SKANEATELES — It’s been almost two years since Sean Mott became the owner of both Cedar House Lanes and the Hilltop Restaurant.

Mott, who bought the Hilltop Restaurant almost seven years ago, said since he was a teenager, the facility has been like a second home for him.

He worked in the restaurant in every capacity — from dishwasher to cook, to owner. Along the way he spent much of his time on the lanes as well.

When Gary Feldman decided to retire, Mott jumped at the opportunity to own both businesses under one roof.

And in the past two years, he’s learned a lot about the game and the business of bowling.

“It has been good,” Mott said. “It has been a lot of work. It has been a great opportunity to do different things, but it has also been a lot of fun.”

Mott said one of the most interesting aspects of his new position is that on any given day there is so much diversity in what he does.

“I might be in the kitchen baking pies in the morning,” Mott said. “Then in the afternoon, I’m out here working on the lane equipment or helping run a league. There is always something different to do.”

During his tenure, Mott has worked diligently to implement more options for what Cedar House has to offer.

Along with hosting live musical performances on the weekends, Mott has also incorporated other special events into the Cedar House repertoire.

Mott said events like the New Year’s Eve Party, Halloween Party and a Thanksgiving Tournament have been quite successful over the past two years.

“We try to do a lot,” Mott said. “This was the second year of the Thanksgiving tournament. We just wanted to give people something that was fun and not too competitive, something casual and give people a chance to get out on a holiday and have fun. It grew this year and we had a few more people and it went really well.”

There has also been a focus on creating more casual, non-competitive leagues.

Mott said Wednesday nights, in particular, have been really popular.

While there aren’t sanctioned leagues on this night, it’s always a relaxed atmosphere and things stay busy.

Mott said this allows Cedar House to change things up while keeping it interesting.

“We can do different things every week,” Mott said. “We can have no-tap one week and then best ball and scotch doubles. We can do whatever we want. It is all about getting the more casual bowler and attracting new faces in here and having fun. That has been really successful for us.”

There is also a focus on the sanctioned leagues as well.

Cedar House is always recruiting and working to get more teams and more league bowling.

The Monday Night Classic League has been particularly popular.

“We always have great turnout for that,” Mott said. “We’ve been doing more with sponsorship with that and getting more prize money for it.”

Cedar House has also been active in the more competitive side of the game.

Last year, Cedar House hosted the finals of The Citizen Masters, as well as part of the city tournament this fall, both of which Mott said were exciting events.

This year, Cedar House will host the qualifying round of The Citizen Women’s Masters, as well as a match play round of the men’s tournament.

“We’re really looking forward to all of that,” Mott said. “It should be very exciting. For me personally, all of that is fun just to watch and see how good all these bowlers are. It should be really exciting this year.”

While Mott has done his share of bowling before buying Cedar House, he said the past two years have been a real learning experience that has given him greater insight into what goes into the game, including all the work behind the scenes.

Helping him are two past Masters champions, Tim Poorman and Sharon Shoemaker.

“They are really the backbone of what we are doing here,” Mott said. “I know that I can really rely on them and all they know about the game to keep the wheels turning here.”

During his tenure, Mott has been striving to make the bowling experience at Cedar House as attractive as possible.

In that time he hasn’t raised league or open bowling prices. He is looking towards the future and hopes to continue to make Cedar House a welcome place for all bowlers.

“I think the interest in bowling is picking up,” Mott said. “It is on TV a little bit more and I think more people are getting interested. We just want to be here for people and get more people excited about bowling.”