Vernon Lanes Opens Tonight, Bringing Bowling (and Good Burgers) Back to Butchertown
Bowling is back at Vernon Lanes, starting tonight. Photos by Kevin Gibson
Sitting at the bar at Vernon Lanes eating a burger during its recent soft opening took me back to my childhood. I grew up a bowling alley rat, as my parents bowled in leagues at least one night a week. The reopening of Vernon Lanes today at 4 p.m. might make me a bowling alley rat all over again.
The bright new atmosphere, the familiar sound of bowling balls striking pins, the lanes and vintage bowling alley furniture and bowling alley food? Sign me up. And based on the first meal I had, bowling alley food never tasted so good.
I got to take a walkthrough of the place as it was in the late stages of the extensive renovation the old bowling alley and music venue has undergone, but this time I was there to take in the atmosphere and check out the menu. While the menu was limited for the soft open, the bowling alley hamburger and fries was available — I enjoyed plenty of those as a kid — so I pounced.
But first, a bit of what you can expect from the Vernon Lanes bowling-alley fare – and its not your typical greasy fried grub meant to simply soak up beer and fuel another game. As noted in my previous story, the menu at Vernon features “cool, funky bowling alley food” under the direction of Chef Zach Henderson, who previously cooked at Galaxie, Portage House, 211 Clover Lane and other restaurants around Louisville.
There also are 20 taps with beers ranging from Against the Grain’s Citra Ass Down IPA to Guinness to Coors Light and PBR, along with a full bar. I started my visit with a house margarita, and it was up to the task — tart, crisp and not too sweet. I’ll look forward to more of those. And there’s plenty of table seating circling the bar, which overlooks the lanes. The mix-and-match glassware offered a nice laid-back touch to the decidedly un-fancy vibe.
Thirteen appetizers range from basic-sounding selections like four different dips, nachos with either tortilla chips or potato chips, chicken “nuggies,” etc., but also include some more exotic snacks like smoked babaganoush, a variety of flavored popcorn and sloppy joe eggrolls. To make things extra interesting, there’s a list of 13 house-made sauces, from spicy peanut to gojuchang maple.
Several salad options are available, as are flatbreads featuring barbecue pork and some veggie-friendly options like butternut squash and caponata. The sandwich menu runs the gamut, from North Carolina catfish to barbecue pork carnitas, a corn dog, a “carrot hot dog,” oyster mushroom, currywurst, schnitzel and more. There’s also a dessert menu and a kids’ menu because, hey, it’s a bowling alley.
The Vernon Lanes burger, flanked by “beer cheeze fondue” and curry ketchup.
And now back to the burger. As I perused the available items, I briefly toyed with ordering the catfish, but my mind kept going back in time, when I would eat my weight in bowling alley crinkle-cut seasoned French fries at Eastern Lanes in Clarksville. They were hot, savory and delicious. And during my freshman year of high school, the bowling alley ran a lunchtime “student special” (we had an open-campus lunch), with a basket of those fries and a bland, thin burger. Was the burger good? No. But was I feeling wistful for a burger in a bowling alley booth with my buddies? Absolutely. So I ordered the burger, with a side of “beer cheeze fondue” for my fries.
The burger took longer than I expected to come out but, again, it was a soft open and the staff was still in training. I was perfectly content to sit at the bar, sip my drink and take in the atmosphere. But when it did arrive, served on a metal tray, it was nothing like those old Eastern Lanes meals from my youth. The burger sort of simulates a smash burger, with two cheese-topped patties, shredded lettuce, pickles and special sauce on a sesame seed bun – but that’s where it ends. It was more like a smash burger on steroids; this was a half-pound behemoth that I could barely get my jaws around. It was cooked a perfect medium-rare, and the beef was flavorful and fresh.
When it arrived, one of the bartenders said, “Those pickles are what make the burger for me.” Hmmm. Yep, house-made, thin-sliced pickles didn’t look special. But oh, they were. Lightly crunchy, they were sort of dill meets sweet, tangy, not super sour. In short, they were unique. And there were plenty of them. The ones that fell out of my sandwich as I devoured it ended up right back in my mouth – no wasting those precious pickles. Also, another layer was the signature Vernon Burger Sauce. It was hard to pinpoint the exact flavor through all the meat, but it was not your average dressing.
The fries didn’t disappoint either; a huge pile of crisp-fried, thick, hand cut potato sticks greeted me, with plenty of sea salt and flavor. Along with my beer cheese dip, I was also granted a side of the house-made curry ketchup. While the beer cheese was solid, the curry ketchup was nothing short of delicious to my taste buds. Lightly sweet with a subtle splash of curry, it was easy on the palate to the point that I couldn’t get enough.
In the end, I was stuffed. Absolutely stuffed. And I sadly left some behind. That was a bowling alley burger and fries that far outdistanced the reasonable $12 price tag. In fact, nothing on the Vernon Lanes menu is more than $13, and if it’s snacks you want, you can get some gourmet popcorn starting for three bucks. Take the kids.
Vernon Lanes is set to open today at 4 p.m., and at least to start the plan is to be open 4-midnight Wednesday through Sunday, according to general manager Bruce Jarrett. See you at the bar.
