Hillside, NJ Indoor Activities

This newly renovated, family-friendly pin farm features 42 lanes with automatic scoring and automatic bumpers for those still on their training pins. The original 1960s vintage psychedelic color scheme remains, perfectly framing your quest to become the highest-scoring roller in the whole neon universe. Refurbishments include a brand-new snack bar for refreshments and a freshly shined up cocktail bar for adult fruit juices. The entire facility is non-smoking, preserving precious, performance-enhancing air. See here for lane hours.

With sunlight cascading across their studio’s hardwood floors and crystal chandeliers, Danielle Buccellato and her staff lead more than 75 group classes every week, specializing in Pilates Mat, Xtend Barre, and group Apparatus training. Mixed in among those weekly classes is Renaissance Pilates’ popular four-week beginner program. During this program, students build strength and a full understanding of Pilates principles across eight sessions, so they are prepared to move onto regular classes and more advanced sessions. The studio’s other offerings map out different, but equally effective, routes toward fitness, including Xtend Barre—a toning workout that incorporates a ballet bar, handheld weights, and yoga straps. In addition to a variety of program options, Renaissance Pilates also offers the new Extend Barre Stick classes to help chisel bodies.

Shrill giggles and the pitter-patter of tiny, sock-swathed feet echo off the walls of Pump It Up, where lilliputian guests pinball through a metropolis of inflatable slides and bouncy enclosures. During glow pop-in play, tykes frolic in the radiance of special lights, and in pirate-themed sessions, youngsters don costumes or just feel less self-conscious about the parrot permanently affixed to their shoulder. Small groups of ankle-biters tear through the facility during private parties, plummeting down slides, scaling plush ladders, and bounding off of springy floors.

During Hollywood's Golden Age, The Community Theatre was the crowning achievement of Walter Reade's chain of New Jersey movie palaces. By the 1980s, after five decades of movie screenings and catastrophic popcorn wars, the theater sat in disrepair. Concerned citizens banded together in 1994 to save the historic building from a sad end, and in May 2011, after a series of renovations, the theater officially changed its name to the Mayo Performing Arts Center. The venue currently hosts more than 200 performances a year, occasional art showings, and performance-arts education classes for adults and children.

Nationwide Bowling Centers orchestrates a cacophonous symphony of clanking pins and cheering bowlers at 11 modern bowling centers located throughout New Jersey. Center size varies from the Hudson-Bayonne location where 60 lanes with automatic scoring, a grill, sports bar, and arcade games accommodate armadas of bowlers to Garden Palace, which houses 16 lanes, a bar, and a snack shop. At all locations, staffers host birthday parties and corporate events and organize leagues for competitive bowlers or people who just like to chuck heavy objects as hard as they can.

One of SoHo’s premier venues for world music, R & B, and hip-hop, Sounds of Brazil’s storied stage has seen all kinds of acts from Tito Puente to Kanye West since opening three decades ago. Owner and founder Larry Gold prides his combination restaurant-nightclub as being instrumental in bringing some now-renowned performers to a broader audience, hosting musicians such as Common, Drake, and John Legend early in their careers. While big names and rising stars attract music lovers, the flavor-heavy dinner menu excites all tongues more effectively than a bite of Pop Rocks mixed with dynamite.