Steak is no longer on the menu at Charlottesville’s Dairy Market food hall, but duck could be soon — duckpin bowling, that is.
The city’s Board of Architectural Review recently approved a handful of changes to the 4,378-square-foot former South & Central steakhouse space at the Dairy Market building on Grady Avenue, where an undisclosed party plans to open a six-lane duckpin bowling alley called Sunpins Bowling. The plans were submitted by Charlottesville-based Stoneking von Storch Architects, which is working with an undisclosed client on the project.
At the Board of Architectural Review’s Nov. 19 meeting, Stoneking von Storch detailed modifications that would replace four large windows facing 10th Street, which are not original to the building, with operable glass doors that could either fold or coil out of the way. One of those additions would feature a more traditional swinging door panel that would function as an entryway when the larger doors are closed. No changes were proposed to the building’s masonry except to the area just below the new doors.
The plans were praised for respecting the integrity of the structure, a 1937-vintage building that once housed the Monticello Dairy and was renovated and reopened as the Dairy Market food hall in 2020.
“This project has been exemplary in a lot of ways for the way that they have adaptively reused and rehabilitated the structure,” Beck Gastinger, who sits on the board, said at the meeting. “Everything that is being proposed here is in concert with the spirit that it was restored in the first place.”
City Council voted to designate the entire building as an individually protected property in 2008, meaning the Board of Architectural Review has to grant permission before any exterior alterations can be made.
The eight-person board unanimously voted to give its blessing to the Sunpins Bowling plans.
Those plans include more than just replacing windows. They also call for 3,600 square feet of dining and activity space. What type of dining and activity has yet to be announced.
If the bowling alley opens, it will be the only one in Charlottesville proper. The next closest alley is Bowlero in Albemarle County north of the city.
Duckpin bowling is a variation of traditional bowling using smaller balls without finger holes. Players are allowed three rolls to try and knock down 10 pins that are shorter and squatter than those used in the more popular tenpin bowling. Duckpin bowling lanes are the same standard length as other forms of bowling, albeit with more narrow gutters.
Charlottesville-based TLC Hospitality Group, which manages the Dairy Market property for local landlord Stony Point Development Group, said it would not provide comment to The Daily Progress on the project until negotiations were finalized with the duckpin bowling company.
Not long after South & Central closed its doors in September, TLC’s director of hospitality assets Michael Rosen told The Daily Progress the Dairy Market is undergoing a full "reimagination" focused on providing “people a reason to come to the Dairy Market other than just eating.”
Since South & Central closed, multiple other tenants have left the food hall, many of them already replaced. A Sizzle Shack burger joint has replaced the 434th Street Caribbean eatery, and Amero Cafe & Bakery has moved into the space once home to Citizen Burger and Grn Burger.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com