Bowling (and Eating) with Style

This week Win and I went to a party at the 10pin Bowling Lounge. This is, I think, the only bowling alley in Chicago's Loop/River North area. Adjacent to the House of Blues Hotel, the 10pin Bowling Lounge is completely different than your standard bowling alley. It's very stylish, full of retro chic, and in addition to bowling it offers good food and cocktails.

The party was really well-planned and fun, and guests were treated to bowling, a buffet dinner with food well above your standard bowling alley fare, and an open bar for drinks. Some of the food we sampled included chicken marsala, caprese salad, garlic bread, caesar salad, penne in a vodka cream sauce, and seasonal roasted vegetables. For dessert, there was a gorgeous display of mini desserts, tarts and pastries as well as a chocolate fountain where guests could run fresh fruit, pound cake, marshmallows, and pretzels under the fountain's streams and then indulge in a chocolate covered masterpiece. That was really fun and unique, since it's not every day that you encounter a chocolate fountain (despite dreaming of such things almost daily since seeing "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory").

I don't know if all of the food was catered by 10pin or not (I'm thinking at least the chocolate fountain was obtained elsewhere), but their menu is far from the usual bowling alley fare. If you are in Chicago and looking to mix things up a little, check out 10pin. It's a fun place and you'll get a tiny bit of exercise with your dinner and drinks.

So how did I bowl, you might wonder? Let's just say it wasn't pretty. I got there and started off strong, but that quickly deteriorated and I probably bowled the worst two games of my life. We're talking scores like 58 and 65. That kind of bad. As Win said, it's never good when your bowling score is a speed limit. But it was fun nonetheless.

10pin Bowling Lounge
330 North State Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
USA
Telephone: 312-644-0300

*Please note that the photo above comes from the 10Pin Bowling Lounge web site. Since it was dark and crowded at the party, it was hard to take good photos. So I'm borrowing one straight off their web site. 10Pin owns the photo above.