Frames – Burgers, Beer, and Bowling (Birthday Edition)

The day started off rather normally. Well, as normal as any birthday weekend can start.

We had just come from Rockaway Beach, after a mini surprise party congregating at the boardwalk. Cake and friends and waves and dogs filled the day and I headed back with everyone feeling birthday happy.

There was rumor of another thing coming though and I excitedly boarded the a train back as my friends told me the dress code at this next spot was “dress to impress.”

I laughed as my BFF pulled out one of my favorite dresses from her beach bag. It was a little black dress covered in tiny cloth black roses.

“just in case we ran late at the beach” was her reason.

“when did you even go into my room and take that??” I exclaimed.

“I have my ways.” she smiled. “Anyway, you don’t have to wear this one if you don’t want to now that we have time to go home, but they said dress to impress.”

I took the dress from her. “I’m wearing it.”

I picked out a set heels to go with the dress and we met up with a few others before heading to the mystery dress to impress spot.

We got off the train at Times Square and I had even less of an idea of where we were going. Heading west, we hit Port Authority and then walked… behind Port Authority.

“There it is.”

“There is what?” I asked.

We walked towards to a small door with a velvet rope and i was able to make out the word Frames, and what I thought was–

“oh my gosh we’re going bowling?? In this dress??” Yes!

A little background – I was a an avid bowler for ten years as a child. And by avid I mean lessons, league, shoes, and a ball named Ruby Red. My family and I used to go bowling every Sunday morning before church to catch the one dollar a game specials.

Yeah, bowling.

A bouncer (hahahahaha) waved us towards the elevator which opened up into exactly what you’d hope a luxury bowling alley would look like. Ladies in heels and short skirts greeted you behind a bright red counter with some art deco type glass wall behind them, the kind you see at a three-star hotel trying to look four-star. To our left, every single lane had a giant screen above it projecting the music video of the current club/house/pop hit.

To our right, we were led into their gourmet-like restaurant, more of the glass deco stuff partitioning it from the lanes.

“Any table you want,” the hostess said. “Just make sure you’re back around 10 for your lane. You can check back in here when you’re ready to bowl.”

There was a five person round table right in the center of the restaurant with our name on it and I took my hot pink slingbacks over and settled myself in one of their cushy red seats.

We were handed menus by our waiter but everyone else waved them away.

“We have the burger bowl beer deal,” they told him.

The waiter smiled. “Great, then you have two choices – beef or veggie.”

“I’ll have mine medium rare,” I said immediately.

After all the orders were taken, he asked if we wanted our beer tower here or at the lane.

“Beer tower?” I almost choked on my water as they told him at the lane.

The waiter pointed behind us to the other group enjoying their beer tower with their meal. “Yes, beer tower.”

I was still reveling at where we were when the food arrived. I couldn’t believe we were about to have gourmet burgers at a bowling alley and then go bowling in cocktail dresses. (What is my life??)

The burgers certainly look worth the deal, I thought, as they all arrived in succession. Along with a mountain of fries, the burgers nestled on beautifully bronze sesame seed buns, lettuce and tomato on the side, and the cheese, bleu.

I took my first bite and have to admit I was surprised at how good it was. The burger was perfectly juicy and the spices were subtle and complex, enhancing the flavor of the high quality beef they had used without distracting it with heavy seasoning. The bleu cheese, which I normally don’t enjoy on a burger, or in general, was the perfect salty, creamy topping. It didn’t make me miss the fact that there was no bacon.

The fries were not too shoestring and not too steak, well fried, and accompanied by a delicious golden mustard that didn’t make anyone reach for the ketchup. All in all, we had great meals. At a bowling alley. I was loving this luxury bowling thing already and I hadn’t even knocked down a pin.

The package also came with two hours of bowling, including shoe rental. I happily took off my heels and changed into the familiar–albeit cleaner looking than most–pair of red, white, and blue shoes and picked out a ball that would suit me for the night. If I did badly, I would just blame it on the fact that it’s not the same without your own ball.

A bartender came by and asked us what beer we would like to fill the tower with. “We have Coors, Coors Light, Budweiser, Bud Light, and Yeungling.”

“Yeungling!” everyone said in unison, sighing with relief.

The beer tower slowly drained as we rolled balls down the lane and it took about half a game for me to remember how to throw the things. We told one of the bartenders that it was my birthday and we turned around and five shots magically appeared! Those were drained a bit more quickly than the epic beer tower.

“Is that the bass from the music?” I said when I felt a rumble. “Or are we all throwing the bowling balls down the lane too hard?”

Everyone laughed. “No,” someone chimed in. “We are actually literally inside Port Authority. Those all all the buses driving away under us.”

The two hours flew by and we couldn’t believe it had been that long when the lane shut down on us. Everyone who served us was beyond nice and I can’t remember the last time I had just pure fun.

From the burgers, to the beer, to the luxury bowling, I couldn’t have asked for a better way to turn 26.