- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Movies |
- All
- Nearest Transit:
-
Delmar Loop (MetroLink)
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Music:
- Juke Box
- Best Nights:
- Thu, Fri, Sat
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Smoking:
- Yes
- Coat Check:
- No
19 reviews for Pin-Up Bowl
I love bowling, not that I am any good at it. Came in on a Saturday afternoon and had a pretty good time. Bowling was $4.50 a game and $3.50 shoes. We only bowled one game so we didn't go broke.
Music was coming from what I think was an ipod and the selection was great. Social D and other various rock for rockers. The beer was great and the place was seemingly a vintage bar with a bowling alley in the back. Super clean, yet smokey. Lots of charachter. Bad selection of house balls and the lanes were dry as hell. I don't even know if they oil the lanes. My first throw was a hard hook that went gutter about half way down.
In all this place was pretty priced compared to Frike's in Crown Point, which is my all time favorite @ $2 a game and free shoes. Had a great time, friendly staff and I managed to get a turkey in the 10th frame.
more like Pinup Blow, amiright??
no, but seriously. the bouncer was a raging douche. how are you gonna force people out of a 3am bar at 2:30? kill yourself.
Note: it was my birthday when I went here, so my coworker ended up paying for... pretty much everything. My review is covering the experience, not the price.
I haven't been bowling in years. It was fun. It's just regular bowling, there's not much to say about that. Eight lanes. Open til 3am. EVEN ON WEEKNIGHTS! Sorry, birthday was on Wednesday, so that part was sorta exciting.
The beer... good stuff! They have a pretty splendid selection for what seems to be an average bar. The bartenders are incredibly friendly, which is always a plus. No fun getting someone surly serving you drinks! All in all, one of my favorites.
I'm a fan of this place. I've never bowled here (way too expensive), but I'm willing to shell out some cash for some good drinks, so there.
The booths by the front windows are nice, but they're usually always taken.
I ordered my first Vesper martini here (you know, from the James Bond movie, Casino Royale?). It was absolutely disgusting. But that's beside the point.
This place absolutely sucks the life out of me every time I have to hop down there. It's basically a hipster suicide lounge, and quite honestly a crappy place to bowl. I always cringe at the musical selection being pumped out of the internet jukebox, although that does allow me to put a cringe into the hearts of the patrons by playing Megadeth or something. The drinks are overpriced and the smoke seems to hang directly at eye level at the bar for some reason.
Just not my cup of tea, the faux trendiness hurts my soul and there's little else to attract anyone here.
Pin-Up Bowl in the University City Loop is not what it sounds like. There won't be naked women hanging off the walls or bowls pinned up on the wall. Pin-Up Bowl is actually a bowling alley bar, more of a bar than a bowling alley though; still the place is pretty cool. Inside the neon lit lane brighten up the jukebox-playing bar.
Pin-Up Bowl is a place that generally my friends and I go to when all the other bars have closed. They offer us the oasis and the lovely privilege of being able to order drinks till 3 A.M. for those nights when you just don't feel like heading home quite yet. Pin-Up Bowl has a lot to offer. They have drinks of course, and bowling. If you enjoy the two and are lucky enough to get a lane, then your night is set.
I've never though to actually go bowling here. I know that people do. Apparently one of my friends does league bowling there, so it really is a real bowling alley. But, I'm just uninterested. I've never been the one to suggest going there. I'll go along if it's what someone else wants to do, which usually means we're in the area and at a loss for somewhere else to go.
The crowd can be pretty annoying--I think it's often pretty filled with people thinking that they're doing the cool thing by going to the loop and getting wasted at Pin-Up before driving back to wherever they live.
The bartenders are cool--it's not their fault I don't like this place. It might not even be Joe Edward's, who owns the place.
Pin-Up Bowl, born in 2005, is the latest hotspot from the genius mind of Joe Edwards (see Blueberry Hill, see The Pageant). The name describes the feel - swanky yet hip, neatly framed pin-up girl posters over sparkly vinyl seating.
They manage to cram 8 bowling lanes in the back, but to me the bowling area is not the focus of the bar... the lighting in that part is darkened, and the acoustic set-up makes the crashing pin sound almost undiscernible.
I've come to pin-up bowl a few times, all on weekend nights. The place gets crowded with a mixed bag of hipsters and... ex-hipsters. The martinis are top notch but since I'm not a martini-budget kinda gal I usually buy a pitcher of beer which is well priced.
Overall a fun place.... if you're hip.
Pin Up wasn't erected until I moved out of St. Louis. A vacum cleaner store that my friends father owned was in its place until he sold it to Mr. Edwards. Everytime I visit St. Louis I visit Pin-Up. It's a great place, atmosphere, moderate drink prices (I live in LA, so it's cheap comparative). I F-in love the food they have there, I usually get the pretzel and cheese, but sometimes taste the toasted ravioli's and chicken strips.
A lot of my friends frequent the place, one of my friends used to work there, but then got banned for groping people when he was blackout drunk. Another guy I went to school with works there, in 8th grade I got him to wear a dress to choir class and he got suspended.
I would give the place 5 stars, but the employe's have a reputation of thinking they are hot shit, service is good, but they have a St. Louis hipster aura, and that don't fly by me.
I used to see Nelly bowl there, but that was awhile ago. Seen a couple brawls outside of Pin-Up, luckily the last time I went there weren't any fights, and the darkness of pin-Up has lit up a little, i.e. less thug darkedy people.
I hate thugs, but thugs are a little better than hipsters. They BOUT BOUT IT.
Pin-Up Bowl definitely has a fun atmosphere. I love the decor and feel--very hip for a bowling alley.
An example of their brand of style--the dessert menu consists of Pop-Tarts. I can't help but chuckle.
I have two complaints: the price and the size. It's way too cramped. With the bowling alley, the bar and the tables, there is hardly any room to walk. And the drinks are pretty pricey. I always leave feeling like I spent way too much for what I got. Those Pop-Tarts? They're pretty darn expensive, too. Plus--they charge a cover, sometimes $5. With the price of the drinks and food, this feels pretty unwarranted. There is no live entertainment or specials, so in my opinion, there should be no cover!
It's a cute place to go. You just have to be prepared for the negatives.
I heart Pin Up 4-ever!!!
My friends' and my fave bar in StL and I wish I could find a similar place in CA! Mixed crowd, depending on the night, good drinks (sangria martini, how I love thee!), the staff works hard, and I love being safe and warm (or cool) inside and watching the start forming at 1--suckers.
The only thing I don't miss is the smoke factor--Joe R, please invest in some sort of ventilation system!
The only regret I have is that I never was there when Nelly was...
The only non-regret, that I never paid some outrageous price for a simple crappy Pop Tart.
The only time I bowled over 120 was there...
The only time one of my friends yarfed in the middle of a bar was there, and the staff was only moderately crabby about it!
So many memories...and so many fun nights...and so many next-mornings where I had to ask my friends "At Pinup last night, did I really ___________?"
Pin-Up Bowl is a neat idea, but the prices are up there to bowl, eat or drink. Perhaps they are looking to attract a certain sort of crowd, which is fine by me. They are usually crowded with college students or business people. The decor is really cool, and it is nice to have a cool looking place to bowl. I wish that there were more lanes, but I suppose that the appeal is equal parts bowling and lounging, and so I can understand the layout. I'm giving three stars because while this is not my scene, there are a lot of patrons who truly enjoy the place.
Imagine a bowling alley that serves fancy cocktails and has a decent atmosphere. No carpeted walls here! The Pin-Up bowl is a fun place to go with a group to have cocktails and perhaps bowl a few games (if you can get a lane- there are only a handful). I really enjoy the decor; if you're into 50s and 60s pin-up art, you'll dig this place, too.
I love this place, though it's a bit smokey. Don't let the numerous occurrences of the word "hip" on this page frighten you off; Pin-Up is indeed trendilicious, but it's also got a very authentic feel. Great place to go with a mixed group of drinkers and non-drinkers.
I bowl better in a trendy bar.
The drinks are moderately pricey and the food is kind of crappy, but Pin-Up is one of the only places open in the immediate area because it is open until 3am on weekends. The crowd tends to be mixed between yuppies, older professionals, and the younger SLU and WashU crowds. The bowling alley is a really neat concept, but its priced out of most people's league and the wait is too long since there are only a handful of lanes.
Kinda of a wannabe Lucky Strike. Good for drinks, avoid the food.
Yes, Pin-Up Bowl has a series of bowling lanes, but that's more a part of the retro cool that defines Pin-Up, rather than an active part of the scene; that's not to say that the lanes don't get used because they do, but this place is one of the newer ideas in the St. Louis night life scene and has become a staple, similar to Blueberry Hill down the street. Take a look at the menu (defined by a the grocery-labeled items, such as Campbell's Soup) and you'll realize what kitschy, retro cool is all about!
The concept of pin-up is great, but the execution needs a few kinks worked out. First off, the place needs to be bigger. There are only a handful of bowling lanes, and whenever I go at night I have to maneuver around the tables in the lounge like I'm making my way through a labyrinth I love the booths near the front windows when they're open, and the decor nicely coincides with the idea of the old-fashioned pin-up girl (which I'd like to note is pulled off with class). In stark contrast, the characters that come here at night, very drunk even before they enter the place can be extremely annoying, which is why I stopped coming here. I did love how they sold strawberry pop-tarts, pretzels with cheese, and even hummus at two o'clock in the morning, but not even that can salvage the havoc that guys fifty-eight sheets to the wind can have on you. This was almost a two-star affair but I doled out the extra star, assuming the place is quite different during the earlier hours (long before those lonely drunken men have dragged themselves out of bed).
