It’s normally a bad sign when I start knocking things over while drinking. But at Southport Lanes and Billiards, 3325 N. Southport Ave., knocking things over (pins in particular) is the objective.

This isn’t your hometown’s scuzzy bowling alley, and while it’s not cheap if you bowl, at least there’s no cover. The bar is decorated with dark-stained wood trim and raised wooden booths. If you ask what they have on tap, the bartenders can rattle off 16 beers without even mentioning the 50-some more they have in bottles. Any brew will cost you from $2.50-$5.

We signed up at the bar for one of the four bowling lanes and waited about 30 minutes for ours to open up. There’s no real limit to how many people are on a lane, so take a group, because you pay by the hour (about $15/hour during the week, $20/hour on weekends, plus $2 for shoes).

The novelty of this place rests on the old-fashioned lanes themselves: They use human pin setters. We were warned not to bowl if we saw Alfredo’s legs, and also told to send tips down in the finger hole of a ball.

You can get drinks at the bar or from the waitresses, who are fairly attentive and friendly. Southport Lanes also has a full dinner menu.

The Saturday-night clientele was mixed in age. There were groups of single-sex friends – presumably out to intermingle – but very few individuals. Then again, knocking things over isn’t a solo sport.

Southport Lanes and Billiards is located a block south of the CTA brown line Southport stop. It’s open Monday-Friday from 4 p.m.-2 a.m.; Saturdays from noon-3 a.m. and Sundays from noon-1 a.m.

– Kristin Barrett