The Kennedy family thrilled to win 2025 AHA WA Hospitality best themed venue award for Wild West Bowling

The Albany family behind Wild West Bowling are all smiles this week after their unique venue picked up a State hospitality award — the first they had ever nominated for — on Tuesday, less than a year after its doors opened. The Kennedys were thrilled to take home the prize for best themed venue in the 2025 Australian Hotels Association WA and Coca-Cola Hospitality Awards for Excellence. Wild West operations manager Sammy Kennedy, who attended the gala presentation night with her parents and business directors Tom and Sharon Kennedy, said all three of them “lit up” when they were announced as winners. “Dad didn’t even want to apply to the awards at first,” she said. “He’s been a bit let down in the past with not winning things or people not attending the rodeo (Kalgan Stampede) when we ran it, so I went behind his back and secretly nominated us. “He said ‘I’m not even writing a speech because I don’t want to get our hopes up’, but when they read out our name we all lit up — we were so excited and ecstatic to be recognised among some of the biggest venues in Perth.” The bowling alley faced nine other finalist venues for the gong, including the Brass Monkey in Northbridge, Molly’s Irish Pub in Highgate, and Lima Cantina in Leederville. Wild West Bowling opened its saloon doors on November 30 last year, after the Kennedys spent 18 months and $1.7 million renovating the former furniture store on Chester Pass Road into a western-themed entertainment complex. Equipped with 14 lanes, vintage arcade games, a mechanical bucking bull, Bruce’s Saloon restaurant — named after the family’s beloved Brahman bull — simulators, and decorated with western-themed knick-knacks, murals and props to the utmost degree, Ms Kennedy said their unrelenting commitment to the theme won them the award. “I think we’ve just created something so unique that no one could even come close to copying,” she said. “In the application, I spoke about our themed food and drinks menu, the murals of cowboys and Native Americans, our 130-year-old wagon out the front, cowboy boot salt and pepper shakers, our Country Sundays where we have boot scootin’ sessions, our uniforms. “We even created our own influencer in Brucey Brahman, whose now gone from 19k followers to 38k followers in the time since I wrote the application. “Everything we did was very aligned to the theme.” The 2025 awards attracted a record 605 nominations across more than 40 categories, with winners considering recognition from the hospitality peak body a prestigious success. “This is the first award we applied for,” Ms Kennedy said. “To win, especially in our first year, feels like a pretty big achievement so we’re really happy.”