Local award season in Wake Forest has developed a pattern: Strike and Barrel wins.
The trophy shelf
The downtown bowling center and family entertainment venue has stacked up first place for Best Family Entertainment and Best Kid's Party Venue from The Wake Weekly, first for Best Place for a Fun Night Out in Wake Living's Maggy Awards, runner-up finishes for Best Bowling Center in Raleigh's Best and Best Indoor Activity Center in the WRAL Voter's Choice Awards, and a Midtown Magazine Silver Award. That's not a lucky year; that's a consensus, assembled across every publication that hands out hardware.
Why it wins
The formula is bowling plus a genuine food and drink program plus party packages — the rare venue that serves a date night and a ten-year-old's birthday with equal conviction, all under the cheerfully shameless motto: the best balls in town. Downtown's evening options used to mean driving somewhere else; Strike and Barrel is a large part of why that sentence is past tense.
Lanes, menus, and party packages are on their directory listing.
