Back Alley Saloon
3645 Vanrick DriveSometimes I get in to such a habit of doing things that I do things without realizing what I’m doing.
Last Thursday, I started my usual trek over to Wings Event Center to watch the end of B’s ice skating practice.
Problem was, B wasn’t there. J and L were in Lake Placid, NY for a competition so B spent the week at Grandma and Grandpa’s in St. Joseph County. He came back a couple of days to skate but Thursday wasn’t one of those days.
By the time I remembered, I was already on that side of town…and hungry.
When we’re at Wings West, a lot of the parents just go in to Burdick’s for dinner and a couple of drinks but we’re at WEC a lot right now and that’s not an option.
So a lot of parents go to the bowling alley across the street.
Back Alley Saloon is part of Continental Lanes on Vanrick Drive west of Sprinkle Road. The bowling alley is on the corner where Vanrick curves around right across the street from Wings Event Center. It sits on a pretty large piece of property with a large parking lot surrounding the building. The building itself is pretty unremarkable. It’s a concrete block building with a metal roof. It’s very utilitarian and looks a lot like the bowling alleys I went to with my parents growing up in the 80’s and 90’s.
There are several ways to get in to the bar that’s on the north side of the building. It has it’s own entrance from the outside.
There’s an entrance with a very 80’s brick and glass block motif right inside the main doors to the bowling alley.
There’s also an entrance from the bowling alley lanes that brings you right to the bar. This makes it easy for people playing on those lanes to come in and get drinks. I went in through this door just because I had never been in the bowling alley before either and I just wanted to see the place. There’s not much to see. It’s an old bowling alley. It reminds me a lot of a place I used to go with friends in Watseka, IL back in the late 90’s.
The bar is much bigger than I assumed it would be. There’s a pretty big dining room area with hardwood floors and a large stage at one end. There are several floor to ceiling windows along the outside wall but somehow the place is still kind of dark. There’s not much lighting other than the natural light that comes in through those windows.
I grabbed a seat at the bar and started looking for beer taps. I didn’t see any so when the bartender came over, I asked if they had Two Hearted or Oberon. She said they had both. The taps were hidden at the end of the bar kind of out of sight. I ordered a large Two Hearted then asked for a menu so I could grab something to eat.
The menu is pretty typical pub food which includes burgers, pizzas, and sandwiches. The Barnyard Burger was my first choice but the waitress said they didn’t have the pork carnitas for that one. I ordered the Double Decker Burger instead.
This burger went way beyond my expectations for bowling alley food.
The sandwich is two angus beef patties “pile high on the Mother of All Buns.” The sandwich comes with “the works” which is all the veggies and condiments typically associated with burgers. What it doesn’t come with is cheese or bacon so I added both on for an additional charge. There was a slice of melted American cheese on each of the crispy, salty burger patties. On top of that was some super crispy, delicious bacon. As far as veggies, I kept it to just lettuce and pickles. The burger kind of blew me away. It was really good. The meat wasn’t quite a smash burger but it had some of those crispy bits around the edges. It was super tender and just a little salty. As I mentioned earlier, I know there’s a lot of hockey and skating parents that drop their kids off at practice and come over here for dinner and a beer. I’ve always thought that wasn’t a bad idea but I’ve never done it. This burger makes the case for me to do that.
The fries that came with the sandwich were the battered frozen fries I don’t love. The bartender asked me a few times if I wanted ketchup but I’m not a ketchup guy. I probably should have asked for mustard. These are the kinds of fries that latch on really well to condiments but they’re not my favorite fries and I’m not a condiment guy. Still no complaints. They were a good compliment to the burger.
My cost for my meal was a little more than I was expecting because I did have to pay an extra $3 for the cheese and bacon on my burger. It came out to about $25 before tip. I could have went with a smaller size beer to make it a little cheaper but then I just would have bought two.
Back Alley Saloon is a pretty typical bowling area bar. It’s mostly meant to serve it’s bowling patrons but it works for the way a lot of people use it as a place to grab a meal while waiting for practices to end. It’s also a good pre-game spot for K-Wings games. They do charge to park on those nights but you can park there, grab a meal and a beer or two, then head across the street for the game. This is a place that really wasn’t on my radar until I heard some other parents talking about going over there one night last winter. It turns out, it’s a pretty solid pub.
SW Michigan Dining 