On December 2, the mammoth new Bowlmor Lanes Times Square held its official opening (an event that also doubled as Gotham magazine's holiday party), finally unveiling the bowling chain's most ambitious project—a 90,000-square-foot, bilevel alley, restaurant, and event space. In the Times Square building once home to The New York Times, this large facility offers 50 lanes divided between seven sections, each of which is styled after a key part of the city, including Chinatown, Central Park, the subway system, and TriBeCa. Designed by CMS Architecture, Tom Shannon's venue also includes a restaurant from chef David Burke, who was appointed Bowlmor's culinary director earlier this year.
With distinct decorative elements, which are more subtle than over-than-top, the different lane areas help break up the space and also serve as semiprivate areas that can be booked for groups. For instance, the Chinatown section offers six lanes for bowling and has the capacity for 100 people, while the portion of the venue styled after Central Park has 12 lanes and the capacity for 175. There are three lounges, the largest of which is inspired by TriBeCa and holds 150 for receptions.
The 220-seat restaurant, dubbed the Stadium Grill, sits separate from the alley areas and, as the name suggests, takes on a sports arena motif, with tiered seating, an 80-foot-long bar featuring a real-time sports ticker, and HDTVs showing all manner of athletic coverage. Burke's menu is intended to complement this and includes comfort food like pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches, and burgers, as well as heavier fare such as strip steak, fried chicken, and salmon.
In the private event space, the design is more understated, as the New York Salon's main visual component is large posters of New York photographs. This room, on the smaller upper level of Bowlmor Lanes Times Square, has the capacity for 225 guests.
