There are multiple ways to stage a strike in Los Angeles. The newest and most chic venue for one is the newly renovated and reopened Highland Park Bowl, where one skilled roll of a perfectly calibrated ball knocks down a row of vintage pins. The space, a Spanish revival design originally built in 1927, is 1933 Group’s latest L.A. project and the city’s oldest operating bowling alley. The company, known for designing and building a number of bars in Southern California, also recently restored the barrel-shaped North Hollywood bar, Idle Hour. The restored tenpin venue was originally flanked by a pharmacy where guests filled apothecary prescriptions and a music store, so it seems fitting that the new space houses the Mr. T’s Room music venue (named for one of the alley’s former owners, Joseph Teresa), and an in-house brewery slated to open later this year. In light of its history as a Prohibition era game room, mid-century bowling alley, and area dive bar, the design team reworked Highland Park Bowl’s interiors to resemble a steampunk playroom—old pinsetter machines have even been repurposed into chandeliers and liquor shelves inside. Co-owner Bobby Green, who designed the space, says he’s had an eye on the Pasadena-adjacent neighborhood since childhood. “Growing up, I always saw Highland Park as an extraordinary and historic neighborhood,” he says. “With this project, we’re preserving a piece of history from that neighborhood and telling a part of its story.” Here, take a first look inside the striking space.

By Elizabeth Varnell

Pictured: The 1933 Group’s newly reworked Highland Park Bowl.
Photo by Wonho Frank Lee

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