Her perspective: A
I think this is the first time I've given out an A!
I went for Ladies Night with four friends. Apparently, they do special events the last Tuesday of every month, but it is VERY hard to get in on these nights. You need to be getting their newsletter and call for reservations as soon as you see it pop into your inbox.
I arrived at 4:30 and my friends showed up shortly thereafter. I was asked to wait in the lounge until a majority of my party had arrived. No problem, they were close behind. I went to a bar table and the bartender came right over with a sheet explaining all the specials and events for Ladies Night. They happened to have a German Riesling on special, so I ordered that. My friends all got the Love Martini when they arrived.
We then walked back up to the host stand and were seated immediately. The host advised us to be careful sliding into the booth as you can hit your knees on the heating elements under the table. Our server came over quickly to make sure we were all set with drinks and understood how everything worked. As there were 5 of us, we were allowed two choices of cheese (appetizer), two choices of broth (for cooking the meat), and two choices of chocolate (their term for dessert, but not all the choices are chocolate).
We selected the fiesta cheese, which can be adjusted according to your taste for spicyness, and the spinach/artichoke. I don't like artichokes, but you couldn't taste them and there was a lot of garlic in it, so I actually liked that one better than the fiesta cheese. We had bread, apples and vegetables for dipping.
The two broths we got were their standard vegetable broth and a carribean style broth. They were both good, but I liked the citrus of the carribean style better. The meats were shrimp, chicken and teriyaki-marinated beef. We ended up popping the meat that was left over into each of the broths to take home.
For the chocolates, we got the Bananas Foster and the Turtle. Both were flambe'd at the table. The Bananas Foster was WONDERFUL, but both could have been hotter in temperature. We had bananas, strawberries, cheesecake, pineapple and marshmallows covered in cinnamon or in chocolate. Very tasty!
We had a manager come over as we were waiting for our cheeses to ask if our server had explained everything and asked questions to make sure we understood. He was very welcoming, gave his name (Randy) and stated that if we needed anything, we could just let him know.
Our server was there every time we needed anything, checked back as appropriate without being overbearing and just made sure we were having a good time. He explained what he was doing as he was doing it - all food is prepared at the table. He even told us that we could trip any employee passing by if we needed anything and he wasn't there... :)
The bussers were exactly where they needed to be, ready to take empty plates/dirty dishes and were quick about it so they weren't in our way.
After our chocolate, we stopped Randy and had him take pictures with several different cameras. He was more than happy to oblige and made a raunchy joke without realizing it which had us just about in tears.
The only deterrent to this night was the amount of time it took to get our checks and get our payment processed. We were there for 3 1/2 hours and all of us had to work early the next morning, so we were anxious to go at that point.
However, the whole experience was very well worth it. It is fairly pricey, but we loved it. What are you waiting for?
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Star Trek
This was odd for me. I'm not a huge fanboy of Star Trek or anything like that, but I've seen enough of it often enough to have a good feel for the 'universe' and history of Star Trek.
That said, they've just rewrote the book.
Lots of TV shows and stuff talked about this movie as a prequel to the rest of everything (Trek before Trek ever was I guess). It's not a prequel. Don't go into it thinking that or you'll be disappointed if you do (ask Maryanne about that).
This movie was really quite good (note: not GREAT). The writers have taken a very special opportunity (to me it seems that way) to reinvent the entire series all over again. Of course, they use time travel to set the whole thing up (seems to be a rather large crutch the writers continually fall back to) but it still works alright if you just let it be.
The interesting thing with this is that now future teams of writers can do whole new stories, create an entirely new history basically, for all of Star Trek. Hopefully, that's what everybody was thinking when they were writing and shooting this, and they'll jump on the possibility of creating a more up-to-date version of Star Trek for the movie theaters in the years to come.
I'm not dropping specific spoilers (just in case your one of the 17 people in the world that hasn't seen this yet) but it's still not the greatest movie it could've been.
Still, I'm getting this on Blu-ray when it's out.
That said, they've just rewrote the book.
Lots of TV shows and stuff talked about this movie as a prequel to the rest of everything (Trek before Trek ever was I guess). It's not a prequel. Don't go into it thinking that or you'll be disappointed if you do (ask Maryanne about that).
This movie was really quite good (note: not GREAT). The writers have taken a very special opportunity (to me it seems that way) to reinvent the entire series all over again. Of course, they use time travel to set the whole thing up (seems to be a rather large crutch the writers continually fall back to) but it still works alright if you just let it be.
The interesting thing with this is that now future teams of writers can do whole new stories, create an entirely new history basically, for all of Star Trek. Hopefully, that's what everybody was thinking when they were writing and shooting this, and they'll jump on the possibility of creating a more up-to-date version of Star Trek for the movie theaters in the years to come.
I'm not dropping specific spoilers (just in case your one of the 17 people in the world that hasn't seen this yet) but it's still not the greatest movie it could've been.
Still, I'm getting this on Blu-ray when it's out.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Ok.
We've seen it. Friends said it was actually bad and not to bother.
Not that I mind that they changed the origin story for this character quite a bit (though in small ways) and introduce characters now that he never met until later in his life (and had him meet them now), and changed the appearance of some characters from the first three movies (though this is technically a prequel), it still was pretty good.
It dragged in spots, some portions of the movie should've ended up on the editing room floor in my opinion, but all-in-all I'll probably buy this on Blu-ray when it comes out.
Remember Sabertooth for the earlier movies? He looks a lot different now, and exhibits powers we hadn't previously seen in him. We get to see Gambit in a bit of action, and he does well. We also get to see a young Cyclops burn through a school.
It was odd don't get me wrong, and it felt like the movie jumped around a bit as I lost track of things at one point (and there is quite a bit to keep track of) and the 45 minutes or so spent on Wolverine's childhood-to-manhood was a bit much (and kinda boring). Still the last half-hour or so makes up for a good chunk of the mistakes (ok, they're mistakes to me).
I'd see it on eh big screen if you get a chance, just try for a matinee show if you can. Not a must own or must see, but well worth $5 bucks on a weekend if you have the time (and your a fan of the series).
We've seen it. Friends said it was actually bad and not to bother.
Not that I mind that they changed the origin story for this character quite a bit (though in small ways) and introduce characters now that he never met until later in his life (and had him meet them now), and changed the appearance of some characters from the first three movies (though this is technically a prequel), it still was pretty good.
It dragged in spots, some portions of the movie should've ended up on the editing room floor in my opinion, but all-in-all I'll probably buy this on Blu-ray when it comes out.
Remember Sabertooth for the earlier movies? He looks a lot different now, and exhibits powers we hadn't previously seen in him. We get to see Gambit in a bit of action, and he does well. We also get to see a young Cyclops burn through a school.
It was odd don't get me wrong, and it felt like the movie jumped around a bit as I lost track of things at one point (and there is quite a bit to keep track of) and the 45 minutes or so spent on Wolverine's childhood-to-manhood was a bit much (and kinda boring). Still the last half-hour or so makes up for a good chunk of the mistakes (ok, they're mistakes to me).
I'd see it on eh big screen if you get a chance, just try for a matinee show if you can. Not a must own or must see, but well worth $5 bucks on a weekend if you have the time (and your a fan of the series).
Angels & Demons
Ok.
We've seen it.
For a Prequel story, they worked awful hard at making it a sequel (seemed that way to me). BUT the main character, Langdon, doesn't do the same kinds of things he did in the first movie, doesn't even act quite the same way. You remember in the Code when he was thinking through a problem they did a nice special effect to show us what/how he was thinking? You won't see that here.
The story is good, though the plot twist was obvious and expected (I nailed it not an hour into the movie, and when I say nailed I mean dead on).
Still, it was interesting none-the-less, though I'm sure I'll think twice before I purchase it on DVD/Blu-ray when it comes out. It just wasn't that memorable. In fact, we created our own double-feature and saw another movie after this one (see next review) and after that movie I had to ask what we saw first because I simply couldn't remember. That's how forgettable Angels & Demons is. It was bad, it just wasn't all that great either.
We've seen it.
For a Prequel story, they worked awful hard at making it a sequel (seemed that way to me). BUT the main character, Langdon, doesn't do the same kinds of things he did in the first movie, doesn't even act quite the same way. You remember in the Code when he was thinking through a problem they did a nice special effect to show us what/how he was thinking? You won't see that here.
The story is good, though the plot twist was obvious and expected (I nailed it not an hour into the movie, and when I say nailed I mean dead on).
Still, it was interesting none-the-less, though I'm sure I'll think twice before I purchase it on DVD/Blu-ray when it comes out. It just wasn't that memorable. In fact, we created our own double-feature and saw another movie after this one (see next review) and after that movie I had to ask what we saw first because I simply couldn't remember. That's how forgettable Angels & Demons is. It was bad, it just wasn't all that great either.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Watchmen
Umm yeah. Don't bother. It took an hour to figure out what was going on, then another hour to catch up, all for a very disappointing climax.
I'm not going to describe the movie or post spoilers here for those that are truly interested in seeing it, I will say that you shouldn't bring your children due to multiple and very adult themes.
That aside, I must say that we have not read the graphic novels at all. I suspect it wouldv'e helped us to not be lost for the first half hour or more of the movie. The back story and multiple flashbacks made up the majority of the movie, with the last 30 to 40 minutes being the only real 'current' part of movie, the driving plotline. I can't say it wasn't interesting, but I spent more time trying to figure out what was happening and what the history was behind the story instead of enjoying the story. This being caused more by the editing of the movie and not the script (though it didn't help either).
Stay away if you wanna see this movie based on the advertising and trailers. Get it from a Redbox or something for an overnight rental when the DVD is released.
I'm not going to describe the movie or post spoilers here for those that are truly interested in seeing it, I will say that you shouldn't bring your children due to multiple and very adult themes.
That aside, I must say that we have not read the graphic novels at all. I suspect it wouldv'e helped us to not be lost for the first half hour or more of the movie. The back story and multiple flashbacks made up the majority of the movie, with the last 30 to 40 minutes being the only real 'current' part of movie, the driving plotline. I can't say it wasn't interesting, but I spent more time trying to figure out what was happening and what the history was behind the story instead of enjoying the story. This being caused more by the editing of the movie and not the script (though it didn't help either).
Stay away if you wanna see this movie based on the advertising and trailers. Get it from a Redbox or something for an overnight rental when the DVD is released.
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