Much has changed about Somerville's Davis Square in the past several years, but not Sacco's Bowl-Haven. Walking into the place is walking into the past: a time when the neighborhood outside had no coffeehouses and no cachet, just a lotta blue-collar Joes, ready to smoke a few Lucky Strikes and bowl a few more.

These 15 lanes -- there are eight pool tables, too -- have been with the Sacco family for four generations (grandfather Ralph was one of the founding fathers of that peculiarly New England phenomenon of candlepin bowling). J.P. Sacco took over with his brother, Damon, eight years ago, but the place has hardly changed since the first strike sounded in 1939.

Take a whiff of that musty-dusty smell, still seemingly redolent of Burma Shave and Brylcreem. Sit on one of those cracked and yellowing formica benches as you lace up your shoes. Drink in the original maple hardwood in the paneling and the stylized and streamlined ball returns. Bowlers from the '30s and '40s grin down from old photos -- are they the same folks who once tossed their street shoes into those black lacquered lockers?

Sacco's has no liquor license -- and now, despite the residue of ash that still lines the ash tray in the ball returns, no smoking -- so $1 shoe rentals, strings at $2.50 per person, and pool at $7.50 an hour are its sole cash cows. The Saccos own the building, so skyrocketing rents are not a problem. All the same, despite the 37 regular leagues, they're not exactly rolling in it. But that's not the point. "Sure, we could do better doing something else," says J.P. "But we're trying to preserve this old dinosaur."

Sacco's Bowl-Haven, 45 Day Street, Somerville, (617) 776-0552.