Shelter VIP Night

Thanks to Rain F for letting me tag along as her Plus 1 at the last minute…
This was an event designed to introduce Reno to one of the newest «hotspots» in town. The night itself was a PR event, so I expected to get a taste of what was available at the venue. My thoughts:
The sign for the venue on Virginia Street was small and actually a bit hard to find as I was driving. The recommended parking was at the Cal-​Neva, so estimate 10 – 20 minutes to find parking and to walk over.
The venue is called Shelter — but that might cause some branding and marketing issues as that didn’t tell me anything about what the space was about — who knew that it was dance club /​bowling alley /​place to get something to eat?
The food and drinks — I wasn’t hungry so didn’t try anything, but witnessed several guests who found that the chicken wings were served were raw and sent back. I had a few sips out of a glass of champagne that was nice.
Ambience — Fun and lively, but really loud and hard to have a conversation. Disregard if you like to be loud.
Bowling — Only a handful of lanes, but loved the disco lights.

Not sure how to review this. The event was OK. It was nice to have the free apps and champagne and to get to see the new place. It was fun, as usual, to visit with friends and have a drink or two, but the music was too loud to have a conversation. I also didn’t get to try too many of the apps.
The positives about the venue —
+ The bacon wrapped dates were amazing. Would come back just for them
+ The space is fun. I love the lights in the bar and the lights and color through out the space. Takes me back to the disco days but way cooler.
+ The bowling area looks fun with lots of seating and state of the art equipment. May have to do a bowling date night.
+ It is an interesting concept and I think will be a hit with the college and young adult crowd. I think it may be fun for an afternoon with lunch & bowling which might be a little more family (and old fogey) friendly then the evening scene.
+ The menu looks good and is not the usual bowling alley junk but real food. I am looking forward to trying it.
I am glad to see the repurposing of a long vacant space. It will be interesting to see what happens with the upstairs — a grocery perhaps? Would be really nice for those of us who live downtown.

I took shelter
Newest spot to hang out in downtown Reno is underground. A simple entrance at 111 N Virginia Street, go down the stairs to the left and enjoy the very large modern space. At the bottom of the stairs is the long bar and eating area and to the right of it a decently big dance floor with a DJ. Tired of dancing? Then take your drink and food over to the far left and bowl for a while on one the six lanes.
We came in and enjoyed a glass of champagne and watched the Mayor do the ribbon cutting. Mingled around the bar area and sampled some appetizers– bacon wrapped dates, wings, calimari, humus and pita, and steak skewers with tater tots. I’m not sure what the regular food menu and prices will be, I didn’t see one laying out. Also didn’t seem like they were set up for any fancy cocktails or wine.
Then we headed over to the lanes to watch friends break in the new shoes, balls and lanes. Bowling was free for the evening, but will be $ 6 a game with $ 3 shoes in the afternoon, after 6pm $ 40 an hour. The computerized scoring looked easy to run. And quite a bit of seating in the area for everyone.
I see the college crowd loving this place — bar, food, dancing and the different distraction of bowling.