jason "amanda hugankiss" t.'s Profile

i have totally mixed feelings on this place. drinking in a movie theater is great in concept, but i'm really not feeling the execution here. i was imagining something more along the lines of the laurehurst theater in portland, where you just walk up to a concession stand and get a pitcher of beer with your popcorn. instead, i found the entire experience rather off-putting. we walk upstairs into a fancy** bar where eight people greet you as you enter but then it takes ten minutes for a bartender to acknowledge us and take our order for two bottles of beer. some people may prefer sitting in a douchey lounge and ordering multiple rounds of overpriced drinks (seriously, airport bars are more reasonable), but we showed up about twenty minutes before showtime, we just wanted to get beer and find our seats. price wouldn't really have been an issue if we hadn't been treated like we had leprosy by every staff member on duty.

and then there's the building itself. we walked from the train, pedestrian-level signage is virtually non-existent. the theater is set way at the end of an uninviting, as-yet-totally-vacant commercial canyon with a street running through it, surrounded by rather imposing condo towers. i studied urban design in school and i think i know what the architects were going for, but they seriously failed on so many levels. the panopticon comment somebody else made is totally on point. i won't be at all surprised if the developers lose their shirts on this thing.

the theater itself is great, the seats were super-comfy, the picture & sound were really good, having an usher show us to our reserved seats was nice. but at the end of the day, the stuff you're paying extra for just isn't quite worth it.

** "fancy" is used in the loosest, most corporate way possible. the top shelf bottles would be wells anywhere else. judging from how overworked the bartenders seem to be, i wouldn't trust them to make a decent cocktail. the sports bar at a mid-range marriott would make for a nicer evening.

very nicely-appointed guesthouse in a converted georgian mansion. price is at the lower end of the higher end of dublin hotels, but it's worth the upgrade from some crap airport hotel for the highly attentive service and the amazing breakfast. the proprietor is quite a character, and by the end of our stay we had memorized his daily run-down of the entrees. best of all, it's only a couple of blocks from the southeast corner of st. stephen's green, centrally located without being in the drunken mess that is temple bar.

new location of the ravenswood non-profit, located in that building across michigan from the old water tower. delicious sandwich, delicious soup, delicious cookie, and all for a good cause. what's not to love?

i so so so wish that bike path followed the river all the way downtown. just a glimpse of what might be. maybe someday...

when i decided to order food at work, i wasn't expecting to get a balsamic glaze steak sandwich with portabellos and roasted shallots, braised artichokes with fennel and lemon pickles and homemade middle eastern sweets for ten bones. the lunch box special saved my day, i'm definitely going to try it in person soon.

home of the world's strangest diner mural, and sadly, now closed. rip, clara & james.

i like san luis because of their speciality: alambres. kind of a mexican stir-fry, but better and more authentic than fajitas, the traditional version has beef, bacon, onions and peppers topped with melted cheese, they also serve a few other combinations.

not recommended if you're in a hurry, the service is, shall we say...casual? but very friendly, and the waitress is good about refilling beverages and chip baskets while you wait for your entree.

i wish it was as cool as it seems to have been back before prohibition:

"The park featured a tavern, a steel-truss-roofed dancing pavilion, a merry-go-round, a bowling alley, a shooting gallery, a photo booth, several game booths, a beer hall, free-standing bars, and a restaurant with a tented eating area."

ah the good old days, before drinking beer and shooting guns in city parks was frowned upon...

i assume this place stays in business by catering to japanese tourists on carnaby street. i wasn't expecting to find great korean food in london, or any for that matter, but i was semi-lost, and very hungry, and figured bibimbop would do the trick (and perhaps even be affordable). maybe i'm spoiled by the nearly infinite choice of dirt-cheap korean restaurants in chicago, but i paid nearly triple for a bowl half the size that i would get at home. it tasted fine i suppose, but i was still hungry when i left and i ended up going well over my budget for lunch that day. damn you, exchange rate!!

went in solo on a weeknight while visiting a friend in the neighborhood, as previously noted, quite dead at first, though it started filling up later on round ten. i didn't much mind, i just tucked myself in a corner drinking pint after pint of wells bombardier (a rarity in the states) and reading up on victorian-era atrocities. a perfect fit, i'd venture.