High Point Bowling Center

Located on the south side of High Point, High Point Bowling Center has been around for as long as I can remember. Bill Cornell and partners assumed ownership from Michael Amos in 2010.
I remember coming here in middle school in the mid-​90s. There used to be cigarette vending machines at this bowling alley (not anymore). I ran into one of my schoolmates one night and I watched as she casually inserted money and bought a pack of cigarettes, even banging on the machine loudly to get the pack to fall out. Our sixth grade social studies teacher was in a lane not far from us. Funny how that’s the one thing I remember most about this place growing up.
20-​some-​odd years later, I returned to this bowling alley to meet up with some old friends. We met last week over the holidays. We originally were going to meet at Tar Heel Lanes (the old Brunswick) on North Main, but it appeared to have closed permanently. This is still very much an old school bowling alley with some enhancements here and there. The building hasn’t changed from the outside. Purple High Point University flags now fly outside the main entrance. There’s a spacious parking lot.
There’s a pro shop just inside the entrance followed by the lane and shoe rental counter, a pool and arcade room, and a bar and grill. There are 32 lanes total. The arcade room has a few pool tables and games such The Fast and the Furious arcade racing game (one of the screens appears to be blown out), skee ball, a jukebox, dance rhythm games, claw games, and more.
The bar and grill is called Sidelines Sports Grill. The sports bar is quite spacious with many big, bright, and crisp TVs playing sports. I like the giant Coors Light /​Wake Forest football and men’s basketball graphic on the wall. I bought a Pepsi at the bar here for $ 1.99 ($ 1.86 + $ 0.13 tax), served in a Styrofoam cup. According to my receipt, the sports bar is open until 2am on Friday and Saturday nights with a DJ and karaōke after 9:30pm.
Games of bowling are a good deal. Shoe rentals were $ 3. We paid $ 2.75 per person per game. Rates vary depending on day and time. I took a picture of the pricing which you can find here:
. $ 2 games and $ 2 shoes all day Sunday. $ 1 games and $ 1 shoes all day Monday except between 6−9pm. Be sure to check out their Facebook page (
) for even more specials.
The communal bowling balls, rental shoes, and bowling lanes all seemed to be in adequate condition. Widescreen displays above our lane kept track of scoring. There was a keyboard stand in front of the bowling ball return which we could use to edit our names and scores if needed. Plenty of seating is available at each lane consisting of both four and six-​top tables along with bar-​height four-​tops. The carpet reminds me of a 1990s kids party:
.
Service was A-​OK.
The lockers and restrooms are located on a far end of the bowling alley across from lane 32.

I must preface this review with the admission that I am not much of a bowler, and I certainly am unqualified to discuss the technical aspects/​merits of this bowling alley, but if you’re looking for a good time, a place to hang out with friends, friendly service, a clean establishment, and a full service bar and snack bar, this is the place to go in the Triad.
A friend of mine wanted to go bowling for his birthday, and a coworker recommended this place. I called for reservations (since it was for a Saturday night), and was told they accept reservations for parties of 10 people or more. Well, I had 10 people so that worked out great. We were assigned two adjoining lanes, and had a great time.
There were plenty of tables and chairs along side the bowling lanes, and I set up a tab for my guests with the snack bar and beverage bar. We had a couple of teenagers with us, and they wandered off to play pool in the arcade room when they got tired of bowling with the old folks.
I believe this is a family run business. Everyone I encountered who worked here was very friendly, polite and fun to talk to. I will certainly return.