How a bowling alley cocktail bar became an important Detroit jazz venue
By Rod Arroyo
There’s a peculiar alchemy that happens when you combine bowling lanes, a cocktail bar, and some of the greatest jazz musicians who ever lived. This is exactly what happened at Rouge Lounge in River Rouge in 1952, at the helm of Ed Sarkesian. There was a bowling alley and lounge in Detroit that did it first. For over three decades, it happened at 12707 Dexter Avenue (corner of Leslie) in Detroit, where a venue with the unassuming name of Bowl-o-Drome housed the Drome Lounge—a place where John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, McCoy Tyner, and countless other legends graced a stage.
From Strikes to Stardust: The Early Bowl-o-Drome Years
In 1939, Leo Adler and Ben Lutz had a vision that was quintessentially mid-century American: bowling, cocktails, and ping-pong under one roof. Their Bowl-o-Drome advertised “forty new ABC alleys” alongside an “adjoining cocktail bar,” because apparently nothing says relaxation and fun like a beer or a martini and the thunder of pins being obliterated.
But it was Lou Jacobs who saw something more. On March 11, 1945, as World War II drew to a close, Jacobs opened the Tropical Show Bar at the Bowl-o-Drome. The concept was audacious: serious jazz in a bowling alley lounge. The opening night featured clarinetist Bill Stegmeyer, ex-Gene Krupa trombonist Frank Rosolino, and Dave Heard, a young drummer from the Heard family (Downbeat Magazine, March 11, 1945). Monday nights were for jazz artists; Tuesdays became jam session nights.
The gamble paid off. By the late 1940s, the Tropical Show Bar was showcasing Art Mardigan’s All-Stars, featuring a teenage piano prodigy named Tommy Flanagan, who would go on to become one of jazz’s most celebrated accompanists, playing with everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to John Coltrane.
Rebranding and Revelation (1950-1960)
The venue cycled through a few names. The Tropical Show Bar became the Drome Show Bar in early 1951, advertising its grand opening on January 31st.
The 1950s brought a rotating cast of Detroit’s finest, including a young Kenny Burrell and vibraphonist Terry Pollard. But the decade also brought complications. In January 1954, Bowl-o-Drome owner Irwin H. Helman was arraigned on charges of operating a gambling establishment, accused of allowing bets on bowling games.
Jim Gallert noted the following: “During the same time, the Rouge Lounge (located on Coolidge Highway in River Rouge) was the focal point for national jazz performers in the Detroit area. The Rouge, too, was a bowling alley/performance space. Chet Baker, Art Tatum, Gerry Mulligan all played the Rouge. The ‘house band’ was a five- or six-piece band which included Kenny Burrell and Tommy Flanagan. By 1958, rising booking costs forced owner Ed Sarkesian to forsake his beloved jazz space and turn his attention elsewhere.”
The Golden Age: When Giants Walked Through the Doors (1960-1971)
By 1960, when the venue began advertising simply as “Drome Bar,” and then “Drome Lounge” in 1961, Detroit was a crucible of musical innovation. Motown was just beginning its world conquest a few miles away, but the Drome remained devoted to jazz.
The roster from this era reads like a jazz enthusiast’s dream:
Dorothy Ashby, billed as the “World’s Greatest Jazz Harpist,” brought her revolutionary approach to an instrument that has been barely touched by jazz.
Wes Montgomery played the Drome at least twice in 1963 and 1964.
John Coltrane’s quintet performed June 17-26, 1966—his first Detroit appearance in three years. By this point, Coltrane was deep into his spiritual jazz period, featuring Pharoah Sanders on tenor sax and his wife Alice on piano. Two young brothers, Don and David Was, who would later form the band Was (Not Was), tried to hear this legend but had to listen from outside, where all they could hear was what seeped through cracks, windows, and doors. Don recalls that they did meet Detroiter Alice Coltrane that night (Billboard, March 1, 1977).
The list continues: Roy Haynes, Yusef Lateef, Grant Green, Sonny Stitt, Roland Kirk (multiple times), Curtis Fuller, Dizzy Reece with Barry Harris, Erskine Hawkins, George Benson, McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Kenny Dorham, Bobby Hutcherson, Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard, and more.
The roster included jazz’s active royalty, many of whom were captured at their creative peaks, performing in a bowling alley cocktail lounge in Detroit.
Rebellion and Change
Then came July 23-27, 1967. The Detroit Rebellion fundamentally altered the city’s trajectory. The neighborhood around the Drome changed overnight. White flight, which had started years before, accelerated. Businesses closed or relocated.
But the Drome didn’t stop serving the community. In 1968, the ownership changed hands to a consortium of African American businessmen: Wilbur Hughes (President), Grover McCants (Vice President), Warren Hawkins (Secretary), Roger Evans (Treasurer), and Eugene Chenault.
After a year-and-a-half closure, the Drome reopened around January 1971 with the Billy Burrell Quartet, followed by his more famous brother, Kenny. Roy Ayers played in July 1971. The spirit was willing, but the city was changing. They kept the music going—Sonny Stitt, Roland Kirk, Harold McKinney with Marcus Belgrave, and more.
The Final Note
In 1976, a fire in the bowling alley portion of the building effectively ended the Drome’s run. No dramatic final concert, no grand farewell—just fire damage and the economic realities of running a jazz club in a neighborhood that had lost much of its commercial vitality.
Why It Matters
The Drome Lounge represents something essential about American culture that we’ve largely lost: the democratic mixing of high art and everyday life. You could bowl a few frames, grab a drink, and catch John Coltrane pushing the boundaries of human musical expression. The audience wasn’t just jazz scholars or wealthy patrons—they were working people, bowling league members, jazz enthusiasts, and neighbors who wandered over to see what the fuss was about.
Detroit in the 1960s produced Motown and MC5’s proto-punk. But it also hosted more substantive jazz talent per capita than almost anywhere outside New York. The Drome wasn’t just booking acts; it was providing a platform for jazz’s greatest innovators during what many would argue was the music’s most creative period.
Today, 12707 Dexter Avenue is just another address in a city that’s seen too much loss and is rebuilding. But for 37 years, from 1939 to 1976, it was a place where people could share a familiar space, have a drink, and then hear some great music from jazz legends.
The pins have long since stopped falling. The stage is gone. But this was a place that understood something essential: greatness doesn’t always announce itself from a marble concert hall. Sometimes it arrives in a bowling alley on Dexter Avenue in Detroit, carrying a tenor saxophone and looking for the stage.
| Selected Listing of Performers – Drome Lounge (aka Tropical Show Bar, Drome Bar, & Drome Show Bar) |
| Bill Stegmeyer, ex-Gene Krupa trombonist Frank Rosolino, and Dave Heard | March 11, 1945 |
| Willie Anderson Trio with Billy Burrell and James Glover | May 5, 1950 |
| Andy Blaine and his quartet | October 13, 1950 |
| Irv “The Horn” Lewis and his combo | December 29-31, 1950 |
| John “Bullmoose” Vaughn with Kenny Burrell and Terry Pollard | February 16, 1952 |
| George Kirby | April 8, 1960 |
| Wilbert Pegler Duo | April 22, 1960 |
| Al Major’s Trio | April 22, 1960 |
| George Banks | January 22, 1960 |
| Noel Paige Trio | June 29, 1960 |
| Dorothy Ashby and her trio | March 3, 1961 |
| Roy Haynes | November 18-23, 1963 |
| Wes Montgomery trio | November 29 and December 2-9, 1963 |
| Kenny Burrell | December 13, 1963 |
| Yusef Lateef | April 2-8, 1965 |
| Wynton Kelly trio with Paul Chambers and Jim Cobb | April 19-25, 1965 |
| Grant Green | April 30, 1965 |
| Sonnie Stitt and Bennie Green | August 11, 1965 |
| Roland Kirk Quartet | August 25, 1965 |
| Yusef Lateef | September 3-12, 1965 |
| Curtis Fuller and Charles Davis | October 6, 1965 |
| Roy Brooks and his Prophets | November 13, 1965 |
| Dizzy Reece with Barry Harris and Sonny Red | November 26, 1965 |
| Erskine Hawkins Quartet | December 10, 1965 |
| John Coltrane with Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Jimmy Garrison, and Rashied Ali. | June 17-26, 1966 |
| George Benson | October 26, 1966 |
| McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson Quartet | November 21-27, 1966 |
| Kenny Dorham and Joe Henderson Sextet featuring Bobby Hutcherson | February 10-19, 1967 |
| Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers, featuring McCoy Tyner | May 24-28, 1967 |
| Donald Byrd All-Star Quintet | June 19-25, 1967 |
| Freddie Hubbard | June 30, 1967 |
| Sonny Stitt | November 22-30, 1968 |
| Roland Kirk | December 16-22, 1968 |
| Hal McKinney, featuring Marcus Belgrave, Rod Hicks, Don Walden, and Ike Daney | Dec. 18, 1968 – Jan. 4, 1969 |
| Roy Ayers | July 30, 1971 |
Thanks to Grover McCants, Jr. for information on the ownership change in 1968, when his father and other partners purchased the Drome. Also, thanks to Carla Reczek with the Detroit Public Library for research assistance.
