The Painted Duck combines duckpin bowling, cocktails, food and old-school parlor games inside a stylish West Midtown setting that gives couples plenty to do without making the night feel like a children's arcade. Dinner is cool. But can we have some fun too? That's what puts The Painted Duck at the top of this list.

You can bowl, drink, eat and talk, but the real strength is everything happening between those things. Beyond duckpin bowling, there are games like Belgian feather bowling, deck shuffleboard, snookball, indoor horseshoes and more. That gives the date somewhere to go. You aren't sitting across a table interviewing each other for two hours, and you aren't locked into one activity either.

At night, the dim industrial room, cocktails and 21+ policy give the experience enough grown energy that it still feels like a night out. Weekend waits can be real, though, and regular bowling reservations aren't offered, so we'd rather arrive earlier than spend half the date waiting on a lane. BlkTravel would choose The Painted Duck for: first dates, established couples, double dates, cocktails, friendly competition, birthdays and couples who want an actual activity with their night out.