Trendy new bowling alleys offer cocktails, sushi, music
By Audra D.S. Burch
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Published: January 13, 2009
Members of Miami Sports & Social Club, a sports league for adults young and old, bowl at Lucky Strike Lanes in Miami Beach, Fla.MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE PHOTO
ATLANTA — The world of boutique bowling unfolds here in a hipster district, wedged between a noveau Northern Italian restaurant and a big-box chain store.
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IN OKLAHOMA CITY
Red Pin Restaurant and Bowling Lounge
→Where: 200 S Oklahoma Ave., Suite X.
→Includes: A restaurant and lounge with 10 bowling lanes. The menu offers a twist on traditional American fun food such as panini sticks, sliders with shitake and portabello mushrooms and macaroni and cheese topped with Parmesan truffled fontina cream sauce.
→Cost: From $4.50 per game.
→For more information: 702-8880 or go online to www.bowlredpin.com.
Past the suited door guy and the velvet rope, a flight of stairs takes you up and away from the buzz of consumerism to Ten Pin Alley, a dramatic space that opens in the most unexpected ways. Floors are carved into subtle leather patches. Chandelier sconces burst from brocade panels.
Just steps away,
Robert Denford of
Houston and friends, here to take in this Southern cosmopolitan city, are sipping drinks and throwing the occasional gutter ball.
"I had heard Atlanta had this bowling alley that was like a club, so I wanted to check it out,” Denford said. "It’s cool.”
This is bowling 2.0, the reinvention of one of America’s most kitschy, quietly enduring pastimes.
Laverne and Shirley have slipped out the back door, making way for superglam alleys where bowling sometimes seems beside the point.
"The whole idea here is to give locals and tourists an alternative to the club, a place they can relax and let off some steam,” says
Lonnie Moore, of the Dolce Group, which owns the 12-lane Ten Pin Alley at
Atlantic Station. "We wanted to take bowling to the next level.”
Hipsters and jet-setters, always on the search for the next big thing, have found an opportunity to strike: Sales of bowling balls alone are up more than 13 percent since between 2000 to 2007.
Part of the appeal: Price. A game can cost as little as $3 — though gourmet sushi or a seat in a VIP room will raise the tab. Even better, there’s no cover charge to hang out.
Today’s swanky bowling alleys, often attached to resorts or hotels in popular cities, feature designer decor; music and wood dance floors; flat-panel projecter screens and plasma televisions and cozy retreats for snuggling. They have glittering bars with top-shelf booze and champagne, dress codes and marquee chefs.
These bowling alleys peddle ambiance, the sense that this is the cool place to be.
The concept for Splitsville, a 12-lane bowling alley opened in
Tampa five years ago: give the traditional bowling alley a modern makeover as an "original bowling parlor,” starting with the notoriously bad concession stand menus.
"We wanted to take the idea of warm beer and cold hot dogs and blow it out of the water,” says co-founder
Guy Revelle. "We wanted to turn the alley into a lounge.”
Splitsville’s chef,
Tim Cushman, named a 2008 Food and Wine best new chef, was asked to create a gourmet menu with the panache of a supper club.
Over the past five years, the Tampa venue has attracted A-list celebs including
Rihanna, Pink,
Derek Jeter and
Susan Sarandon, and will be among the hotspots for the upcoming Superbowl.
In October, Splitsville opened at
The Shops at Sunset Place in
South Miami with a Miamicentric menu that includes the Cuban Reuben (corn beef on Cuban bread). And coming soon: three
Texas locations in
Dallas,
San Antonio and
Arlington.
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