Historical February–March 2004 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
I was still wearing my pajamas at 9 p.m. on New Year’s Day.
My husband and I had finished watching Will & Grace and Scrubs, and we were hungry. More than that, we were bored.
My husband suggested the new PinUp Bowl. So on the first night of the new year, I changed from my pinkstriped pajama bottoms to jeans, from dog-chewed Speedo flip flops to black boots, and headed for the Pin-Up Bowl.
The place was hopping, and there was food.
A limited menu. So limited, in fact, that when we ordered a cheeseburger the bartender told us they had only shredded mozzarella cheese or nacho cheese sauce.
We got the side of nacho cheese.
It took longer than usual to get our burger, but when the bartender apologized that “it took so damn long,” that was all we needed to hear.
The glass of chardonnay, the martini, and the atmosphere had soothed our need for immediacy. Which, in itself, is reason to go back to the Pin-Up Bowl.
The Pin-Up Bowl is pristine.
The walls are covered with retro baby blues and various items of nostalgia. Hanging over the eight-lane bowling alley, however, are four giant-screen TV’s that betray the Pin-Up Bowl as a product of the ‘00’s.
The built-in display cases contain lots of stuff, mainly bowling-themed stuff and pin-up-calendar-themed stuff. Mercifully, there were no stock pictures of unidentifiable bowling teams, and no matching bowling trophies.
It would be easy to overemphasize the bowling.
The Pin-Up Bowl may appear more bar than bowling alley.
But a neighbor also pointed out how kid-friendly the lanes are: you can ask that “bumpers” be raised, resulting in no gutter balls! Much like a pool table or shuffleboard table, the bowling alley seemed to serve mainly as entertainment, keeping people longer at the bar.
The bartenders are pierced, tattooed, and likeably irreverent.
The crowd was casual and having fun – a welcome change from the hoit and toit of the Central West End.
I sat sipping a martini comfortably attired in the hot pink polar fleece I had slept in the night before. Entirely unashamed. And that’s when the Pin-Up Bowl won me over. Admittedly, I walked into the Pin-Up Bowl with a chip on my shoulder.
I tend to resent the trendy and the throw-back, and the Pin-Up Bowl is nothing if not trendy and throw-back.
I wanted to snub the Pin-Up Bowl.
To think: I was cheating on Saratoga Lanes with the new Pin-Up Bowl. Where was my pride? But, in spite of myself, I had a great time at the Pin-Up Bowl. Not only could I come-as-I-was without so much as a sideways glance from anybody, but there were all kinds of things to do.
It didn’t matter that I didn’t do any of them, other people did them.
I could just sit and watch.
I left thinking of the public relations campaign I would mount for the Pin-Up Bowl.
I would tell everybody how fun it was, how it was within walking distance from my house, and how even a 30- year-old can be carded at the door.
I left with a feeling of excitement and anticipation about the changing streetscape of Delmar. More importantly, I left feeling terribly proud to live in the city and especially in Skinker-DeBaliviere.
Original photograph caption
Pin-Up Bowl exterior and sign. Photo by Sandy Kaiser of Kiku Obata and Company.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, February–March 2004.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2004_02.pdf, printed page(s) 3; PDF page(s) 3.
