Yvett R.'s Profile

Checking the listings for still-available Harry Potter tickets went something like this . . . . sold out, sold out, sold out, sold out, sold out, oh wait . . . Harkins Theater? Oh what street? Oh yeah, are these the new theaters around Irvington? Why isn't it sold out there?!?! I concluded that the reason was that the theaters are too far (because I assume that everyone starts off driving from my house). Buying tickets was a breeze. There was NO ONE in line. NO ONE. (since I didn't want to pay the "inconvenience fee" online)
We situated ourselves and I promptly sent my husband to get the concession goodies. Had I known about the loyalty cup, I would have told him. I am just now finding out about this. Thanks, Jennifer! I don't know how long the lines were, but he wasn't gone very long. The theater is spacious, new, great sound and there are screens hanging down in the corridors showing previews. "A theater of the future" was what I was calling it.
I have one major gripe, though. During the previews, I noticed a small white dot on the top/middle of the giant screen. I figured this would disappear once the feature began, but that wasn't so. It looked like a tiny rip in the screen. I can't imagine what else it could have been. Something from the projector? I saw it in theater 1, by the way, in case you want to see for yourself. Anyway, this dot pestered me throughout the movie. You know once you see something that bothers you and you can't ignore it try as you might? Yeah, that's how it was. What was worse is that sometimes it looked as though it might have been part of the movie . . . . a sparkling in Luna's glasses (sneakoscopes, for fellow geeks, er, um, fans), a star in a dark sky, an adornment in someone's hair. You get the gist. I hope they fix this because it is very, very distracting. Otherwise, this place it great. Far for me, but great.
I can only hope that with the opening of yet another theater, some other films - not just blockbusters- will be available to us somewhere other than in The Loft. It would be a great change to be able to view a nice indy flick in a state-of-the art theater. Well . . .  one can dream.

***** I didn't use it, but this place has a "playcenter" daycare. Yes. It. Does. It's for kids 3-8 and is $6 per child. They have a little video on their website. I would have loved something like this before I actually had kids because I hated to hear someone else's crying/screaming kids while I was trying to watch a movie and now that I have kids because I still hate to hear someone else's crying/screaming kids while trying to watch a movie. (as we've only taken ours to age appropriate movies and they haven't cried/screamed). Because of that, we've missed out at loads of movies we've wanted to see and have to wait until my parents are in town or it comes out in DVD. This playcenter deal sounds very convenient.

Because of the reviews, I just HAD to try this place. I'm really glad I did. I was a little shocked to find out that this place was next to a strip mall. It's much smaller that I'd expected. My first word of advice would be to definitely make a reservation. We didn't and there were no tables when we got here. They were nice enough to have us start off at the bar and moved us to a table when one was ready.
When we got our drinks ( a Nimbus beer for him and a pink lemonade [rose wine, lemonade and sparkling wine] for me) they brought out some country olives with orange zest and bread with dipping oil and salt. They were certainly busy and the place was packed, but we felt taken care of and didn't feel like we were waiting around for service. My husband's only complaint was that the beer wasn't as cold as he likes it to be. He said it was warm several times, so I knew I had to add it into the review.
Our appetizer was baked goat cheese with olive oil roasted tomatoes and olive tapenade. It was a-ma-zing! I love goat cheese as it is, but this was so delicious. All the flavors just went so well together. Yum, I seriously could've eaten a big bowl of that for dinner.
Entrees were Kobe burger w/ frites for him and duck leg confit for me. I tasted the burger and that was some good burger. The fries had herbs on them and were really good too. My duck was super tasty. It had dried raz cherries on it and the combination was delicious! I don't know what raz cherries are, but I want some more.
For dessert we shared adult milk and cookies. They brought out a variety plate of warm cookies (white chocolate, pistacho, chocolate chip and another kind of chocolate chip I just can't remember what it was). Along with the cookies, they serve milk with bourbon. Yes, please.
I had a really good time. Our water glasses were never less than halfway full. Our waitress was nice and had a thorough explanation for anything we asked about on the menu. The way she was explaining some of the wine choices reminded me of a waitress we'd had at North. Only later when I'd handed her a "You've Been Yelped" card did she tell me that she'd also gotten one when she worked at North. I had given her one there too. I thought that was pretty funny.
Their website has a yelp tally and I love that! It's great that a restaurant cares to want non professional restaurant reviewers to be pleased.
Our total came out to $67. $19 of that was for drinks, so I think it was really not all that expensive at all. I have high hopes for this place and wish them all the best of luck. I can't wait to go back and try that chicken. I can't wait to go back . . . period.

Cleaning out the pantry only means one thing . . . a trip to IKEA! Oh, I drool over all their organization section. I dream of a tidy pantry with everything in its own container, stacked and labeled. I bought containers for cereal, flour, sugar, brown sugar, spaghetti, pasta (not long like spaghetti) and rice. Yes, my pantry looks amazing for not a lot of money. Thanks, IKEA.

I didn't want to be a sap, a clown or get taken to the cleaners. We'd just been really wanting to try this place for a while. I went in knowing that I'd probably be paying too much for a burger, so it was a nice surprise when we walked in and were told that we had about 10 minutes left of happy hour so a whole bunch of menu items would be half price. Score!
Their decor is a sort of contemporary streamline style. I love that they have a wall full of all different sizes of mirrors. I'd love to do that in my house if it didn't mean that I'd have to spend half my life wiping off little hand and paw prints. : (
Anyway, I have to tell you about the hostess. You know Kenneth the page, right? You know how in this last episode he'd pass a hand in front of his face and transform into either himself or Jack's assistant. That's what she reminded me of. She seemed sort of, OK, not sort of, really, really fake. Like the type of person who is nice to you then talks bad about you behind your back. Yeah, like me in high school. She asked us how our day had been so far and pretended to hear the answer. I know it's part of her job, but people can be more natural about it, no? I mean, if I ask you how you're doing, I really do want to know. If I don't ask, I don't care. But I digress . . . . .
The food was good. We had the Zinburger and the Samburger (perks of being married: getting to share halvsies of food), the zucchini fries and the sweet potato chips. Note: You can, in fact, order sweet potato FRIES. They are not on the menu, but they will be made for you. It just takes longer. Don't ask how they taste because I was given this info without asking for them.
The food really was good. The servers were confused. They kept taking our orders over to the table next to us. I found it amusing until we were told that our tables had been separated, thus explaining the confusion. It wasn't funny after that. OK . . . . yes it was. Anyway, the total was way less that I'd expected. Two burgers, two sides and a bottle of wine for $38. How's that for the cleaners?
Overall, it was good, not fantastic but the burgers didn't make me sick which is always a plus.