Alyson Campbell, 26, left her job at a Washington, D.C., law firm to pursue her dream of working in the music industry. She arrived in New York with no job, no friends, and only the hope that things would fall into place. From her Manhattan apartment, she scoured job boards until she stumbled across “Girls Behind the Rock Show,” a Facebook networking group that led her to an opening at Brooklyn Bowl — a Williamsburg music venue, restaurant and bowling alley with an all-female office staff.
Three years later, as Brooklyn Bowl’s scheduling and administrative coordinator, she describes the venue as a second home. She even moved to Brooklyn, where she lives just five minutes away with her roommate, Olivia, who works as the venue’s marketing coordinator and occasionally takes the stage as Honey Marmalade.
“Being in a space with people who genuinely support me and want to see my career flourish — especially in an industry that was completely new to me — has been really great,” Campbell said of the team. “I don’t think I would have had the same opportunities to gain this knowledge and experience anywhere else.”
Lia Evon, 38, senior director of HR operations at Brooklyn Bowl’s Brooklyn location, began her journey at the venue 15 years ago — a year after it was founded by Peter Shapiro and Charley Ryan in 2009. She fondly refers to “Pete and Charley,” recalling how they worked alongside Blue Ribbon to transform the exposed brick and beam warehouse into the multipurpose venue it is today.
Since then, Brooklyn Bowl’s success has led to locations in Las Vegas, Nashville and Philadelphia. In 2013, “Rolling Stone” named it one of the best music clubs in the United States.
While Evon says it “felt like a dudes club” in the early days, she always felt included in the venue’s evolution. She recalls sitting at the front desk when she was unexpectedly asked to build a standard operating procedure.
“As an hourly employee, that’s not the norm,” she laughed, “but it’s a feeling I really want to keep. Like you have a voice in here. I want to hear from the server on the floor, I want to hear from anyone, you know, ‘what’s working? what’s not?’”
Anna Ayers, 41, the general manager, shares this philosophy. She oversees Brooklyn Bowl’s 150 employees but, like Evon and most of the office staff, she started on the floor bussing tables. She says that experience fostered an appreciation for the business and continues to shape her communal approach to leadership.
“I had to bartend last week because we had 150 walk-up tickets and were a little unprepared,” Ayers said. “But that’s what you’ve got to do. No one’s above doing certain work here. Plus, I love stepping in. It connects me to the staff I wouldn’t otherwise work so closely with.”
Rather than resenting tasks beyond their job descriptions, staff members say the unpredictability of their roles is part of what makes Brooklyn Bowl special.
“It’s exciting. Every night’s different,” Evon said. “There’ve been nights where I’d just gotten home, and then we get a call that ‘Diplo’s waiting outside in a car and wants to come DJ.’ And we were only staffed for a bowling night. I was security that night, I got elbowed in the face — but we made it through, and it was badass.”
Although Brooklyn Bowl founders Shapiro and Ryan envisioned the venue for Grateful Dead jam bands, it hosts a range of events, including a sold-out JO1 show that led to a two-day residency, Jessica Phillips and Chelsea Nachman’s wedding reception, and lively drag brunches — one of which set the Guinness World Record for most attendees.
Hannah Nobbe Goldsmith, 30, Brooklyn Bowl’s marketing manager and a member of “Girls Behind the Rock Show,” said the Wythe Avenue hotspot stands out not just for its versatile space and genre-hopping but also for its staff.
“In music, it’s very, very rare to have this many women working behind the scenes,” she said. “I think it’s a sign that we’re making progress as a society. And I feel, like in my position, I’m able to put the ladder down for women behind me.”
And that sense of support extends into everyday life. Campbell remembers the day her dog died.
“I knew Anna and Lia were working, and the first thing I thought was, ‘I don’t know what to do — I’m just gonna go sit with them because I need to be with people who I know care about me,’” she said.
