Page 62 - BCM June 2024

COVER STORY

someone else own the tournament
that you’re hosting. When you had
two perspectives, you could sit Warming Up in the Bullpen…
down and figure out what was best.
These were smart people… quality Springfield is home to the Double-A level Springfield Cardinals base-
people.” ball team of the Texas League. Just as that team serves as a feeder to
Not only do the two bowling the Triple-A Memphis Cardinals and Major League Baseball’s St. Louis
centers — Sunshine hosts the team Cardinals, the bowling centers operated by the Wiemer family have
event, while Enterprise Park hosts functioned as incubators for numerous successful proprietors.
the doubles and singles — benefit Among the center owners who were trained by Roger and/or Steve
from the tournament, but so does Wiemer are Andy Bartholomy of the multi-center Andy B’s Entertain-
the greater Springfield area. Having ment, Kenny Lynch of Holiday Lanes in Pittsburg, Kansas; Kevin
8,000 bowlers come to town is a Singleton of Century Lanes in Nixa, Missouri; and Brad Pollard of
boon for local hotels, attractions, Shrewsbury Lanes in Shrewsbury, Missouri.
shopping and, of course, restau- “Andy is far more of a capitalist than I am,” Steve Wiemer says with
rants — more than a few of which a smile. “I like to run small businesses. He has gone another way and
serve the dish for which the city works with his management teams in a different way than I do.”
has become famous in the Ozarks: While Wiemer and Bartholomy once were mentor and student, today
Springfield-style cashew chicken. they are friendly competitors.
Restaurateur David Leong was run- “Andy has the other center in Springfield,” Wiemer notes. “But if
ning a local Chinese restaurant and, there’s another center in town, you want somebody running it who
needing to boost business, came up does it right. Andy B’s is the FEC model, so there’s very little overlap in
with a recipe he felt would be more our customer bases. But we’re both still pushing bowling, and that’s a
appealing to the Midwestern palate. good thing.”
The concoction consists of breaded You could call it a home run for the bowling business.
chicken breasts that are deep-fried
in peanut oil and topped with
cashews and a mild sauce made
from chicken stock, soy sauce and
oyster sauce.

The Inclination to Help
That cashew chicken recipe
like no other is one of the things
that helps Springfield maintain
its small-town feel despite being
a medium-sized city. There’s also
Park Central Square, site of the 1865
Wild Bill Hickok shootout that some
say inaugurated America’s “Wild
West” period; Route 66 Park and its
mosaic-like panels depicting local
history; and the Instagrammable
Commercial Street, the city’s first
National Register Historic District.
All of those places contribute to
a sense of community, and Steve
Wiemer is all about community. In
addition to serving on his neigh-
borhood board for years, he also Andy B’s is the Wiemer family’s friendly competition in Springfield, and
has offered up the Enterprise Park proprietor Andy Bartholomy once worked for the Wiemers.
Lanes parking lot as a staging area

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