Pin-Up Bowl

A great place to go with friends for drinks and a fun night-​time activity. The space around the lanes is a bit crowded so I wouldn’t advice organizing an event with 50 of your closest friends (as I did), but Pin-​Up Bowl is always a fun time for all.

Came here on a Sunday night with my fiancée and we loved it! Ordered a chicken quesadilla (which was delicious for «bar food») had beers, we bowled a few games too. The staff was awesome and the atmosphere in the place was beyond awesome. We can’t wait to come back on our wedding night to hang out, drink, and bowl with all our friends!

We were very excited about coming here but when we arrived the service was terrible! We waited 15 minutes (two other small groups were there) for anyone to acknowledge us, and then another 20 for drinks (only two people were sitting at the bar)! By the time we got everything together they said we only had 45 minutes to bowl before we had to leave for an arriving party at 7. No one was very friendly and it felt as if we were a burden by being there… disappointed!

This place has cute décor, but it’s a sad bowling alley. Because of the bar inside, they demand to check your ID just to enter the place, even if your only intention is to go bowling sober. While checking out shoes, they asked for IDs again! Now, that was a little too much and a bit offensive.
If you’re going bowling, remember to bring your own socks! Bowling was a last minute plan, and I came in sandals, needing to buy socks there. Not only were they not my size, but they were also expensive and ugly. Do yourself a favor and remember to bring your own :)
While bowling, we had issues with the lanes, which didn’t seem to be maintained at all. Our bowling ball was obviously rolling toward one side with every single roll. We even noticed it with other people playing.
If you’re looking forward to bowling, try to find another place.

I am an avid traveler and have enjoyed many restaurants and watering holes in the United States, and visiting this bar was an absolute disaster.
The food was terrible. Not only did they serve me the wrong food, but the food I received was cold. When I questioned the food, the bartender was very rude and told me I «didn’t know what I ordered.» As a person who has worked in the food and beverage industry, I was very taken aback by her response.
Additionally, when I spoke to the manager, he told me that I should not be in that establishment and that I should go back to the East Coast. (Great leadership)
As a visitor to St. Louis, I would highly recommend NOT visiting this bar/​restaurant.

I love this place! Real chill, yet you can still have yoour fun and feel like you’re with your company and not with the entire facility. I haven’t seen any kids in there, that will run you over or profanity and etc… Really nice place to enjoy yourself on a date or with family and friends.

Pin-​up is a nice place to visit. The bartenders (the two times I’ve visited) are knowledgable in their beers, which is nice. The beer prices are better than their bowling prices. The lanes themselves seem to be well cared for. I had no problems with my lanes on either visit. The restrooms are fairly clean. The music is ridiculously loud — both visits were on a Sunday with only three or four other bowlers, so really no reason for the blaring music. Because it is close AND does not allow smoking, I will continue to go once in awhile. I wish the Sunday prices were a bit more friendly though.

A great throwback and fun location in the Loop. Part of the Edwards empire. I came here for an office holiday party.
It is a neat and cozy little location with ample parking behind the building but also some parking right in front. The bowling alley is overall very small. Only about 8 lanes total and is starting to show its age. The lanes are cracked and peeling but were fine for our recreational play that day. The electronics and controls for bowling were old and outdated. When we first started it seemed like the system needed to warm up and was actually rebooted once so I would recommend start signing up your names early. It does take a while. Even the turn over after bowling each ball was sluggish.
Thank god for the bar. It is full service including some bites but after a few drinks you don’t care if the bowling lanes function slow.
Overall I enjoy the pin-​up bowl for what it is. Vintage laid back bowling alley and a great place to hang out with friends.

This is the place to go when it’s late at night and the rest of the Loop is starting to quiet down. They don’t close until 3am and always have an interesting group of musicians, tattooers, and other artists who frequent this establishment. The bowling alley is really cool and I couldn’t ask for a more friendly and fun staff.

Tried to play a game and after 6 bowls the pins got stuck. We waited for 25 minutes and still didn’t work. We decided to leave and they acted like they were doing us a favor to give us that game for free. Uh… We didn’t even finish the game… We waited, and they couldn’t fix it. Of course we are not paying for that. Tried to get a discount for future play, but that was not gonna happen. Eh… Not the greatest experience.

Came here on a Sunday night after my Seahawks lost…
I didn’t expect much as an out of towner but this place rocks! Like Aaron B. mentioned, the bowling purists might complain about the ungreased lanes. I’m a straight bowler so it didn’t matter to me.
Pros:
Music! There was a DJ spinning GOOD hip hop, rock ballads, and top 40. He kept the mood just right.
Staff: I love the city of St. Louis because of the people. The two female bartenders, who were also the cashiers for bowling, were very nice and accomodating. I never had to wait longer than a minute to get my beers.
Price: Very affordable. I played two games, rented shoes, and I had four beers and still spent under $ 30! Impossible in LA or Long Beach.
Décor: Done very nice. There were 50’s pinup pics all over. Lighting was right, not too dark or too bright.
Cons:
Street parking — We didn’t look to see if there was a structure because we found a spot in the front
Lanes/​Ball: The lanes were ungreased and there were some random divots so your ball could end up spinning the other way. The balls also had huge chips.
If you and your friends are looking to just chill, enjoy music, and maybe bowl, I highly recommend this place. If you are competing and want to outscore each other, you’ll probably have to find another place.

My son’s birthday was there this weekend from 12 – 2. We were supposed to eat lunch from 12 – 12:30 then bowl from 12:30 — 1:30 and then do cake. When we arrived a little early they were nice enough to let us in to set up but it was obviously a inconvenience to them. At 12 nothing was ready for my quests. They only had 2 people working. One was cooking the food which was not available until 12:30 and the other (who was completely miserable) was trying to get bowling shoes for about 15 kids and drinks for the 25 people that were there. That obviously did not go smoothly. I finally went behind the counter and started getting shoes for my guests. No tables were set up, TVs not on and they were completely unprepared. Very disappointing experience.

Pin-​Up Bowl is a really fun spot right on the Delmar Loop.
It’s a 50s/​pinup girl themed bar and bowling alley! What more could you ask for? They have around 8 lanes and they are all pretty snug. If you’re a bowling purest you probably shouldn’t come here. But if you’re looking to bowl while hang out and have some good drinks than this is your place.
The lanes aren’t «greased» at all. At least when I went. It pretty much forces you to bowl straight. I’m not a big bowler so I didn’t really care. However it was annoying to some of the more competitive bowling members. 1 game+shoes for 4 people was only $ 30. Sweet deal ($ 4 shoes+3 $ a game)!
They have good drink prices and extremely friendly staff. Not to mention you can hit up tons of other bars and restaurants after!

Rad old school bowling Alley with a PIN-​UP girl 1950’s vibe, Yet they have Tv’s as well so you can watch the World Cup while you try to knock some pins down!
Drink prices were pretty good, with lots of good beers on tap! They also specialize in classic mixed drinks from the pin-​up era!
Bowling is pretty cheap, 3 bucks a game with a 3 dollar shoe rental!
This was a really fun place to kill a few hours!

I thought this place was cool. Only 8 lanes but I wen twice in a weekend and it wasn’t a problem. Employees were friendly, bathrooms were clean, and the food was solid. No complaints for a slightly out of the ordinary way to spend a late evening.

I really don’t like this place because I always get creeped on by some creepy guy with a rape-​y vibe, and the staff overcharged my bf for our lane (should have been $ 25-​ish for 5 people, she charged $ 41! but he was too drunk to argue, and whenever he does have an issue with an employee here, he gets immediately kicked out). Never mind that the employee working the lanes turned off ours and had to recover it in the middle of the fifth frame. Maybe they upcharged us for their own ineptitude?
But I have to keep coming here whenever I’m in town because my bf loves running into people from ages ago. Apparently this is the place for that to happen, at least among his group of friends.
It’s nice that you can bowl while having some drinks, though, even though the bowling infrastructure kind of sucks. This place is more of a bar than a bowling alley anyway.

This place holds a plethora of great memories for me. Way back when (in 2006) when R and I first met and started dating we came here all the time. And not even to bowl. I have been here a total of two times to bowl and more times than I can count on all my fingers and toes to just hang out and play PHOTO HUNT.
Pin-​Up bartenders know how to pour a stiff drink. My most recent visit a few weeks ago (for a college friend’s bachelorette party) confirmed this. Ask for a vodka and soda, you’ll get ⁵⁄₆ vodka ¹⁄₆ soda. Need a bacardi and diet coke? They’ve got you covered but the drink will be more amber than brown. Anyways, if you get the good liquor the drinks are great and you only need a couple for the whole night. So back down memory lane, when we lived in STL you could find R and I drinking our stiff drinks and playing photo hunt for hours at the corner of the bar. My heart yearns for a place like this up here close to our condo. I miss it a lot.

Last Friday we had a work outing (celebrating 11.11.11) that began at 3 p.m. We consumed the entire joint with our group of 60+.
What a fun place. And little. Eight lanes, auto-​scoring (thankfully) — although we did have a discussion of who learned in high school to score bowling — EEK!!.
Plenty of music and other messages across the front of the lanes.
Barmistress was cordial, another server/don’t really know what his role was — was much more friendly and smiley.
Lightweight balls were in abundance and well-​marked, so that was extremely helpful.
When I got shoes, my size was translated verbally into a male size, so I guess the shoes are unigender.
The food was catered from Blueberry Hill, so I guess it doesn’t count for the review. It was OK with plenty of variety. I didn’t try lots of things.
We had a glorious time, but I’m not sure if it was due to Pin-​Up Bowl or the work crowd!

***Disclaimer*** I am very bad at bowling. If you want to win, do not pick me for your team… and I promise to not be offended.
Regardless of my (lack of) bowling skills, a group of us had a really fun time last night at Pin-​Up. They take reservations if you call a day ahead, but we just walked in last night and they set us right up with a lane. In about two minutes flat, shoes were rented, drinks were bought, and we were showing off our skills.
I went for a pretty boring drink choice compared to their menu of Signature Cocktails, and next time I’m there I really want to try the Dutch Harvest or the red sangria. What I really love about Pin-​Up is even if you’re not bowling, it’s great as a lounge where you can just sit around with friends over drinks. They also have a nice variety of appetizers and sandwiches.
Bottom line, good drinks + a jukebox + friends + bowling + good service = a pretty ideal Saturday night.

First– I always hear people complain about the rude bartenders. I think they’re great-​just don’t be rude/​douchey. I’d imagine that the people who complain about not being able to get a drink have always had trouble getting drinks at crowded bar. There’s an art to it for sure.
That being said, I think most of the non-​bartender staff are rude and crabby, especially the door guys.
Overall, top 3 bars in STL– their jukebox is amazing and the food is edible past a few drinks.