February 26th: Itching for some bowling, the Socially Superlative crew trekked out to the West Side Highway on 42nd Street to Lucky Strike Lanes, who invited us to “Stay out of the Gutter” at their VIP event.  Imagine your grimey local bowling alley transformed into a posh nightclub setting with great music, and pretty much you have the coolest bowling alley ever (sorry, Bowlmor!).

Similar to their opening night party back in October, there was an open bar, as well at tons of bar food to gorge on: pizza, wings, fried shrimp, and even high-end knock offs like their mini-crepe cones filled with tuna.  The wait for one of their 26 lanes was about 2 hours at the peak time, but definitely worth the wait!  In the meantime, the 10 pool tables were also available, so I spied on some pool sharks playing to try and learn some new tricks.

I must emphasize that the music was fantastic!  They played the typical mixes of Top 40s, hip hop, 80s hits and other throwbacks, but with the added bonus of having the music videos projected over large screens above the pins.  They even played a remix of The Little Mermaid’s “Kiss the Girl” which was great, but the crowd was roaring with laughter when they played SNL‘s hit “Dick in a Box” starring Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg.  A classic!

At one point during my turn, I managed to break the machine:  The rake to clear the pins was stuck, the reset button wouldn’t work, and I was in a panic.  Fortunately, the staff was super quick to respond and resolved the problem immediately.  It was so packed that they limited it to one game per group, but I wanted to play one last game because I was kicking ass.  I charmed my way into one last game and was one of the last few guests left at the end of the night.

Monday nights they have all-you-can-bowl from 8:00 pm to close for $22, which includes the rental shoes.  Which is probably where you’ll find me on Monday nights from now on, so if you need a bowling team, count me in!

Yours,
Von