A lucky strike: How Brooklyn Bowl became ‘rock and roll heaven’

In a city where the truly unique is rare, Brooklyn Bowl stands out, a one-of-a-kind music venue and bowling alley that attracts bowlers and performers ranging from John Legend to Adele and Questlove.

It has built its own “Brooklyn” brand, expanding from its Williamsburg home to locations around the country, from Las Vegas to Nashville and Philadelphia.

If the combination of bowling and beats, bowling shoes and dancing shoes, seems to work, it was born not so much out of a love of bowling alleys as dissatisfaction with them.

When the owners of Wetlands Preserve, the classic downtown music club, took their staff out to a bowling alley in December 2000, they were unimpressed with the atmosphere.

The sound system, food and service were all gutter balls, and the alley — and the bowling balls — were so filthy their hands got dirty. But they also noticed something else that led to the birth of Brooklyn Bowl.

“Everybody had a good time,” said Charley Ryan, who along with Peter Shapiro went on to open Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg. “I never saw them laugh so much.”

A live performance at Brooklyn Bowl, which hosts artists ranging from jam bands to hip-hop legends.Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Bowl

Ryan and Shapiro developed the idea of upscaling bowling and merging it with a music club not long before they closed Wetlands in September 2001. In 2009, they opened the first Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg.

“We were both busy doing other things,” Ryan said of the early days. “Every few months, one of us would call the other one and say, ‘Let’s look for places with that idea.’”

Ryan, who grew up in Michigan in the Rust Belt, had been part of a bowling league as a child but never thought the game would play a role in his future.

“If you get a lucky strike, you jump up and down,” Ryan added, noting that bowling was big in Michigan.

He and Shapiro opened and built Brooklyn Bowl as a Brooklyn-branded business, much the way Brooklyn Brewery built on the borough’s name.

Questlove and The Roots, the house band for NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” will perform there on Valentine’s Day, at once looking back to the past and toward the future.

“We go back to the Wetlands days with them,” Ryan said. “We became very close with them. That’s how far back we go with them.”

Questlove of The Roots performs at Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg. The band, longtime collaborators with the venue’s founders, will return for a Valentine’s Day performance.

With a capacity of 965 for concert crowds, Brooklyn Bowl hosts jambands, themed DJ nights, legacy acts, hip-hop and rap legends, jazz, world music and Latin artists. It’s a cross between Tin Pan Alley and a bowling alley.

The venue has been dubbed “rock and roll heaven” by the Village Voice — although the “roll” part may be bowling balls — and boasts a sound system and amenities The New York Times says “no other local rock club can offer.”

A Brooklyn brand

Ryan recalls believing bowling and beats could coexist despite skeptics, even as people increasingly retreated into a screen-filled virtual world.

“We thought people are becoming more insular, more separated from each other, even though they’re in the greatest city in the world,” Ryan said. “What can we do about that?”

Shapiro, who also runs Dayglo Presents, a music and media company he founded in 2010, and Ryan looked “all over the place” before finding an old Williamsburg ironworks building dating to the late 19th century.

“This was the perfect fit,” Ryan added. “It kind of went down the food chain of warehouses. You could see the bones. It didn’t look much like what we ended up with.”

They installed new HVAC and fire suppression systems and redid the roof, spending millions more than anticipated. A year and a half later, they opened on July 7, 2009. But was it a bowling alley, a club or both?

“I liked the idea that people would decide for themselves,” Ryan said. “If I heard one of the people say, ‘We’re really a music venue,’ I would say, ‘Make it a little more like they can decide for themselves.’”

The bowling lanes at Brooklyn Bowl sit just steps from the performance stage.Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Bowl

The setup at Brooklyn Bowl allows bowlers to watch bands onstage while rolling down the lane.Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Bowl

They considered names like “The Gutterball Palace” before settling on Brooklyn Bowl.

“We wanted it to be descriptive,” Ryan said. “Brooklyn Bowl is alliterative.”

They opened with 16 lanes, accommodating up to 200 bowlers a night alongside club-goers.

Blue Ribbon Restaurants designed the menu and supplied staff who now work for Brooklyn Bowl.

“We have a close relationship with them,” Ryan said. “And they continue to tweak it.”

High-end sound systems and high-definition TVs were added to broadcast bands so patrons can watch performances while bowling.

“We put them on the screens or abstract imagery. Sometimes bands have ideas about what they want there,” Ryan said. “Maybe they only want their image. Maybe they want anything but their image.”

Brooklyn Bowl also became the first LEED-certified bowling alley, earning publicity while harking back to the Wetlands’ values.

“Those were our values,” Ryan said. “We believe in respect, respect the people, the planet. That was natural.”

Brooklyn Bowl’s Williamsburg location, housed in a former 19th-century ironworks building. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Bowl

Williamsburg, meanwhile, went through a revival, attracting other businesses to once-sleepy main streets.

“It was bubbling under,” Ryan said. “It happened kind of concurrent with us opening up, the boom everything associated with us.”

Beyond Brooklyn

Expansion beyond Brooklyn began when potential partners reached out.

“We opened strong. People reached out to us,” Ryan said. “That led to us thinking where we might want to go.”

They opened a Las Vegas venue four times the size of the Brooklyn location. Nashville followed in 2020 but effectively launched in 2021 due to COVID-19. Philadelphia opened in November 2021.

“Brooklyn has a great inherent public relations asset,” Ryan said. “People think of it as gritty and honest and full of people of achievement. They see it in positive light.”

Beyond The Roots and Questlove, the venue has built relationships with artists like John Legend, Skrillex, Snoop Dogg, Jane’s Addiction, Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, Adele and members of the Grateful Dead.

Taylor Swift once stopped by the Nashville venue and played for a few minutes.

“She stepped on stage there,” Ryan said. “It was her first appearance since [The Eras Tour].”

Brooklyn Bowl hosts large corporate events in Las Vegas, donates its space for community events, makes charitable contributions and serves on nonprofit boards.

“After a while, people know these people, us, are real,” Ryan said.

Charles Bradley performs onstage at Brooklyn Bowl, known for hosting legacy and soul artists alongside emerging acts.Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Bowl

The company has already expanded and could add more venues, further building the Brooklyn Bowl brand.

“Our view about bowling is bowling is fun. It is inclusive. No wonder it’s trend-proof,” Ryan said. “People perceive bowling at a given moment to be trendy or not trendy. If you’re good operator, you do well.”

Ryan has bowled with Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders and with Adele “before she blew up.” He has watched Jack White and his band bowl alongside country singer Wanda Jackson at Brooklyn Bowl.

“I walked up and Jack happened to be bowling,” Ryan said. “He threw a perfect strike. I said, ‘I knew you were from Michigan.’”

Brooklyn Bowl is located at 61 Wythe Ave. in Williamsburg, between North 11th and North 12th streets. More information and a full lineup of upcoming shows can be found at brooklynbowl.com.