Despite amenities, upscale bowling alley leaves visitor unimpressed

By Mark Costello
Collegian Editor
August 30, 2006

Following the viewing of several films one evening during this summer’s International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the festival’s directors scheduled a private party in Chestnut Street’s Lucky Strike Lanes. Overall, the Lanes give a limited clientele exactly what they’re looking for, but would not be so appealing for the public at large.

Located at 1336 Chestnut Street, right off of Broad in Center City, Lucky Strike Lanes is easy to find in the evening with a multi-story neon bowling pin illuminating the night sky. It is a hip club and bar, as well as a place to see and be seen. The atmosphere is a bit dark, the waitstaff sexy and dressed revealingly, and everywhere you look on the walls is some sort of video screen projecting music videos or movies. The place booms, and for those over 21, the bar is extensive and the bartenders friendly. The food is overpriced but eclectic, a little too eclectic for the establishment, but fun nonetheless. The dress code of the place requires a bit of finesse and panache, and no gang colors are tolerated. It’s an upscale joint, nice for an occasional night out.

Oh, right. It’s also a bowling alley. I almost forgot.

Therein lies the essential problem of Lucky Strike Lanes. It’s an interesting concept, but the two halves of the joint just don’t quite meet up in the middle. It seems, overall, to be a club that wants to be a chic bowling alley, or a bowling alley that wants to be a chic club. It doesn’t quite know what it wants to be, and that shows. There’s a general discomfort about the place that is intrinsic to not knowing what it is. The well-dressed of Philadelphia came through the doors, the beautiful, the rich—and they took off their shoes to bowl, with a Cosmopolitan in one hand and a bowling ball in the other. The music, the videos, the bar, the dancing—it doesn’t jive well with the bowling and billiards.

It’s a fun night out, indeed, but only once in a while. It’s expensive, it’s usually crowded and the atmosphere of the place is usually far too pretentious for a building that has a meet-and-greet bar and lounge literally three paces from a set of bowling lanes.

When considering the positives and negatives of Lucky Strike Lanes, I would recommend the establishment to people who frequent clubs and are looking for something novel, something out of the ordinary, or something to break up the monotony. However, if you’re a once-in-a-while clubber, stick to the tried and true dance halls in Old City and Washington Square West.

They’re much more likely to bowl you over.

costellom4@lasalle.edu