Staying Local Saturday

Last night my roommates and I stayed local. We kept all of our Saturday night activities confined to half a square mile, bordered by Armitage, California, Fullerton, and Western. After eating homemade wings and fries, we decided to check out Fireside Bowl. We continued our night at an apartment near ours for a friend's birthday (helping the neighbor carry a TV inside in exchange for a 12-pack first), then finished with tortas from Los Comales.

Despite its awful website, Fireside Bowl does live up to the no-frills hype. It's a bowler's bowling alley--none of that silly cosmic bowl stuff, just basic alleys, several racks of bowling balls, and a bar/lounge with wood panel walls, a pool table in a low lit corner, and ice cold Jager on tap. We had a Groupon for one hour of bowling plus shoe rentals for $15, which keeps the game moving nicely (if you go over your hour, they charge by the quarter hour, so no biggie).

For some reason, Diego and I get better at bowling after we've had a drink or two. Britney and Brooke, not so much, though Britney did manage to beat Diego by three points. I put up a solid 143 to win the first game. While we played, we tried to figure out the demographic of the patrons. The alley was full and most lanes had three-six bowlers: lots of couples/group dates, and several guy/girl-only parties. Earlier there were a couple families with younger kids, but they were gone by the time we got started. I'd say the average age of a bowler was 35--I didn't see any groups of teenagers, which is uncommon (bowling's a popular activity for kids), but made sense (Fireside Bowl doesn't have cosmic bowling, an extensive arcade, or greasy snack foods, just bowling and a full bar). Because the alley is located in Logan Square, most bowlers could be labeled as hipsters, but they weren't your young/yuppie/popular hipsters--these were people with actual jobs and families and lives who also happen to wear flannel and drink PBR on a Saturday night.

From bowling we made our way to our friend's house party, where Britney and I compared apartments and noted home decorating ideas we want to try out while in the end deciding our apartment is still tops.

By the time we were ready to head home, we had worked up an appetite. Our usual late-night food options were a long walk away, but Los Comales was right around the corner and on our way back to the Naw. This place is also no-frills and gets the job done--I think we found a new tacqueria for nights when we stick to Logan Square activities. My torta was amazing and exactly what I needed before crashing for the night.