hey - i wanted to invite 100+ people out for a (late) Friday night of bowling for charity. (b/w 8-2ish) with that in mind, what's the best late-[friday-]night bowling alley in Greater Houston? i'm looking for something in the Bellaire, Galleria, or Downtown areas. most of the invitees will be graduate school students or older, a few will be undergrads, and a few might be parents/professionals with kids, so i'm looking for a passable family atmosphere. any recommendations? also, what bowling alleys would you stay away from b/c of, say, a prior bad experience? thanks in advance, guys.
i think it might be hard to do. I know here in Pasadena they do rock and Bowl which is like $12-15 a person. and the place gets PACKED. wherever you go you'll want to call well in advance so you can set up lanes.
Palace lanes on Bellaire Blvd. is where I go (I was there an hour ago) but it´s definately not what your looking for.
Palace Lanes is definitely the closest to Bellaire, but it is a tad rundown these days. Maybe Jillians on I-10? I don't know too many family friendly places of any sort.
Jillians is crazy expensive. Don't ever play pool there, they charge you by the second. I think I was like 19 when I was there with my girl, and we were going to play pool. I think after 10pm its 21+. So at around 9:50 we got a pool table, at the time I didnt know about the 21+ thiing. So I hit one ball then some guy who works there comes and says are yall 21? I said no and so did my girl so they said we had to go. So i was like ok whatever and the lady charge me 1.25 when I returned the pool balls. I was like wtf!!!! I didn't say anything but I haven't gone back since.
Diamond in Pasadena SUCKS Armadilla is a much nicer house, but has a almost full Fri nite league, so their R-n-B is on Sat. I would recommend either of the Armadilla houses (1 and 2) or Alpha in CL. all three places are brightly lit, clean and cater to families (aside from their leagues who are their bread and butter) Palace in Houston is considered a decent house by most of the league bowlers I know, but I havent personally been there in years...so ymmv
Fo sho. If I had to choose one in Houston to have a party at with kids or not, it'd be Jillians. IIRC, they have spaceous, carpeted areas right off the lanes. Just be prepared to whip out the old pocket book.
then they wouldnt do for what the OP needs you dont want to put more than 5 people on each lane, otherwise it takes too long between turns which then detracts from the fun for most people. AggieDentist, you are gonna have alot of trouble getting that many lanes on a Friday night anywhere in the city. THe fall leagues have started and the Friday nite league is normally the most popular since folks can drink alot without worrying about getting up for work the next day. You will be a lot better off shooting for Saturday or Sunday. Saturdays are normally Rock(country/r&B/etc) n Bowl like was mentioned above. but those dont normally start till after 10pm, and most houses will not allow you to open bowl and then keep the same lanes for RnB. Possibly you can get them to work with ya since you are bringin in alot of business, but I wouldnt count on it.
I think 100+ is way too many people for a bowling alley because they pretty much have to close all the lanes down for reservations. Can't you just do like an outdoor thing during the day.. like bbq?
true, it would be hard to do. but most better places have 32-40 lanes 100/5 per lane = 20 lanes I know at the places I go, you can pay a certain amount per lane and bowl as much as you want for a set amount of time, so that is a lot of money for the house. As long as they dont have leagues or tourneys, a house will gladly rent out half their open lanes for something like this. Better time would be Sat or SUn afternoon. Those times are termed "open play"
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Hey - Thanks R2K and to everyone else that gave advice. I'm gonna be doing the Leukemia (Birthday) Benefit at Palace Bowling Lanes tomor (friday) night, 9:30 PM-12:30 AM. It'll be after their Friday Night Bowling League, so I'll be able to reserve 14 lanes with no problem. thanks again, BBS. you guys are the effing best.
Man, Palace Lanes brings back memories. When I was a little punk in the late 70's, me and my buddies used to hang out there all the time in the summer. It was a great place to get out of the heat and play Asteroids. I remember their snack bar serving some of the best fries I've ever had. Good times.
