What To Eat At Brooklyn Bowl

Like everything else about Brooklyn Bowl, the unveiling of the Blue Ribbon-produced menu has hit delay after delay. And like everything else about Brooklyn Bowl, it has been well worth the wait.

But the wait isn't quite over yet. Williamsburg's second big bowlorama in just the past the couple of years has unveiled its "preview menu". The whole shebang won't be served up to hungry rollers until August.

The overall place is contradictory, from its reclaimed lane banquets to its its polished freakshow artwork. Scuzzy but clean. Lowbrow but expensive. Sort of like how Bill Murray slummed in "Kingpin" and made it all the more wonderful. 

The menu is no different. There are gross-out delicacies like the Pork Rinds ($5) and deviled "Egg Shooters" ($5) that you'd expect to find at The Levee a few blocks away, not coming out of a Blue Ribbon-run kitchen. The "Really" Sloppy Joe ($8.50) is a bit in this lunch-room nostalgia vein. But an Oyster Po'Boy and Roast Pork sandwich are not, as people are fond of saying, the things to get.

But you know what is the thing to get? An unholy alliance of all the sorcery behind this top-notch bowling alley/music venue and restaurant in a former steelworks? The Fried Chicken. Good enough to make you suspect chefs David Kornell and Matt Deliso practice the black arts while watching "The Big Lebowski" on a constant loop.

The fried chicken itself is a Blue Ribbon specialty, so it's not a surprise, but the Southern platter ($16.95) is revelation in this setting -- creamy gravy slathered mashed potatoes and collard greens with ... what's this? Why yes, pork belly.

There are beers from local breweries Brooklyn, Sixpoint and Kelso are all on tap and available by the pitcher (all around a reasonable $20) to wash it all down. Hey, did you know there was a bowling alley in here, and that Toots and Maytals were playing in September?