Bar Guide 2014: Punch Bowl Social

By Matthew Korfhage

(NEW!) Punch Bowl Social

340 SW Morrison St., 334-0360, punchbowlsocial.com. 11 am-2 am Monday-Friday, 10 am-2 am Saturday-Sunday.

Making up the third floor of a mall that seems to be giving up on being a mall in favor of becoming a sort of indoor social center—­from the art galleries that form its penthouse to the movie theater to the impending craft-beer barn of Yard House—Punch Bowl Social is an impressive multiroomed megabar and adult fun center featuring an arcade, darts, bowling, pingpong, little karaoke rooms, foosball, shuffleboard, a Mexican-food buffet and a smoking balcony overlooking downtown. The obligatory taxidermy is plastic, and the bowling is a mini-laned version in which the pins are attached to strings. There are double-digit banh mi and lamb burgers, and cocktails designed by the head of the bartenders' guild (since departed). It seems designed for the birthday party, the office Christmas party, the visiting tour bus. And we wholeheartedly recommend it if you happen to be a visiting tour bus—or a nervous first date, for that matter, in need of distraction or competition to keep conversation afloat. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.

Happy hour: 3-6 pm, 10 pm-close, all night Monday-Tuesday. Drink and food specials.
Entertainment: Lots.

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