Comments (0) Best Kept Secret - 2005
North Oaks Bowl
101 Natural Bridge Road
St Louis, MO 63121
314-382-5757
When Tino DiFranco opened Normandy Lanes in 1960, his patronage was, to the best of his recollection, "100 percent white." The largest bowling alley in the state of Missouri (64 lanes; 32 to a side), DiFranco's center is now called North Oaks Bowl, and it now caters to an all-black clientele. "It really hasn't changed that much," says the 76-year-old DiFranco. "Except that we have different music in the jukebox." Heck, white people can groove to the classic sounds of Gerald LeVert, pound Budweiser and roll, roll, roll. This place could be a model for interracial diplomacy. Can't we all just get along?
