ARLINGTON — Sure, you can hear a pin drop while dining at Rocket Alley Bar and Grill, but you’re still going to have to speak up to be heard across your table.
You don’t come to Rocket Alley for a quiet dinner. Coming up on its first anniversary in June, Rocket Alley has refurbished a six-lane throwback bowling alley and added a dining room and lounge.
Choose an alley-side booth and, while enjoying your meal, you can watch adults high-five each other after strikes and 5-year-olds squeal after hefting a bowling ball to an elevated ramp, giving it a shove and anticipating the clatter of pins.
Three big-screen TVs also get attention. Monday night during the NCAA championship, the Rocket’s bowlers, most of them Butler fans apparently, kept an eye on the game between frames.
Rocket Alley knows how to keep a bowler happy with burgers and pizza, but owner Steve Saunders, who runs the kitchen with the help of assistants Alex Medina and Chris Gregg, puts as much emphasis on the food as he does on the bowling lanes.
Saunders doesn’t mind admitting he buys his dough in bulk from Costco, but the rest of the pizza is all his.
“It took me three weeks of working on the sauce to get where I could say, ‘This is the sauce,’” he said.
When he first opened Rocket Alley, the pizza sauce was a bit spicier, so he toned it down and sweetened it a bit.
“I figure if I like it, others will like it,” he said.
Monday night, as bowlers cheered on Butler, I ordered a 16-inch pizza with sausage, mushrooms and olives ($18.99).
Saunders is right; the sauce is sweet, but that complements saltier and spicier toppings, such as the sausage and olives. Rocket Alley doesn’t have a fancy pizza oven, but the kitchen’s attention to detail makes up for it. The crust was cracker-crisp on the bottom and had nice, chewy texture on the edges.
Especially on a busy night, you might have to wait a bit for pizza. My wait was about 30 minutes, but I got into the game and a pint of Blue Moon with a wedge of orange while I waited. You can expect similar waits for some of Rocket’s specialty pizzas, including the Alfredo ($9.99 for an 8-inch, $19.99 for a 16-inch) with an alfredo sauce, chicken, garlic, artichokes, red onions and mushrooms; the Aviator ($12.99, $24.99) with pepperoni, ground beef, green peppers, red peppers, pineapple and jalapenos; and the Nitro ($9.99, $19.99) with pepperoni, jalapenos, green peppers and barbecue sauce.
There’s a burger named for each of the six lanes. On an earlier visit I went with Lane Four, ($8.59 for a third-of-a-pound patty, $9.99 for a half-pounder) with blue cheese crumbles, lettuce, tomato and mayo.
I think the the saltiness of blue cheese makes a better cheeseburger than cheddar or American, and Rocket proved me right again. With a basket of fresh-cut onion rings ($8.99), it was something I best not tell my doctor about.
The other lanes are filled with regular cheeseburgers, a barbecue burger, Hawaiian and grilled chicken. Or you can order the Gutterball ($12.99) with a half-pound patty on a Kaiser roll with ham, bacon, a fried egg, lettuce, mushrooms, sauce and your choice of cheese.
Saunders does offer a few entrees you might not expect in a bowling alley. My wife, on one visit, had a grilled cod fillet ($11.99) on a bed of pasta with a spicy basil alfredo sauce. The cod was moist and flaky, but she thought the sauce was too spicy for the mild fish.
Other entrees include a rib-eye steak ($23.99), grilled teriyaki chicken ($11.99) and chicken yakisoba ($13.99).
An appetizer not commonly seen at bowling alleys, pot stickers ($4.99 for six, $8.99 for 12) tasted of pork and ginger that we dipped in a peanut and chili Thai sauce. Teriyaki, sweet-and-sour and other sauces are available.
We also enjoyed the Italian sub sandwich ($10.99), a crusty roll with ham, pepperoni, bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onions, provolone and basil mayo. Another winner when paired with a Blue Moon and a slice of orange.
If you want to save a couple of bucks to rent your bowling shoes, check out the specials. On Monday night’s visit the choice included $1 tacos, a $5 pepperoni pizza, a $3.99 burger basket or a bowl of Mexican chili for $2.99.
Rocket Alley is fully licensed with a selection of beers on tap.
“We specialize in vodkas,” Sauders said.
He said a customer asked for a nongrain vodka one night. He checked his bar, didn’t find any, and slipped out across the street to the liquor store to buy a bottle of potato vodka.
Customers can also order a Rocket Shot, made with Kahlua liqueur, Bailey’s Irish Cream and Everclear.
“It’s basically a Duck Fart without the crown (Canadian whiskey),” Sauders said.
Go ahead; with all the pins falling no one except the barkeep is going to hear you order one.
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