice- Club House- and I thought that would be just a great spot. So, it was a plan that was hatching in my brain for a while. And then, when it came time to make it all happen it all went great. Everyone that we needed got involved and it was a cool thing.”

Bessey wound up taking over the property in October of 2010, broke ground in November 2010 on the lane extension on the back, and opened in May, by Memorial Day 2011.

Bessey, “It was fun. We had a countdown up on the sign. I wanted to operate the first SNODEO year. We weren’t remodeled yet, and Sam and I were in the kitchen”.

Neither had very much experience, if any at all, in a kitchen, but they wanted a sense of how it would need to be worked.

Bessey, “The two of us in the kitchen during Snodeo is one of our great memories.”

White, “I had no idea what this Snodeo thing was about.” She compared it to throngs of people at Daytona Bike Week.

As you can imagine with any new business it can be very hectic but starting with Snodeo was extremely ambitious. The two of them were doing the best they could, making mom’s meatloaf, and finding their way.

Bessey, “But it gave us a great insight as to how we wanted the flow to go and what we wanted to do. It was important. And then we closed right after that Snodeo of 2011.”

White recalled the frantic energy and laughed, “Those were special times.”

I joked it sounded like they were having Lucy & Ethel moments in the kitchen. They agreed but with obscenities.

Bessey, “We have a fun time. It’s kind of a sport when we get going.”

White, still recalling the memories- “Unconditional love.”

Once Snodeo was over they closed the doors and went into full remodel mode. It turns out the remodeling was not only great in their opinion, but in the opinion of those Brunswick folks as well. So much so that they wound up winning an award for Best Remodel.

Bessey, “There’s a journal called Bowler’s Journal International and every year they do architectural design awards and yea, it was quite a shock- and the Brunswick folks were so excited cause they submitted us. I didn’t know they submitted us.”

The journal profiled multi-million-dollar projects in Manhattan, facilities in Hong Kong, Norway, Ireland, England. They were thrilled to be sharing company with the big guys. The before and after pictures were appreciated by people from all over the bowling industry, all over the world.

Bessey, “It was great. We’re still in their big catalog.”

White and Bessey estimated that probably 8 or 9 hybrid entertainment centers have been built in Maine since then. And a lot of them were built in resort areas because Brunswick realized that they didn’t need a big urban center. They could look at things differently and bring this kind of idea to an alternatively populated area. As a result, they wound up creating a division for resort area development.

Bessey, “The whole state needed this kind of an option. You know, so beautiful, but to rely on the weather all the time can hurt businesses and sales.”

Since then, they have been steadily changing and revamping. Most recently they remodeled the café area last Spring. Due to the pandemic, smaller breakfast places struggled and some even went out of business. To put it mildly, the space requirements to keep 6 feet apart was problematic for many.

In response, they moved the espresso bar, coolers, bakery display counters from the Inner Eye and voila. A new much needed breakfast spot in Rangeley.

This after having moved the arcade back into the party room, and the sounds of the video games are happily kept at bay for the diners.

Bessey, “The whole team is really happy about that remodel.”

While they love doing breakfast, they sure are putting in a lot of extra hours. For this reason, each decision they make has a lot to do with staffing and their ongoing goal of making Moose Alley the best it can be.

For example, they still host the Hunter’s Ball, will have a New Year’s Eve bash, but don’t promote as much live musical entertainment as they did previously. While it used to be a way to bring people in, it isn’t necessary. At least for now it isn’t. The pair will change things up as need be. For now, they’ve chosen to have smaller gigs on the weekends and theme evenings like 80’s night where the sound system and all the televisions play coordinated music videos.

Bessey, “So we’re starting to come up with other ways to bring music in in addition to the live music. We still want people to come in and be surprised by everything that goes on and that goes with the music too. Like, ‘Oh, there’s music tonight’” So instead of promoting it, they sometimes wait to announce it until Thursday or Friday as a surprise.

In addition to locals who play in the seasonal bowling leagues, there are actually a lot more tourists than I had expected on a regular basis. From credit card analysis, Bessey shared that between 70-75% of their customers are first timers, and they are coming from all over.

Bessey, “So we’re always entertaining new people, a lot of them, every weekend. We do have the regulars, you know, the folks that come up for the summer and the weekends and stuff. We get to see all our friends on a regular basis and locals of course like with league and stuff, but when it comes down to when the tourism is high, we see a lot of new people.”

This past October even Bessey was surprised at the large amounts of international tourists that showed up for the Fall foliage “leaf peeping” season.

Bessey,“So it’s always developing, but it’s always new people and that makes it kind of fun, but it also makes it easy to kind of surprise people.

Both Bessey and White are the kind of mother and daughter that finish each other’s sentences. Those who know them, know they get along quite well. However, it’s sometimes hard to work with family. I asked White how it was to work with her mother.

White- “It’s a dream come true” she said sarcastically but, in all seriousness, she knows she’s fortunate.

White- “It’s been amazing. She’s such an inspiration and we get along famously. She has always been my best friend. I know you can think it could be a nightmare, ‘How can you spend so much time with your mother?’. I don’t even look at it that way, it’s almost a bonus that I get to spend all this time with my mom and my best friend. We love being creative.”

White a natural multi-tasker is also juggling as a newly elected Rangeley Selectperson, so I asked her how it was to serve on the Board and still run a business.

White, “It’s been great. I’ve been able to focus a lot of my energy towards the town and taking from what I know of the business world, the business life in Rangeley to the table.”

She, like her mother believe in teamwork, so it’s no wonder she is fitting in well at the Town Office.

At Moose Alley it’s the same thing for the whole crew. White, “We don’t use titles, we’re all team members. We’re all part of the team.”

So, what if any changes for the team who is always bouncing around ideas? Well, they frequently talk of expansion. They have had what they call “fun arguments” about it for years, but one thing is for sure, they will always be evolving.

Bessey, “We never want to get stuck in a rut or get too comfortable. Always learn new things. Bring new things to the area.”

White, “Anything that we’ve experienced that we’ve enjoyed, we try to think of ways to bring it here to the place we love.”

Bessey, “We’re always thinking like, how can we make this the best there ever was? I want to build the best indoor recreation center I can dream of or think of at that time. It’s not like we have a white board meeting. It’s more like it’s ingrained in both of us. It’s just the way we think.”- ‘Lets do this, how can we go way over the top with this? We both kind of have that energy. Makes everything fun.”

I’m certain that whatever new enterprises they take on will be in the fearless spirit that started the enterprise of Moose Alley over ten years ago. Similar to a lot of the people that have come here to stay. Bessey, “Rangeley doesn’t deal in intimidation. It’s like come on, let’s do this.”