Club Scout

Let's bowl, let's bowl, let's rock and roll. Okay, maybe Grease 2 song lyrics don't do justice to the entertainment venue slated to open late next month, but Lucky Strike Lanes, which will take over 20,500 square feet on the third floor of the Denver Pavilions, is building plenty of anticipatory buzz among both hip lounge lizards and my fellow retrophiliacs. And all for a bowling alley, a scene that hasn't sounded exciting since the original Happy Days episodes.

Until Steven and Gillian Foster got the idea for their latest venture, that is. Working with longtime partner Kevin Troy, they launched the first Strike in the heart of Hollywood in May 2003. Blending retro kitsch and the latest art and technology in luxurious environs, the club quickly scored. The trio has since opened Lucky Strikes in Orange County and Boston, and the debut of Denver's club is running neck-and-neck with the introduction of one in Louisville, Kentucky.

The space that will house Lucky Strike Lanes may not look like much now -- last week I slipped past the gates to peer through the brown paper covering the large windows and just got a glimpse of unfinished lanes inside. When it's finished, though, patrons will be able to gawk at floor-to-ceiling video displays over each of the twelve planned pin settings; check out the cutting-edge computerized scoring system; lounge in the ultra-mod furnishings; fondle the stylish billiards tables; enjoy drinks in a sports bar boasting three ten-foot, high-definition screens and eight forty-inch plasma TVs while a fifty-foot LED ticker updates ongoing game statistics; stargaze from an outside patio; try dinner in an upscale restaurant; enjoy a private lounge fit for fifty partyers (with four lanes of its own) -- or simply settle in and enjoy a DJ spinning music.

Oh, yes, and there's bowling. If you can't wait a month to try Lucky Strike Lanes, visit the website at www.BowlLuckyStrike.com. Now if we could just convince the Fosters to add live music, like New Orleans's great Rock 'N' Bowl.