Regular readers of this blog are likely familiar with the fact that I’m on a work basketball team that regularly gets destroyed, as I regularly get smacked around by 6’6” 280 lb monsters.  Our season finally finished (2-12 with 2 forfeits! Just win baby!), so we had to organize our end-of-season gala dinner.  You may remember that last year we went to Jillian’s in Fenway with the intention of going bowling, but never actually bowling.  This season, we were committed to the bowling motif (much to my chagrin - explained later), and decided to go to Lanes and Games in Cambridge, near Alewife.

Unlike Jillian’s, Lanes and Games is a dedicated bowling alley, which coincidentally has a bar that serves food.  Also unlike Jillian’s, Lanes and Games is amazingly cheap food, as we were able to get a smorgasbord of food for the team for a low low price.  This would be subsequently followed by the worst bowling game of my life.

For $8 you get a DiGiorno’s quality pizza that probably would have easily fed three of us on the team, a pretty good deal, especially when compared to the expensive pizza at Jillian’s.

The nachos were $4 and were the quality you’d expect to get at a sporting event (velveeta cheese, crappy salsa, and pickled jalapenos).  But at $4, I can’t complain too much.

The fried mushrooms ordered by recently herbivorized Otis were very delicious.  Otis is leaving the country for greener pastures (aka Canada).  I suppose the pastures there aren’t really greener, more permafrosty, but this meal would be his farewell meal with the Elephants basketball organization.  We’ll miss his hustle and 4-6 points per game.  I will miss him most, since his inability to box out drew most of the ire from the good players on the team, I will now be the proverbial whipping boy.  Perhaps it would be a misstatement to say that vegetarians are naturally inferior rebounders?

Nevertheless, after this smorgasbord of unhealthiness, we decided to burn off a few calories by going candlepin bowling.  Since Otis was leaving, he had the bold proposition that the loser of the candlepin bowling got to be captain of the team.  Fortunately, I am an atrocious bowler, so I was able to position myself to become captain, thereby controlling the destiny of the Elephants basketball club.  While the others mocked my horrendous bowling, little did they know the number of suicides I would make them do in practice prior to the game.  Mwahahahahahaha!

If you ever plan on eating crappy food with a bunch of people and follow that by bowling, Lanes and Games is the place to go!  They have both candlepin and regular bowling, as well as pool.  So I highly recommend it if you’re coming in a big group.  And there is enough vegetarian options that you don’t feel like a weirdo (but obviously vegan options other than chips and salsa).  So, I’ll give them three and a half cheese sandwiches.

Lanes and Games
195 Concord Tpke
Cambridge, MA 02140 
(617) 876-5533