Shenanigans entertainment center on French Island succeeds with more for adults to do

Its adjacent Celebrations on the River event venue and additional efforts to attract more adults have been key to making the Shenanigans family entertainment center on French Island successful, says Adam Etrheim, general manager and part owner of both operations.

Etrheim, who became Shenanigans general manager in late 2012, said the business has increased its focus on adults in the past few years.

But Shenanigans, which opened in September 2011, also has continued to bring the latest attractions — such as some virtual reality pods about three months ago — to the entertainment center part of the business, he said. “We keep adding the latest and greatest arcade games” to attract both youths and adults to Shenanigans.

“More than 70 percent of our business is now largely from adults,” Etrheim said. “But a lot of people still have the perception that Shenanigans is just for kids.”

About 1½ years ago, Etrheim said, Shenanigans began holding Adult Game Nights on Fridays and Saturdays with unlimited drinks, games and laser tag. The adults-only nights begin at 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and draw an average of about 200 people per night, he said.

Shenanigans added its sports bar in late 2012, soon after Etrheim joined the business. “We needed to have a sports bar with food and alcoholic beverages,” he recalled. “That kind of started the shift from kids to more adults.” The sports bar serves such fare as sandwiches, pizza and salads.

Shenanigans’ seasonal outdoor tiki bar opened in 2015. It features such food as wrap sandwiches, flatbread sandwiches and pizzas, and is known for its Caribbean-themed cocktail drinks served in real pineapple and watermelon halves. “It has a Jimmy Buffett, Caribbean, Jamaican, very easygoing, cool, calm and collected feel,” Etrheim said of the tiki bar, which has a thatched roof as well as thatched umbrellas at tables. It also has live music most Friday and Saturday nights.

“It’s usually open from Memorial Day weekend until the end of October,” Etrheim said of the tiki bar. “But it depends on the weather.”

Celebrations on the River opened in 2015 and has continued to expand, Etrheim said, adding that it has become one of the area’s top event venues. It hosts about 60 to 70 wedding events a year, he estimated. About 90 percent of those include both the wedding itself and the reception that follows.

“May to October is the prime wedding season,” Etrheim said, and most of the weddings are held at Celebrations’ outdoor wedding altar, which overlooks the Black River and can seat up to 225 guests.

Celebrations’ banquet hall can seat up to 250 guests inside. The banquet hall and the adjacent 3 Seasons Room that opened in 2017 together can seat about 340 people.

About three months ago, Celebrations added new dedicated bathrooms with granite countertops and LED lighting (Celebrations guests previously had to use bathrooms in the Shenanigans play area), a bridal suite where the bride and her party can get ready for the wedding, a dedicated food buffet room for dishing up food, and a catering kitchen.

“The catering kitchen gave us the ability to do all of our own food for Celebrations, and for the normal parties that are held in rooms at Shenanigans,” Etrheim said. Before the catering kitchen was added, outside caterers prepared 80 to 90 percent of the food served at events at Celebrations, he estimated. “Now 95 percent of the food for Celebrations events is prepared in-house,” he said.

As for the future, Etrheim said a second Celebrations banquet hall might be added. “That’s the biggest thing on the horizon for us,” he said.

While Etrheim became general manager in late 2012, he has been part owner of Shenanigans and Celebrations since 2016. The other owners are his father, Mark Etrheim; Dave Pretasky and John Lyche.

An Onalaska native, Adam Etrheim worked in corporate marketing for TCF Bank in Minneapolis for slightly more than two years before he was hired to run Shenanigans and increase its focus on adults.

“We needed to focus on a different demographic, a different age group,” he said. “It took a solid two years before people didn’t think of us as just a kids’ place.”

Source:  LacrosseTribune.com