Work has been stressful lately, so my brilliant wife got a babysitter and took me out for dinner and a movie last Saturday night. Part 1 was the dinner review , part 2 will be the movie review.
We went to the Edwards theater to see Denzel Washington and Jodi Foster in the new Spike Lee movie, Inside Man.
The movie itself was excellent. Great plot, lots of humor and intrigue, numerous plot twists, vibrant soundtrack, just an awesome movie overall. I highly recommend seeing it, if not now in the most expensive format possible then later when it gets to DVD. The only movies I like to see at the Edwards are computer-generated which makes a difference on that big screen. Otherwise I figure I can wait on DVD for the story-based movies. But this night was about getting out to relax.
The Edwards is the nicest theater in town with great sound, huge screens, and plush seating. Their ticket prices are completely outrageous, and their concessions are beyond ridiculous. They charge $5 for popcorn and $5 for pop! They must either think those are special treats, or the owners are egregiously greedy.
It is hilarious to hear movie studios cry about piracy robbing their profits and claim that is why nobody goes to the movies anymore. Maybe if movie ticket prices and concession prices were within a realm of sanity we would go more often. That $5 pop would easily be $1.40 at any local gas station. And so this is why we sneak in bottled pops, candy, and snacks from the outside.
The nicer theater environment may be worth more, but we also have to put up with cellphones ringing and people bringing kids into the theaters. We paid premium prices and a lady brought a baby in the row in front of us. The theater should have told her, sorry, we are charging premium prices for a premium experience that your infant may not fit well into. You are welcome back when you have found a babysitter for your child.
There is one thing about the Edwards theater that can make watching movies there a great deal. It’s a great ‘hack’ that I will share tomorrow.
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Just skimming through the articles on this site; IF sounds like quite a nice area, but anyways on a more related note I totally agree on the cinema pricing (it’s the same here… but a little more expensive… sigh), must they charge ridiculous amounts for snacks?
Nice to read your story by the way.
-Passerby-
What’s the hack?
Joe – my wife and I have the “kid” discussion all the time when we go out. It’s silly to bring children on “date” scenarios like movies and nice dinners. We went out for wine ‘n’ dine at J. Carino’s not too long ago and were almost unable to enjoy ourselves due to the noise and distractions that all of the children brought.
I think it’s utterly ridiculous for people to bring infants to movies. It’s rude and inconsiderate to others – if you ask me, if you can’t afford a babysitter, you can’t afford a movie. Same goes for dinner. Just order a pizza and stay at home with the kids and let the rest of us eat in peace!
My wife and I agree that we would pay a ridiculous amount of money to eat at a place that banned children … same goes for a movie theater!
Jeremy must not have kids! My six-year-old loves to eat at J. Carino’s. She loves the cheesecake and my 3 year-old loves the bread. I’ve been in there when the adult parties were making more noise than any children. I will admit that when I take them to the movies, I try to select kid-friendly features (Cars, saw it 3 times at the theatre) which may cut down on the number of unwanted interruptions. I was sad to hear that the Bistro closed down. That was my favorite place to eat with just my wife, due to the lack of children and the great food. If you’re looking for a place to eat without children, I hear Lincoln Court will let you take a tour with a complementary lunch!
Jeremy, are you saying that when you have kids you will never take them into public?
Now, I happen to agree about not taking kids to movies that aren’t meant to be for kids. I never take my kids to movies that aren’t children movies. I think it is inconsiderate to both the kids (because they will be bored) and to the other customers trying to watch the movie.
But, as far as restaurants go, there is nothing wrong with taking your kids to dinner with you. If you never take them to public places, how are they supposed to learn to behave in public?
Now, obviously parents need to have discipline and keep control of their kids in these places. I have gone some places where the parents do little to nothing to keep control of their kids, and that is annoying, but that’s life. It doesn’t mean that restaurants should ban kids. These are family places.
Parent- I agree with you about better parenting needed. However, I whole-heartedly agree with Jeremy that there should be places that, shall we say, are not as kid friendly. It is nice to have a grown up night every now and again. Grown up nights should include time spent with other grown ups engaged in conversation and laughs, not straining to hear an anecdote over children whining that they don’t want to finish their mac and cheese.
My favorite episode of Sex and the City featured this same dilemma when a female, childless professional was asked to stop talking on her cell phone in a restaurant because it bothered the other patrons. She obliged but pointed out the small child at the next table was running around and spilling pesto all over everything but the server would do nothing about it. The point of the episode was the right to choose. You have made your choices and I have made mine. My problem lies when your choices interfere with my choices.
Time alone with my boyfriend is hard to come by and an evening out can be expensive, to get back to the point of the thread. I would rather not have to compete with little ones over my $6.00 piece of cake.
For the record: I don’t dislike children, just bad parents.
JR – you’re right, I’m not a parent. Which makes it very frustrating when I want to enjoy a night out with the wife and end up having to deal with misbehaving children and screaming babies.
I will say this – in my line of work (I’m a waiter), I see how an overwhelming majority of children behave at restaurants, and it’s disgusting. Children run around unsupervised, even into our work areas and kitchen! Children toss food onto the floor and disrupt the dining experience for other guests. They make our job as waiters very, very difficult – and on top of that, parents are one of those demographics that just don’t tip well (again, an overwhelming majority, not the whole.)
My point is this – if your children can’t behave in public, then they should not be allowed to go out with you. When my wife was growing up, if they acted out in public, they would immediately go home and eat mac n cheese for dinner. It didn’t take long before they were perfect angels in public.
I agree that some places are not kid friendly and these are places that you should not take kids.
However, places like Johnny Carino’s like Jeremy mentioned, have kids menus. You cannot go to places that have kid menus and expect to not have kids there.
And Jeremy, I do happen to agree with you about children behaving in public. If the child is acting out, they should be removed from the situation.
I have had to do that with my kid a few times. A lot of the time, all it took was taking him out to the car for a time out and then we were able to resume our meal with no problems. But if the child continues acting out, then they should be taken home.
We had another awesome date night using some Christmas gift money. Our tried-and-true date night has become a call-ahead to Texas Roadhouse and a movie at Edwards cinema, because we know it will be great.
Call-ahead is awesome at Texas Roadhouse. We called, they said probably a 60 minute wait, but to show up in 30 minutes. We did, and was told it would be another 30-35 minutes, but it was actually only 15.
The best part was when we left, and a couple that had been standing in the lobby when we first arrived finally got seated. THAT is the beauty of call-ahead!
The movie was “We are Marshall” which is very good and sad but I would wait until it is out on DVD.
And yet again, someone had brought their baby into this movie and it cried halfway through.
And the theater owners and Hollywood wonder why I would rather download movies at home than pay them $10 to see a movie where they let babies in?
Letting in people with babies is penny-wise and pound-foolish.
Hey Joe! We did the same thing the other day. Maybe we were there at the same time. We called ahead to Roadhouse on a Friday night and only had to wait 15 min once we got to the restaurant. My only complaint about them is that they never seem to have enough rolls. We always ask for more and there is some problem with getting them. Is there some kind of policy of only one serving of rolls that they don’t tell us about???? We then went over to Edwards Cinema and saw the new Rocky movie. I was a little skeptical. But it was great and I loved the moral of the story. That one I would pay money to see in the theatre and luckily there were no babies crying in that one for us. Hope you have better luck next time Joe. Oh and one suggestion of ending your date night. My hubby and I have discovered a late night stop at Wal mart can be quite amusing and fun trying on funny hats and scarves and trying not to get lost in the maze of that store. We have done this a couple of times when we just don’t feel like going home yet. My hubby likes to pick up random things and see where it has been made. So far he can’t find anything that has not been made in China……Catch ya later!!!!
whatever happened to Jeremy Plo???? Why did he drop off of IFallz?????
Anyone know???
Maybe he’s had enough.
I enjoyed reading his comments whether I agreed or not. He was articulate in some of the other threads – but took some abuse from other members and if memory serves, got annoyed and left. Hope to see him back posting sometime.
He was a bit of a “my way or the highway” type of thinker. If you agreed with him u were ok if you didn’t then he would pout and cry and as a moderator would remove your comments. I have not missed him a bit.
I completely agree with Comment #14.
I think I showed up just as he was leaving; I remember some disagreements; I just notice that he wrote a lot of the posts that we still talk about sometimes……..
thanks for the info.