‘I hope people appreciate that we want to preserve places like this, because there aren’t many left.’

Falcon Bowl is a bar, music hall and bowling alley in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee. It has been a local staple for at least the last 135 years. Throughout its history, it has served as a skating rink, movie theater and wedding venue. The bowling alley in the basement, added in 1915, is the fifth-oldest sanctioned bowling alley in the country. Falcon Bowl came under new ownership in late 2022, including partial owner Bill Desing, who has helped keep the place operational.

Zack O’Hara: Why did you decide to participate in Doors Open Milwaukee?

Bill Desing: I wanted to make people aware that this is here. I thought it was a cool thing for people to see when you walk the beaten path, and a lot of times people don’t even know we exist. We want to give them that chance to see it and open up some things we normally don’t, like the bowling machine room. We don’t usually open that to the public, so we really want to make sure people get a chance to see things and hopefully bring a little more business here.

Zack O’Hara: What do you hope people take away from a tour of this place during Doors Open Milwaukee?

Bill Desing: I hope people appreciate that we want to preserve places like this because there aren’t many left. We’re one of the last, I think there are maybe two taverns like this with lanes in the basement. We want to preserve part of the little bit of history that’s left and hope that the next time someone wants to knock a building down, somebody will buy it and rehab it rather than put up more new condos or apartments.

Zack O’Hara: What do you hope the neighborhood gets out of a place like this?

Bill Desing: We want to be a neighborhood bar. We have a lot of people who walk from the neighborhood. Most of the people we employ are from the neighborhood, so we want to make it a good economic thing for the community. At the same time, we want to bring in people from outside and hope that people see Riverwest, maybe those who normally wouldn’t come here from other parts of the city. Like today, I’m sure we have people from all over the city who get to see the neighborhood and promote it.

Zack O’Hara: How do you like operating Falcon Bowl?

Bill Desing: It’s a fair amount of work. I’ve got two other partners and a general manager, but my role is remodeling the facility and keeping it maintained. That’s a challenge, always something. There are a lot of little things that have to get done.

Zack O’Hara: Was it intimidating taking on a place with such history?

Bill Desing: A bit, yeah. We wanted to make sure we didn’t change things too much. It needed a lot of work, and so we had to change some things, but we don’t want to change too much to keep the history.

Zack O’Hara: How did you find the balance between originality and breathing new life into this place?

Bill Desing: There were things that needed to be done behind the scenes, like mechanical, plumbing, electrical — all that had to be done. But getting that balance between the new and the old was a challenge. We’ve got a new big soundboard and sound speakers, which don’t really look like 1915, but that’s something we had to do. We’re trying to keep as much of the old as we can without covering it up with too much new.

Zack O’Hara: What does it mean for a place like Falcon Bowl to get a new breath of life?

Bill Desing: It’s always been an event space through the years. It’s been a movie theater and a roller rink in the past. So it’s not only that we have live music, but we’re also going to have 10 or 15 weddings here this year, which they’ve always had in this place, and we’re going to try to have more of those.

Zack O’Hara: What’s one new spin you want to add to this place that might not have been its original purpose?

Bill Desing: The live music. That’s something we really want to be a destination for in our halls. We have a brand-new, big sound system in there. We’ve got folks who put together the sound system, they work for the Pabst Theater Group. Our general manager used to work for them, and our sound guys have connections to them, and they put it all together. We want to be another destination, probably a little lower cost. Our beers are cheaper than some other places. When you go to a concert elsewhere, some places charge $12 a beer; we charge $5 a beer. We hope to attract people by being a little more affordable.