Blanco Bowling Club Café

310 Fourth St., Blanco, TX - (830) 833-4416

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Posted By Michael Stern on 5/25/2002 1:32:00 AM

The Blanco Bowling Club Café is a real bowling alley, just off the town square, where the nine-pin league rolls at night. The rest of the day the alleys are curtained off, although customers in the back dining room do enjoy such décor as bowling trophies, racks of balls, and ball bags piled atop league members’ lockers.

Accommodations are basic: wood-grain Formica tables set with silver wrapped in paper napkins. There is a short counter in the front room with a view of the pass-through to the kitchen and one big table where locals come and go for coffee and terrific cinnamon buns and glazed donuts all morning.

The lunchtime menu includes hamburgers and hot beef sandwiches and an array of tacos, chalupas, and enchiladas. Pies are spectacular, with meringue tops that rise three times as high as the filling they top. And the fillings themselves are delicious. Coconut pie has an indescribably creamy flavor, accented by little bits of toasty coconut scattered across the top of the meringue. Fudge pie is dense, rich, and super-chocolaty.

If you are a pie fancier, put this Blanco bowling alley on your must-eat list. Meringue pies get no better than this.

Scorecard

Overall: Legendary - Worth driving from anyplace

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Reviewers Photos [Upload Your Photos]

"Foreground: chocolate meringue; background: coconut cream. The best bowling-alley pies we've ever found!"
Michael Stern

"The cinnamon buns are a favorite among the regulars who come to the Bowling Alley for breakfast and conversation every morning."
Michael Stern

"Late morning: the front room at the Bowling Club"
Michael Stern

"Opened in 1947, the Bowling Alley was privately owned until the townsfolk bought it in 1967 and made it into a community center, gathering place, and favorite cafe."
Michael Stern

"Blanco has no fine-dining restaurant, but for those in search of roadfood and local color, this restaurant and this small town are treasures."
Michael Stern