PINSTACK in Las Colinas offers new vision of bowling

The new PINSTACK on West I-635 is not your grandpa’s Wednesday night bowling league.

In fact, it might as well be a scene from a TRON movie with changing color patterns on the walls and floor, a large arcade and laser tag arena, and loads of LED-lit hand holds on climbing walls from a company out of Norway.

“When you hear gaming or bowling, it’s not what you’re envisioning,” said Gene Muncy, the Las Colinas PINSTACK General Manager. “If you’ve never been in, you wouldn’t imagine what you’re going to experience until you walk in the front door. I think the finish and the experience of the facility really tells that story.”

Alongside 28 bowling lanes, Las Colinas’ new 53,000 square-foot entertainment venue features a two-level laser tag arena, rock climbing walls, high-ropes course, a large arcade, and a full-service bar with beer and wine on draft. 

“Draft wine is starting to catch on and becoming more popular here,” Muncy said. “So we’ve increased it. We had six [drafts] in Plano, and we now have twelve in addition to all of our regular wines sold by the glass and bottle.”

Customers can even head outside during the hot summer, as a 2,000 square-foot, temperature controlled covered patio offers games including bocce ball and giant games in chess, connect four, and jenga.

Most of these areas are available for private parties and corporate events.

“We have meeting rooms that face the lanes,” Munch said. “We do full service banquet catering like you would find at any nice hotel property. We do a lot of corporate meetings where [corporations] have training. They’ve got a product launch or team building, and they’ll do food and beverage in their room and then come out and have lanes reserved for them and have their own private area to have an event.”

There are also features in games that are tailored for outings with a boss and work colleagues. One style of play in laser tag is called “lone wolf” and allows everyone to go after one player, which Muncy said is typically used to go after the boss.

Entertainment Properties Group, Inc. operates the new venue. Based in Dallas, they run three entertainment venues in Texas under the iT’ ‘Z Family, Food & Fun brand. PINSTACK is their latest location and first opened in Plano in 2015. Las Colinas marks their second location, and they plan to open their third PINSTACK in Allen in fall of 2017.

As part of their launch, PINSTACK in Las Colinas honored The Salvation Army of Irving and Irving Cares with a donation at a special VIP event attended by community leaders and PINSTACK executives.

“We look forward to being a good community partner,” said Mark Moore, president and CEO of Entertainment Properties Group, Inc. “We are confident the Las Colinas community and surrounding areas will enjoy PINSTACK’s many entertainment amenities, dining options, and more.”

The location has some differences than Plano’s, including a larger laser tag area. The Las Colinas venue used a subtle design change to add 700 square-feet to their laser tag arena without adding square footage to the building.

But the real draw is bowling.

A regular lane, which fits eight people comfortably, costs $18 during the weekdays for one hour and $22 for a VIP experience. Those prices rise to $34 and $45 during the weekends and shoe rental costs $4.

LED-lights on the sides and walls is coupled with advanced technology, including programmed bumpers for each bowler. This new type of bowling, Muncy believes, will be popular among young people.

“You don’t have to be a superstar bowler to have fun bowling,” he said. “Particularly millennials these days want to do fun activities together in a social environment but don’t want to be eliminating or isolating people who may not be experts. Bowling’s a great way to do that.”