East Idaho Eats: Delicious Hawaiian BBQ available inside famous Preston bowling alley

PRESTON — Normally, patrons at a bowling alley can expect the food options to be limited to simple fare — nachos, hot dogs or mundane pizza.

At Poppin’ Pins in Preston, bowlers can expect tasty plates with flavors rooted in owner Logan Henline’s home — Hawaii.

Henline has owned the bowling alley for nearly five years. In that time, he has focused on transforming what is expected of bowling alley food.

Kalama Hines, EastIdahoNews.com

Island Bowl Grill, which is — for lack of a better term — the cafeteria inside the bowling alley, offers some traditional Hawaiian barbecue eats. Visitors can pick from kalua pork, teriyaki chicken or steak, or chicken katsu. But Henline and co-owner Darian Daniels also offer some of the favorites from past businesses.

“We also do a lot of our own twists that aren’t traditional Hawaiian,” Henline said. “We do a thing we call a ‘Snowball’ — we take a scoop of rice, some (Kalua pork), cheese, we bread that and we deep fry it.”

Island Bowl Grill also features from popular menu items from previous Henline family restaurant — sparkplugs and lugnuts.

Both, Henline explained, are bite-sized pieces of chicken breast that are breaded then deep fried. The lugnuts, he continued, are glazed with a sweet sauce while the sparkplugs get a special sweet and spicy sauce.

But don’t worry, you can also get classics like sandwiches and french fries there.

For our visit, Henline gave EastIdahoNews.com a two-meat plate with lugnuts and teriyaki chicken. While both came with delicious sauce, neither needed any additional flavor.

The teriyaki chicken was perfectly cooked strips of thigh meat, seasoned and grilled.

And the lugnuts had their own pop of flavor from the breading.

Of course, the plate came with a traditional double-scoop of rice and a scoop of macaroni salad — standard for Hawaiian-style plate lunches.

Though the food is good enough to stand alone, one of the draws of the bowling alley is its inclusion in the 2004 comedy “Napoleon Dynamite,” which has become a cult classic.

The lanes themselves have been mostly untouched since the movie was filmed — and feature the same sunshine symbol on the wall. Other areas of the building feature photos and memorabilia from the movie that made Preston famous.

One item Henline proudly displays is the ball used by the film’s character Uncle Rico.

Logan Henline holds the bowling ball used by Uncle Rico in the film “Napoleon Dynamite.” | Kalama Hines, EastIdahoNews.com

Decor also includes countless license plates collected by Henline’s father through the years.

Anyone who wants to try the food without soaking in the ambience can also order for drive-through pick up. Orders can be made over the phone — (208) 425-6128 — Henline said, then picked up at the window in front of the building.

Poppin’ Pins Bowling Alley is located at 411 U.S. 91 in Preston. They are open Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

For more information or to see the menu, visit the website — here — or the Facebook page — here.

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