News and Events

Since celebrating a “quiet” opening Friday night, the owners of RedPin Bowling Lounge in Lower Bricktown have noticed that while patrons are flocking to the bowling lanes and bar area, too many are skipping the restaurant. Shawn and Erin Gillogly Brewer insist their restaurant isn’t just an ordinary bowling alley snack bar, just as the bowling lanes are different from anything else found in the city, if not the state. “Robert Black from Cheevers Cafe designed our menu and helped us with our kitchen design,” Erin Brewer said. “We wanted to dedicate as much space as possible to our restaurant and bowling lanes, so Robert helped us make sure the kitchen was sufficient for our menu. And there is a reason why Robert is one of the hottest chefs in the city.” The proof, she said, is found in offerings ranging from gourmet pizzas and nachos to Angus beef hot dogs. She considers the “burger sliders” — mini-burgers topped with either bacon and cheese, grilled onions and gourmet mushrooms, or blue cheese and garlic — to be the restaurant’s specialty. She’s also proud of another Black creation — Panini sticks that include peanut butter and jelly sticks with warm chocolate dipping sauce. The opening of RedPin coincides with the pending completion of the latest addition to Lower Bricktown — The Centennial. Starbucks is opening its first downtown Oklahoma City coffee shop upstairs from the canal-level RedPin by Christmas. Lower Bricktown developer Randy Hogan reports he also has lured Le Cep, a French bistro, away from its digs in Edmond and has a pending lease with LIT Clothing to relocate from its home in Deep Deuce. “Angela Thomas (owner of LIT Clothing) has a great local boutique — clothing for men and women,” Hogan said. “Curtis Bramlett (owner of Le Cep) was a chef with the French Culinary Institute in New York. He’s cooked with the major chefs in New Orleans.” As with Le Cep and LIT Clothing, Hogan pursued a bowling lounge after seeing one in an entertainment district in Orange County, California. The Brewers, meanwhile, sought out Hogan with their idea for a bowling lounge after reading about the clubs’ rising popularity on the west and east coasts. Brewer said the attraction of a bowling lounge, compared to an ordinary bowling alley, is easy to grasp. The 10 bowling lanes at RedPin each have couches more typical of an upscale lounge, with cocktail tables set up for full-service meals and drinks from the restaurant and bar. The lanes are equipped with high-tech scoring pads and boards and surrounded with wall-high video screens. RedPin is similar to other bowling lounges around the country, Brewer said, in that they are more for casual fun than for serious professional bowlers. 

“The more we talked about it, the more excited we got,” said Brewer, who still holds a daytime job at a local non-profit while her husband works at a bank. “And we talked about it with friends, and we found people who wanted to join us in this venture. And finding investors was actually pretty easy.”

By working with Hogan before construction began on The Centennial, Brewer said they were able to alter the building’s canal-level design to accommodate a bowling lounge. “We waited on this building for a year longer than it might have taken otherwise, because of how much we believed in this location,” Brewer said. “We really believed it needed to be in an urban atmosphere.”

Jim Cowan, director of the Bricktown Association, said the RedPin’s opening is a much anticipated and welcome addition to the entertainment district. “It really complements what is already down here,” Cowan said. “It is one more thing that you can do in Bricktown other than eat or go to nightclubs. It’s unique, and when something like this comes in, we love it.”
Steve Lackmeyer, Oklahoman