Apr 4, 2023
There's an awesome little
six-lane bowling alley tucked into the heart of the Mission.
In this episode, we get to know Molly
Bradshaw, owner of Mission Bowling
Club. Molly traces her steps from coastal
Mendocino to Citrus Heights when she was in second grade. She
spent the rest of her youth in the Sacramento area, eventually
going to punk shows in Sacto and at Gilman in Berkeley.
Molly's grandparents came to California in the Great Migration to
work in Richmond. Some of her ancestors lived in Berkeley, some in
East Oakland, and Molly would spend summers in the East Bay.
After high school, she wanted to go to college and be independent.
She lived in what was then known as Squaw Valley (now Palisades
Tahoe) for a summer, went to grad school from 1997 to 1999 in
Seattle, then moved back to the Bay and started bartending.
Around 2007/2008, Molly opened Mini Bar with some friends. In Part
1, she speaks fondly of Divisadero and its history. She and
her fellow owners of Mini Bar did lots of community outreach before
opening, and we think the fact that the bar continues to be a
popular meeting spot 15 years later speaks to those efforts.
Please join us for Part 2, when Molly will share the story of
opening a bowling alley a little more than 10 years ago. That drops
next Tuesday.
We recorded this episode
at Mission Bowling
Club in March 2023.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather