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dinner and a movie?

aries83

What if there was a movie theatre that served reataurant quality food and drinks, including alcohol but instead of having traditional theatre seating....there is a couch or bed or real confortable lounge furniture to give the feel of being in your own home but getting to watch a new realease on the big screen? If you hany thoughts please give me some feed back.
Thanks!

 
Jul 15, 05 2:43 pm
driftwood

There's a big difference between eating some buttered popcorn and slurpin' on a big cup of soda in the pitch dark and eating filet minon and sippin' a fine cab sav in pitch dark. Also, the mess would be unbearably horrendous. And I'm not talking about the spilt popcorn, bubble gum under the seats, and candy wrappers kind of mess...

Jul 15, 05 2:50 pm  · 
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paper

Not a new idea. The Cable Car in Providence has couches, and a coffee bar. The Bridge de Lux in Philadelphia (seriously pretentious name) has a full service bar and restaurant connected to a theater with barcalounger style leather chairs. There's a chain of theaters that were written about in the Times a couple of weeks ago that featured the same.

That being said, the whole living room as theater angle has not been done. But consider maintenance. How do you keep spilled drinks from staining the home-style couch and carpet. And personally I don't want to share a couch with a drunken heckler at the opening of Shwarzennegar-as-Uncharacteristically-Beefy-Action-Hero-3.

Jul 15, 05 2:53 pm  · 
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liberty bell

Look here at McMenamin's Mission Theater in Portland, OR.

They started this trend in my mind, back in about 1988, I believe. Not just a drink, but awesome microbrew beer.

Jul 15, 05 2:55 pm  · 
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stephanie

McMenamins businesses are RAD.

We have a local theater that serves alcohol and restraunt quality food.
but they also show mostly independent and foreign movies, so the clientele isn't typically your "drunken heckler" type.

it's sort of fun to be able to take a bottle of wine into a theater though.

Jul 15, 05 3:17 pm  · 
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architecturegeek

I've gotten drunk at Brewvies in Salt Lake.

It's not real upscale but they do serve food and alcohol.

I seem to remember seeing a news story once on a few theaters in Washington that were doing just what your describing. It's much more expensive and upscale (i.e you had a waiter and theres a dress code, etc.) which cuts down on the drunken heckler quadrant.

Driftwood - you sit at tables with their own lighting at some of these places, and it's usually a much much smaller setting than at the average theatre. Dinner theater has been around for ages, it's not much of a stretch to have that theatre display movies instead of stage actors..

/was not a heckler

Jul 15, 05 5:38 pm  · 
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Jeremy

The Cable Car rules..

There is also now a Bridge De Lux in LA, and they have an bar theater (well, you can get a drink at the bar and then drink it in the movie) at the Arc LIght in Hollywood. A great theatre, but very expensive (they show no pre-show ads except trailers, very nice touch)

Jul 15, 05 6:11 pm  · 
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zeth01

Theres a place something like what you are saying. It is in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin near Milwaukee. It is called [url=http://www.foxbaycinemagrill.com/]Fox Bay Cinema and Grill[/img]

Jul 15, 05 6:37 pm  · 
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zeth01

[url=http://www.foxbaycinemagrill.com]Fox Bay Cinema and Grill[/img]

Jul 15, 05 6:38 pm  · 
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zeth01
here

it better work this time

Jul 15, 05 6:39 pm  · 
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zeth01
here

it better work this time

Jul 15, 05 6:39 pm  · 
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architecturegeek

lol

having a hard time there zeth

Jul 15, 05 6:53 pm  · 
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heterarch

even in indianapolis there are 2 places very similar to what you're talking about. not quite "living room" quality, but a big step above general theatre seating, and with decent food and bevs..
every city needs at least a couple of these. if i had the cash, i'd never go to any theatre that didn't serve beers and cocktails..

Jul 15, 05 7:02 pm  · 
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strlt_typ

i saw shrek 2 wasted at the arc light in los angeles. I had to use the bathroom a lot.

Jul 15, 05 7:24 pm  · 
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Isabelle

Cinespace in LA.

Jul 15, 05 9:12 pm  · 
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le bossman

apparently these already exist, and are somewhat commonplace in other countries. i think it would do fine. why these have no been implemented before is beyond me, but judging from the architectural styling typical of movie theaters, i'd say it stems from a lack of vision. the ceo's of showcase and harkins apparently aren't in the business of creating new ideas in as much as perpetuating old ones.

Jul 15, 05 11:12 pm  · 
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vado retro

here in the uncultured midwest i can think of three of these places off the top of my feedcap wearin head.
brew n view in chicago
someplace in indy that i cant remember the name of
and the ryder film festival which has been held in the back of a bar featuring food and booze for over twenty years now.
that is all.

Jul 16, 05 1:44 am  · 
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Anyhow from Rhode Island there's one similar to that on the drag. Granted the food wouldnt be close to gourmet more like an upgrade of puppy chow. Good halloween flicks tho and real cheapr - those were the days. I wonder if that place is still open

Jul 18, 05 7:29 pm  · 
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dia

Here's an example from Enzed - Circle Lounge. You might have these in the states, but here and in Australia, there are examples of theatre chains that have more luxurious theatres as an adjunct to regular cinemas. Typically, the cinemas are smaller [maybe sitting up to 50 people], the seats are leather and can recline, you can order alcohol and food, and have them vbrought to you at particular times [I saw the Two Towers and ordered a bottle of wine to be brought out just before the battle of Helms Deep]. Typically you pay twice the ticket price of a normal seat.

Jul 18, 05 7:41 pm  · 
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MysteryMan

Starlite-6 Atlanta,GA
Not inside, but you can bring an entire kitchen into the place & have at it.
Next time I go, I'm renting a Winnebago towing a keg-trailer.

Jul 18, 05 9:59 pm  · 
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vado retro

ryders in bloomington btw.

Jul 19, 05 12:05 am  · 
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spiderdad

Brew & View in chicago...

Jul 19, 05 6:42 am  · 
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Bryan Finoki

not sure if this will help, but...

more like a fancy restaurant with a chique urban theater placed into it - the French Foreign Cinema in SF.

then in Oak, you get the Parkway Theater, couches, beer, pizza...etc.

Jul 21, 05 2:50 pm  · 
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fen-om

The thing is,... all these are commercial responses to this hybrid issue. Is it possible to make it 'space design'? I have a student working on a similar issue, and there the recent 'solution' has been to deal with distinction of form and use-value (where many of the 'movie' uses seem to be 'up above', including projection mechanisms and acoustic padding, and many 'dining' uses seem to be 'down below', the surface where you sit and are served, and where the walls are protected against your movements).

Jul 22, 05 12:33 am  · 
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joj

The notion of eating and watching a movie simultaneously while being made to feel as if you were in the privacy of your own home sounds wonderful.... BUT how comfortable can you really be knowing that someone else was lounging on the same sofa/bed-couch you are sitting on? Do people meet up to your same standards of cleanliness? Most likely not. The idea is good, but there are foreseen problems with maintanence, cleanliness.. and operational aspects?? what if people need to have a waiter attend to them? Unless the seating was arranged in such a way that these disturbances were minor. Perhaps those who would like to eat a meal can have private balconies?(if any) or be seated on the sides of the theatre?

Jul 23, 05 12:02 am  · 
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