Walk into the new Rack and Pinz and you will be met with subdued lighting, a swanky sports bar feel and a few bowling lanes. The latest addition to the Legends at Sparks Marina project opened Thursday evening and it is not your average bowling alley. The sports bar/pool hall/restaurant has just six lanes, but it also has plenty of other entertainment to keep patrons busy and buying.

The restaurant portion can accommodate 500 people, according to its director of sales and marketing, Eric Schilder.

It is also positioned right next to the Cadillac Ranch, catching the overflow from that night spot.

"There is nothing like it in the marketplace," said Legends general manager Dennis McGovern.

So far, he is right.

Rack and Pinz is privately owned and operated by the same people who operate neighboring Cadillac Ranch, and it is not a chain.

According to Schilder, the concept for Rack and Pinz came from a cacophony of sources. Mostly, he said, it tried to combine all the things that someone might do just for some relaxed fun.

"People do a lot of different things," Schilder said. "They want a variety, so here we are."

Rack and Pinz accommodates a large central bar that sits immediately near the entrance. Past that, customers can sit at high wooden tables or in a few scattered booths, all complete with ketchup and mustard for the free flow of French fries and chicken wings.

A half-circle of black leather couches on the left side of the room face a 15-foot flat-screen TV, which will constantly be channeling sports. About 25 other flat screens are scattered throughout the building.

In the back are the six bowling lanes and, in another back section, customers can play pool at one of eight tables or have a game of darts.

The entire space gives the dimly lit feel of a sports bar, but with cheery yellow walls and refined black wood moulding framing six-foot images of in-action sports heroes. Low-hanging lights over the pool tables illuminate red velvet accents.

"It is more targeted to adults at night and then the family during the day," Schilder said. "This is more about people going out. It is more of a restaurant/sports bar atmosphere with the music and a trendy feel."

Rack and Pinz also has a separate meeting room that can accommodate 50.

Rack and Pinz opened more than two months after the rest of the Legends project; on the entertainment side, it is one of the last venues to go in. The project is still expecting a casino and an arena to follow at an undetermined date in the future and an IMAX theater.

"We are pleased with what we are hearing from the shoppers," McGovern said.

When asked if those happy voices were contributing to the project's bottom line, McGovern said, "The numbers are reflecting the economy.

"The number one thing that is important to us is that we keep our word and we sure did," he said of the project's opening.

The city of Sparks has invested millions in the project through the issuance of Sales Tax Anticipated Revenue (STAR) bonds.

The STAR bonds issued by the city of Sparks paid for 19 percent of Legends' price tag, with more than $800 million coming from private sources. The bonds lure developers by promising that 75 percent of sales tax revenues generated by a development can be used to pay off the development’s construction debt. The rest of the sales tax revenue is distributed to local municipalities. Eventually, all sales tax revenue will go to the city.

The project as a whole will cost Legends developer RED about $1.2 billion, according to RED officials. Some of this funding came from RED, while other monies came from bonds taken out with the city of Sparks.