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We arrived at Splitsville on a Saturday around noon, stepping into a place filled with the riotous sounds of bowling balls hitting pins, arcade games blaring and a whole bunch of kids celebrating birthdays.
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The bowling-and-entertainment centre was celebrating a milestone of its own, marking one year in the 26,000-square-foot, big-box space in Kanata’s busy Centrum mall. It opened right around March Break in 2025, and the post-vacation schoolyard buzz was huge.
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According to some of my teacher friends, all the middle-schoolers were talking about it, making a point of noting that you didn’t even have to wear those dorky bowling shoes.
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Today, it’s clearly become one of Kanata’s favourite spots for a birthday party, with multiple celebrations taking place every weekend. General manager Homayoun Faghihi estimates they hosted at least 2,000 birthday parties in the first year of operation, and he expects that number to almost double this year. Some weekends see more than 80 different parties.
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For our visit, we were a group of five adults, and we were actually low-key celebrating the 25th birthday of one of them, although we didn’t make a production of it.
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Instead, our focus was on the game. Specifically, the 10 pins at the end of our lane, and how best to throw a ball to knock them down. Three of the four twentysomethings in our party were keen to compete, while myself and the fourth were content to go with the flow. Neither he nor I had bowled much in our lives.
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Firstly, there was the matter of shoes. Serious bowlers I know seem outraged that Splitsville allows patrons to wear street shoes instead of bowling-specific shoes to play, even with the policy that all shoes have to be clean and flat-soled. (I’ll get to the company’s reasoning in a moment.)
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Though it wasn’t mandatory, two members of our group were smart to switch to bowling shoes, which were free and in clean, new condition. I later realized I probably should have, too, as the grippy sole of my hikers was not ideal for any sliding motion.
