TV Restaurants

What Happened to Paul's Bar & Bowling? (Paterson, NJ)

Closed verified

As of September 2026, Paul's Bar & Bowling has closed — confirmed via bcmmag.com, August 29, 2020.

Primary source
bcmmag.com ·
Secondary source
dailyvoice.com ·

Last verified

What the source shows: Bowling Center Management trade outlet reported the 91-year-old bar-and-bowling-alley business was closing in September 2020, per comments from the manager; Daily Voice ran a matching report.

  • Season / episode Season 9, Episode 3
  • Original air date
  • Address 377 Crooks Ave, Paterson, NJ 07503

Address

377 Crooks Ave, Paterson, NJ 07503

We have not geocoded this record yet, so it is not on the map.

What happened after Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network)?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) built its ninth-season episode "Bowling: Impossible" around Paul's Bar & Bowling, a four-lane bowling alley and bar in Paterson, New Jersey that the Awramko family had operated since 1929, an operation the family has said traces back to a Prohibition-era speakeasy. Chef Robert Irvine arrived to find a business built for an earlier era: worn lanes, a limited and dated bar menu, and a kitchen that had not kept pace with modern food-safety or service standards. Owner Paul Awramko had taken over from earlier generations of his family, and staff and regulars described a neighborhood institution that had been coasting rather than growing for years. Irvine's team spent the standard 48-hour window and roughly $10,000 renovating the space, refreshing the bar area, addressing kitchen equipment and cleanliness, and giving the bowling side of the business a cosmetic update alongside the food and beverage program. On the operations side, the episode focused on tightening a simple bar-food menu the kitchen could execute consistently, retraining staff on service basics, and coaching Awramko on running both halves of a hybrid bar-and-bowling business rather than treating them as separate operations. As with other themed "Impossible" specials, the episode leaned into the bowling-alley setting as much as the food, framing the rescue around keeping a family-run recreational anchor viable for the neighborhood rather than repositioning it as a conventional restaurant. The reveal centered on a modernized bar, a workable pub-style menu, and lanes presented as a refreshed but still nostalgic throwback to the venue's speakeasy-era roots. Irvine's narration and interviews with the Awramko family emphasized the multigenerational stakes of the business and the pressure of trying to keep a nearly century-old institution relevant. The episode aired August 6, 2014, as part of the show's run of themed specials that season, which also included golf-course and military-club venues, applying the same rescue format to non-traditional food-service settings.

Featured on Restaurant: Impossible

Season / episode
Season 9, Episode 3
Original air date
Episode title
Bowling: Impossible
What was featured
Full bar-and-bowling-alley renovation and menu overhaul
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Paul's Bar & Bowling

Frequently asked questions

Is Paul's Bar & Bowling still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, Paul's Bar & Bowling has closed — confirmed via bcmmag.com, August 29, 2020.

What happened to Paul's Bar & Bowling after Restaurant: Impossible?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) built its ninth-season episode "Bowling: Impossible" around Paul's Bar & Bowling, a four-lane bowling alley and bar in Paterson, New Jersey that the Awramko family had operated since 1929, an operation the family has said traces back to a Prohibition-era speakeasy. As of September 2026, Paul's Bar & Bowling has closed — confirmed via bcmmag.com, August 29, 2020.

Is Paul's Bar & Bowling permanently closed?

As of September 2026, Paul's Bar & Bowling has closed — confirmed via bcmmag.com, August 29, 2020. We publish a closure only with a dated source behind it, and we say plainly when it has not been independently confirmed.

Where is Paul's Bar & Bowling located?

377 Crooks Ave, Paterson, NJ 07503. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Restaurant: Impossible featured Paul's Bar & Bowling?

Season 9, Episode 3 of Restaurant: Impossible, first aired August 6, 2014. The episode is titled “Bowling: Impossible”.

Did the makeover last at Paul's Bar & Bowling?

The episode first aired August 6, 2014. Our most recent check was September 7, 2026 — 12 years later —: As of September 2026, Paul's Bar & Bowling has closed — confirmed via bcmmag.com, August 29, 2020.

Is Paul's Bar & Bowling still using the Restaurant: Impossible menu or branding?

Chef Robert Irvine arrived to find a business built for an earlier era: worn lanes, a limited and dated bar menu, and a kitchen that had not kept pace with modern food-safety or service standards. Anything newer than our last check on September 7, 2026 may not be reflected here.

Every status on this site carries a confidence label and a date, and names the source it rests on. Read the Editorial & Corrections Policy for what each label means and how quickly we act on corrections. The questions above are generated from this record's own published fields — we never publish a question we cannot answer from the data.

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Visit info

Address
377 Crooks Ave, Paterson, NJ 07503
Venue type
restaurant
Official website
None found

Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.

Sources

  • foodnetworkgossip.com — https://www.foodnetworkgossip.com/2014/08/restaurant-impossible-pauls-bar-and.html
  • bcmmag.com — https://bcmmag.com/2020/08/29/an-iconic-4-laner-a-former-speakeasy-preparing-to-close/
  • imdb.com — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3892640/

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Record ri-107 · last verified .