Brown Deer Lanes

Just finished up my first league bowling experience. We took second place! I was a new bowler and the staff and fellow bowlers were very welcoming. Let me tell you I am hooked, pun intended. The staff is great with service, not only on the food and beverage side but also to help correct any scoring or lane issues. The lanes themselves are nice. I went to village bowl and the approach was so terrible I just left. I definitely recommend joining a league even if you’ve never bowled before.
Side note. I vape instead of smoking cigarettes. The bowling alley is vape friendly. I don’t know of any other competitive social activity where I can enjoy my vape and have fun. That being said I try to be as respectful as possible usually blowing it under my table as it dissipates quickly. I can’t stress enough how enjoyable joining the league was and I will be returning on Tuesday nights.

I have been here a whopping one time. It was for a friend’s birthday. I have to say they were pretty awesome. Beer was cheap. Food was cheap. I’m taking a star off because they don’t advertise when the kitchen closes nor is it clear when the place closes (1 am). We were still playing out our game and the place was closing around us.

Had a lot of fun here last night during our first evening of our league. Can’t wait to go back next week! The owner/​manager Kim is awesome!

Poor service, lane was jammed. The place was not even busy, and took the employee over half an hour close to a whole hour to even assist us! The employee even had time to eat before making us, unless your desperate to bowl at night worst location for midnight bowling!

It’s been a long time since I visited a bowling alley. I’m not sure why as it can be a lot of fun regardless if you can throw a strike or a gutter ball.
Last summer, my family and I decided to take a chance on Brown Deer Lanes. It doesn’t look like much from the outside. It’s clearly an older building that’s been around for decades, but hey, there’s something about the nostalgia of a classic alley.
My first impression:
Wow! It’s clean! When I typically think of a bowling alley I think of dirty. Not the case here. Things were tidy with a decent bar that was a step above the standard.
The prices aren’t bad at all. No reason not to visit if you think it will break the bank.
Decent amount of lanes so that you didn’t have to wait– always appreciated!
Plenty of balls for the baller! Good selection to find the best ball that fits you.
Bathrooms are way outdated, but they’re clean. Not always the case.
Food prices aren’t obnoxious. You won’t feel guilty for buying nachos and a pizza for the crew.
Looking forward to going again!

Am I really that bad???
Yes sirre Bob, I am not the bowler of my teenage years. Nonetheless, this place is a blast even though I didn’t break a 100 WITH the bumpers. It’s clean and the crowd has a great variety. Our group was next to a few professional type, 30-something’s. Just next door was a couple on a date and a family on the other side.
They offer reasonable rates. On certain nights you enjoy glow bowling. The bar has a cozy feel with great prices on food and drink. A spacious parking lot next to a gas station and a Häagen-​Dazs Coffee Beanery, pretty convenient.
Call first for open bowling as it changes often.

The Dude abides.
One of my first part time jobs was at a bowling alley. small 10 lanes I tried to visit it 6 years ago and found out that it was bulldozed down. RIP
If you live on the North shore and there isn’t much to choose from that is close to home. This is a close replacement. Part bowling alley part bar part restaurant and during the summer season League volleyball. They have good bar style food.
The bathrooms are clean but hot/​humid and could use more ventilation.

Others have commented on the pizza and I agree it was quite good. Thin crust and basic toppings. I had the pepperoni and mushrooms. The beer selection was also pretty good, particularly for a bowling alley where the selections are often limited to the standard domestics. The alley was small and quite crowded on Friday night. There were tables full of folks waiting for a lane. The crowd was friendly with a good mix of young and middle-​aged and several groups with children. I also liked the diversity of the customers. Now the reason for the 3 stars… we had quite a few troubles that required attendant service. This in and of itself is not that unusual in a busy bowling alley, but the time it took to get problems resolved was ridiculous. The person behind the counter was busy with shoes and money and fixing scoring issues, plus he was expected to run down to the pin-​setter area and fix pin and stuck ball problems. There should have been someone behind the scenes to take care of these issues. It took us 3 hours to play 2 games. Although we had paid for 3 games, we were too tired of waiting around to bowl our third. The alley did refund our money for the 3^rd game, but what should have been a fun evening was mostly frustrating waiting for service. We will not return to this alley and we bowl fairly frequently.

I have been bowling in league here for 5 years now. I look forward to my nights of bowling. The lanes are nice and usually well oiled. The beer flows good, and I do like the selection. On games nights, you can watch your favorite team while bowling which is also nice. As far as bowling alleys are concerned, this place has the best pizza, even if I wasn’t bowling here, I would still come for the pizza, it’s DELICIOUS! I would give this 5 stars, but the bar never really shows apprciation for all the tips and beer we order, it would be nice if once in a while they threw us a free one for appreciation.

Really don’t need to elaborate on the pros and cons on a review of a bowling alley, but I enjoyed the smoke free atmosphere and was pleasently surprised by the bar setup and good beer selection on hand. Pitcher of Sprecher Amber was 7.50.(great).
The location and building are nothing special, the space inside doesn’t feel that large (there are approx 15 lanes though), there isn’t much to do aside from bowling and billiards from the bar, but for cheap entertainment, relatively clean atmosphere and potential movie location for The Big Lebowski 2, this place is alright in my book.