1. Started in 1946, Dickey Lanes is a monument to bowling’s heyday. The aesthetic — including the 50-year-old Lustre King ball conditioner, by-hand scoring and well-worn wood lanes — is a cigarette-smoke fog away from being unchanged. Be sure to call ahead to avoid league play at this eight-lane slice of Americana. 3275 W. 25th St., Cleveland, 216-741-9774
2. Bowling is a mere dash in the recipe that makes Mahall’s 20 Lanes Lakewood’s hipster paradise. With the building’s traditional structure and vintage gameplay intact, Ohio’s oldest alley rolls out modern gastronomy and three genre-bending stages featuring local and touring acts that will smash your bowling-alley-bar-band stigma. 13200 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-521-3280, mahalls20lanes.com
3. Rolling a 300 on Maple Lanes’ 76-year-old maple wood slats is Cleveland bowlers’ Great White Whale — it’s never been done. Along with your “A” game, bring a group because the bar only fires up the human-run semiautomatic pinsetters, one of 12 still registered with the Bowling Proprietors Association of America, for private parties. 6918 St. Clair Ave., Cleveland, 216-431-9593
