Spin Alley Bowling & Vault 177: Where Community, Craft, and Classic Fun Come Together in Shoreline
Family-Owned, Community-Driven, and Proudly Local Since 1960
When you walk through the doors of Spin Alley Bowling & Vault 177, you’re stepping into a vibrant blend of history, hospitality, and high-quality entertainment. This all-ages Shoreline staple is more than a bowling alley, it’s a reimagined, family-run community hub that combines state-of-the-art bowling with scratch-made food, craft cocktails, and a whole lot of heart.
With deep local roots and a commitment to serving everyone from longtime locals to first-time visitors, Spin Alley & Vault 177 offers a full-service experience that goes well beyond the lanes.
Q&A With Spin Alley Bowling & Vault 177
Q: How long have you been in business?
Joe Montero purchased Spin Alley Bowling in 2019 but Spin Alley opened its doors originally in the fall of 1960 as Arden Lanes. The location of our current restaurant and bar was a daycare center back in the day as bowling was so popular at that time, adults needed care for their children during league. We did a full, gut remodel starting in the early spring of 2020 and reopened as Vault 177 in the fall of 2020.
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| Arcade |
Q: What service does your business provide for our community? We are a full-service, all ages entertainment center with 16 lanes of state-of-the-art bowling machines, 2 LED pool tables, and an arcade with 7 modern Stern Pinball machines as well as a new NBA SuperStars Game, Photo Booth, Super Bikes and more!
We also have a full-service restaurant with craft beer and craft cocktails. Up to 34 beers and ciders on draft at any given moment and a full range of spirits and wine from your staple favorites to the rare and high-end.
Q: What do you love the most about Shoreline?
I am a native Shoreliner (is that a thing?) and both my business partner Joe Montero and I grew up in the North Seattle/Shoreline area. I went to St. Luke Parochial School then graduated from Shorewood High School and Joe grew up in Ballard attending Whitman Middle and Ingraham High School. I have two sons who attend Einstein Middle and Shorewood High School.
We love being able to serve the community we live in, where I am raising my two sons, and where we are from. After spending the bulk of my restaurant career in the downtown Seattle area, I jumped at the opportunity to rebrand and to breathe some life into a business that is a staple of this community and really Shoreline's only all-ages entertainment center.
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| Arden Lanes ad in the Seattle P-I, Sept 9, 1962 |
The Richmond Beach neighborhood and the whole Shoreline community is a great place to live, work and play.
Shoreline has a unique juxtaposition of tons of wonderful parks, beautiful beach access walking distance from our business, wonderful schools, a thriving business community and lots of new growth.
Shoreline is a very special place we are proud to call home and to operate a local, family-owned, small business in.
Also worth noting, Joe’s father, Bill Montero, once lived in the “Boeing Hunting Cabin,” the first house in south Innis Arden when entering from the east. This cabin was famously used by the Boeing family when Innis Arden was a private game reserve. Bill Montero was instrumental in the planning and annexation of Shoreline and was very active in shaping this community we proudly serve today.
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Arden Lanes ad in
The Seattle Times Sept 11, 1964 |
Q: What’s one thing you wish your customers knew about you but never ask?Our kitchen is almost entirely scratch! What that means is that the vast majority of food we serve is prepared in house and hand-sourced by our staff.
No big food service trucks deliver our goods, we hand pick our produce, meats, and dairy several times per week.
Our pizza dough, sauce and special cheese blend is all made from scratch right here. We also make our own Alfredo and marinara as well as hand panko breading our chicken and mozzarella sticks!
We are not your typical "bowling alley food", although as a side note I have enjoyed lots of delicious food at other centers, nor are we a snack bar type of concept.
We are a real restaurant with a great food and beverage program and a truly amazing kitchen and bar staff who are the heart and soul of this business.
Come check out our delicious scratch chili made with carne asada, ground beef and our own special blend of veggies and spices or have a custom Old Fashioned. Our restaurant is as much a destination as our lanes.
Q: What has been your proudest moment in business so far?
We are proud to have survived opening a new restaurant in 2020, a challenging feat to say the least, and to being able to grow each year. During Covid, 25% of bowling alleys nationwide shut their doors never to reopen. We are proud to have weathered the storm and to build and improve our center since those tough times.
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| Cosmic Aqua Bowling Lanes |
In the summer of 2023, we completed the largest renovation this building has seen since opening its doors and we replaced our original 1960 Brunswick machines with Qubica AMF Edge FreeFall Pinsetters, DuraBowl Automatic Bumpers and Center Punch Deck Lighting!
So what does all the fancy bowling speak mean to our customers? EDGE Free-Fall is the industry’s fastest cycling machine on average. League players like this speed and the ability to finish sooner and we can serve more customers during peak periods.
This system not only returns balls quickly and reliably, but its ball-wiper cloth removes excess lane oil from the ball at the same time. The industry’s most efficient pin handling system spots and re-spots pins with amazing precision. This combined with Center Punch dynamic pin lighting and automatic DuraBowl Bumpers that can be raised and lowered per bowler will make your bowling experience at Spin Alley Bowling a whole new level of fun!
Q: How does your business support or give back to the local community?
Spin Alley Bowling & Vault 177 are dedicated to supporting our local community from schools to our local Richmond Beach Community Association. We are dedicated to our donation program for local schools both public and private for their fundraising efforts.
We support ALL youth sports from Shorewood Football and Basketball to Shoreline Lacrosse to Shoreline Little League. We have three City of Seattle Girls Varsity Bowling Teams that call our center home for practices including Nathan Hale, Ingraham, and Ballard. We would love to bring Girls Varsity Bowling back to the Shoreline School District and WesCo and support that however we can.
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| Updated arcade games |
We also donate our time and our location to the RBCA's Annual Oktoberfest each year and sponsor the RBCA Strawberry Fest annually as well. We want to not just operate a business here, we want to support this community and to provide a safe, fun gathering place for schools, churches, families, students, the senior community, and everyone in Shoreline and beyond.
Plan Your Next Night Out (or Day Out!) at Spin Alley & Vault 177
With decades of Shoreline history, a full kitchen and craft bar, modernized bowling tech, and a mission rooted in community support, Spin Alley Bowling & Vault 177 is your go-to destination for fun, flavor, and family-friendly entertainment.
Spin Alley Bowling & Vault 177 – 1430 NW Richmond Beach Road, Shoreline, WA 98177
206-533-2345
www.spinalleybowling.com
From weekday leagues to weekend hangouts, there’s always a reason to stop in.
Destination Shoreline is brought to you by Kate Ledbetter, Real Estate Broker with Windermere Real Estate/Shoreline. Whether you’re planning to sell, buy, or simply explore your options, Kate Ledbetter is ready to provide expert guidance tailored to your unique real estate needs, visit
KateLHomes.com for more information.
Let’s keep building a stronger, safer, and more prepared community—together!
Mark your calendar and get ready for the best shopping day of the summer.
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