Diocese of Lafayette
Priests of the Diocese of Lafayette celebrated Mass for the grand opening of Rock ‘N’ Bowl in Lafayette!
On Monday, July 16, 2018, several priests of the Diocese of Lafayette concelebrated Mass for the grand opening of Rock ‘N’ Bowl de Lafayette, a new family entertainment venue.
Located in the old Whitney Bank building on Jefferson Street in downtown Lafayette, the unique new venue combines a bowling alley and a live music club as well as a restaurant, all in one place. There’s even a second floor for private parties and wedding receptions.
Not only is the venue unique, but the grand opening was unique as well. It’s not often you see a secular business celebrating a grand opening with a Mass concelebrated by 8 priests! With an altar set up on the stage, and the congregation seated in chairs on the dance floor, the priests processed in and celebrated Mass. Father Bryce Sibley of Our Lady of Wisdom in Lafayette also blessed the building.
Owners John and Johnny Blancher, a father and son duo from New Orleans are devout Catholics. They are committed to putting faith first in every aspect of their lives, including their business decisions. But the senior Blancher tells us that he wasn’t always so open about sharing his faith. But that all changed after a pilgrimage to Europe. After watching the lives of his close friends and his wife change after pilgrimages, John decided to travel to Europe himself in 1988 seeking answers. It is there that he placed his needs at the feet of the Blessed Mother.
At this point in his life, John was 35 years old and struggling to provide for his family, not only for his wife and kids but for his elderly parents as well.
“I was really down on my luck financially. I really felt, as the oldest son, I really should be helping to carry the family load.”
John scraped up enough money to make the pilgrimage and headed to Europe. During the pilgrimage, he prayed to the Blessed Mother.
“While I was there, there was a tradition each day. You climb the mountain, you write a petition and they bring the petitions on the altar while they’re doing the Rosary. I wrote down ‘Please help me find something to take care of my family.'"
Upon his return to the states, a friend approached John with the idea of buying a bowling alley. John knew nothing about bowling, but he remembered his prayer to the Blessed Mother and thought he should look into it. John continued to pray to the Blessed Mother, asking for her guidance in all aspects of his life including the purchase of the bowling alley.
“I really thought the Blessed Mother was directing me to do this but I thought if I told anyone, they would think I was crazy!”
But John kept praying, “I said, ‘Blessed Mother, if this is a bad idea, just stop me.’” John took out a second mortgage on his home. “I offered $1,000 down and a $9,000 note payable over 10 years. And they said, ‘We’ll take it.’”
John took over the business on All Saints Day 1988. It was a small place, only 18 lanes and very old. The first thing he did was hang a picture of our Blessed Mother in the hallway and painted the place what he calls “Blessed Mother Blue”. John started working 18 hour days, 7 days a week. And like his faith, the business grew. Not only did it grow, it flourished!
Fast forward to 2003, history repeats its self with John’s son, Johnny. The Rock ‘N’ Bowl had flourished, so much so that the family was able to purchase another business, Ye Olde College Inn and Restaurant in New Orleans. And once again, as they did with the Rock ‘N’ Bowl, the first thing they did was hang a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Mother on the wall. It was only then that they learned that the previous owners of Ye Olde College Inn had a special devotion to the Blessed Mother as well. The previous owners revealed to them that they desperately needed to sell the place and had turned to prayer by beginning a nine-day novena to the Sacred Heart. On the ninth day of the novena, Johnny walked into Ye Old College Inn to purchase the place. Their prayers had been answered.
“If you think God’s hands aren’t in things, you’re just foolish,” Johnny said.
The family converted Ye Olde College Inn into a farm to table restaurant, with their own urban farm located right next to the restaurant on Carrollton Avenue in New Orleans across from Notre Dame Seminary.
All was going well until August 2005 when Hurricane Katrina struck the area. Both businesses suffered serious damage. Rock 'N' Bowl had 8 feet of water inside the building, Ye Olde College Inn, 3 feet of water.
The Blancher family evacuated to Lafayette. Why Lafayette? Johnny said his mother is from Vermilion parish. They moved in with family and they fell in love with Lafayette. While they were here, Johnny said they continued their devotion to the Blessed Mother.
“All we could do at the time was pray. We had no way to get out of this because really we didn’t have flood insurance at the business. ”
They used the flood insurance money from their personal homes to help get the businesses in New Orleans back on track. Slowly, customers started to return. And many of them were seminarians and priests from Notre Dame Seminary.
Johnny began to enjoy spending time with them, and friendships developed. His faith grew as the friendships did. “We started to become even stronger in how overtly we were Catholic!”
Soon more and more priests and seminarians visited the business and many of them were from the Diocese of Lafayette.
“There was this continuous flow of Lafayette priests that were coming to the New Orleans seminary.”
Business bounced back and Johnny decided to venture out on his own by returning to Lafayette, the city he fell in love with during his evacuation after Katrina. Following in his father’s footsteps, and keeping a special devotion to Mary, Johnny purchased the Old Whitney Bank on Jefferson Street on December 12, 2017, the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Thus began the Lafayette version of Rock 'N' Bowl.
Keeping with the family tradition of integrating their faith into their business, they chose to name the restaurant The Sainte Marie in honor of the Blessed Mother. They placed a Crucifix over the front door, a statue of the Blessed Mother with a kneeler at the entrance and the dance floor is lined with church pews.
They chose a grand opening date of Monday, July 12, which is The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Johnny invited Father Bryce Sibley of Our Lady of Wisdom in Lafayette to say Mass for the grand opening. Unbeknownst to him, John Sr. had already invited Father Jim Wehner, Rector of Notre Dame Seminary to say Mass as well.
In preparation for the Mass, they placed two chairs near the makeshift altar, one for Father Sibley and one for Father Wehner. But as the doors opened, even more priests showed up. The priests and seminarians who had become regular customers and friends in New Orleans had come to help them celebrate their new Lafayette business.
They added more chairs as more priests showed up. They ended up with eight priests, one transitional deacon and 7 seminarians from the Diocese of Lafayette! 16 chairs just for clergy!
“I was starting to worry that we had more priests and seminarians than congregation,” said Johnny.
Over 200 people showed up for the Mass and the grand opening was a huge success.
The Blancher family truly believes that integrating their faith in every aspect of their lives, including their business decisions, is the reason for their successes and for the courage to triumph through their failures. While they are devoutly Catholic, their business is open to all religions.
"We pray, we're committed, we wear it on our sleeves. We let people know what we're committed to. We work, but I can't give credit to our work as much as I can give credit to what God and the Blessed Mother have done."-- Johnny Blancher.
For more information visit their website www.therocknbowl.com
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