Bryant-Lake Bowl, locally nicknamed BLB, is a bowling alley,

restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

, and 90-seat

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

in the

Uptown Uptown may refer to: Neighborhoods or regions in several cities United States * Uptown, entertainment district east of Downtown and Midtown Albuquerque, New Mexico * Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina * Uptown, area surrounding the University of C ...

neighborhood of

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. Best known for its evening entertainment and Cheap Date Night specials (two meals, drinks, and a round of bowling for $28) BLB is also a reliable brunch stop. The theatre is a venue for

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

and wide variety of other stage productions. It is a host of the annual

Minnesota Fringe Festival The Minnesota Fringe Festival is a performing arts festival held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, every summer, usually during the first two weeks in August. The eleven-day event, which features performing artists of many genres and dis ...

. Originally a garage, the building was converted into a bowling alley in 1936. In 1959, Minnesota bowling champion Bill Drouches bought the bowling alley.

Kim Bartmann Kim Bartmann is a Minneapolis based restaurateur. She has been named a semifinalist for the James Beard Award three times. Biography Bartmann grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin and attended the University of Minnesota in the 1980s. She worked a seri ...

bought the business in 1993, restoring the building, opening a restaurant, and converting the game room into a 90-seat theatre. In 2018, Bryant-Lake Bowl was sold by Bartmann to longtime employee Erica Gilbert. In 2004, Bryant-Lake Bowl hosted the signing ceremony for a

city ordinance A local ordinance is a law issued by a local government. such as a municipality, county, parish, prefecture, or the like. China In Hong Kong, all laws enacted by the territory's Legislative Council remain to be known as ''Ordinances'' () af ...

making Minneapolis restaurants and bars free of

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

smoke. Bryant-Lake Bowl was featured in a 2008 episode of Food Network's ''

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives ''Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives'' (often nicknamed ''Triple D'' and stylized as ''Diners, Drive-Ins, Dives'') is an American food reality television series that premiered on April 23, 2007, on the Food Network. It is hosted by Guy Fieri. The show o ...

'', hosted by Guy Fieri. In 2021, Bryant-Lake Bowl released an 87 second promotional video called ''Right Up Our Alley'', made in one continuous shot by drone operator Jay Christensen, which went

viral Viral means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents). Viral may also refer to: Viral behavior, or virality Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example: * Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spread a marke ...

and garnered praise from several critics.

References

External links

Official website

An interview with Kim Bartmann about the history of Bryant-Lake Bowl
Restaurants in Minnesota Bowling alleys {{Minnesota-struct-stub