CINCINNATI — A fairly new pastime is gaining popularity thanks to a happy accident. “Fowling,” as it called, mixes two well-loved sports: Bowling and football. Joe Frank is a fowling expert and co-owner of the Fowling Warehouse in Cincinnati.
“My friend and I have been fowling in the backyard for 10 years,” said Joe Frank. “We found out there was an actual business with this game, and we opened the first Fowling Warehouse in Cincinnati in 2019.”
Fowling got its start at the Indianapolis 500 when a portable bowling alley was brought to the tailgate.
“They threw the first bowling ball down, and it hit the pins and went straight through them and crushed the tailgate behind them,” said Frank. “It was an engineering flaw where they forgot to make a backstop,”
Frank said later that day, they were throwing the football around, it hits the pins and the rest was history.
“Boom—they invented this game called fowling,” said Frank.
The object of the game is to knock down your opponent’s pins before they knock down yours.
With 42,000-square-feet, the fowling warehouse offers 30 lanes of fowling, two bars and a mystery beer machine. When it comes to food, visitors are allowed to bring their own, dine at a food truck or have pizza delivered to their lane. Having hosted everything from retirement celebrations to kids’ birthday parties, Frank said fowling is for everyone.
“It takes time to master but you can come out here and have fun and be successful with it really fast,” said Frank.
Fowling Warehouse takes reservations for private events but walk-ins are also welcome.
