- Oakland Tribune OuttakesRock-and-Bowl
By awoodall
Picture yourself beginning 10 p.m. Mondays with a pitcher of Bud and a bowling ball playing out your suburban, stationwagon-driving fantasies at the Albany Bowl.
Schlemiel! Schlemazl! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated! It’s a steal at only $1.50 a game. Albany Bowl is located at 540 San Pablo Ave. (Albanybowl.biz)
Actually, I happened to pass by there yesterday from the Cerrito Speakeasy, where I saw a matinee of “Sweeny Todd” (I am the only person I know who actually liked the film), and was stunned at the bustle in that little section of El Cerrito by the BART station. The Cerrito, three cool cafes, the big shopping center, little stores, a hardware store that is NOT Home Depot, etc. It used to be dead over there. Closer to Solano Ave. (which is its own success story), are the Albany Bowl, stores, cafes, shops and Kingman’s Ivy Room, which, as I told my daughters while driving by, my mouth agape, used to be a pretty murky bar at times. I’ve meaning to get to the Ivy Room since it changed ownership. I remember Kingman from the days when he ran a cafe on Lakeshore and I lived up on Mandana. I practically studied my way through college there, when they were waiting to just get a beer and wine license. Then came Kingman’s Lucky Lounge on Grand and now he has pretty much built a hip empire of hooch.
(BTW, photo is by Thomas Hawk)
Posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008
Under: Albany, Dive bars, El Cerrito, General, Nightlife, Theaters, Urban renewal | 1 Comment »
Leave a comment