Dinner in a Movie: Showplace Icon Theater

Dinner in a Movie: Showplace Icon Theater

Showplace Icon Theater is located in The Roosevelt Collection, a newer downtown condo/entertainment complex that feels oddly secluded and out of the way. It’s on Roosevelt Road near Clark, and it’s set back from the street, giving it a private feel. Parking is free, which is always good, and it helps offset the VIP upcharge, which is assessed for those who want to chow down while they watch the movie.



Pricing is like this: for the weekday matinee, it was $10 general admission or $15 for VIP seating, which offers the bigger seats and the opportunity to bring in food from the lounge into the theater before or while the movie is playing.
The lounge is demonstrably Jerry Kleiner (large geometric lights, the reds, the drama and flash).



The menu is geared toward what can reasonably be eaten in the dark: finger food, small bites, nothing that really needs to be eaten over a plate. Although they used to serve patrons at their seats in this theater, our server said they had to stop because “people complained about being disturbed” by servers bringing in food. Sheesh.



Liquor menu was reasonable.


We got the Margherita pizza. It lacked the softer crust of the authentic Neapolitan pizza, but that was fine with me as it was good to have a somewhat harder baked crust when you’re leaning back in the seats without a table directly in front of you.

Our server brought the pizza and beers to our seats (the movie hadn’t started yet).



Now, here’s a problem and a solution. When you get a pair of seats in the VIP section, you get a small little table separating the two seats, with space for your drinks, which is convenient. But between each pair of seats is a much larger table that separates each pair of seats, and this table is more suitable for putting down food and sharing (sorry, no pic of that table).



When I go to Icon again, I’ll make sure I get tickets for unpaired seats that flank these larger tables. As we sat down, a younger guy and his girlfriend walked by our seats and we had this brief conversation.

ME: What’s with these little tables between the seats?
YOUNGER GUY: That’s so you can cuddle.
ME: Cuddle? I’m trying to eat over here!

The seats are, indeed, comfortable, and they go a long way toward justifying the VIP upcharge, as does the sharpest image and cleanest sound I can remember seeing/hearing in a movie theater. We saw “Water for Elephants,” which is a good cuddling movie (which you actually can’t do even if you weren’t eating and wanted to; that little table is actually an effective barrier: romantics you are forewarned).

My ordering strategy next time might be different, too. I saw a couple of ladies who seemed to have the right idea: bacon popcorn and a bottle of white wine, which comes in a bucket of ice. Nursing a bottle of wine seems like a good way to spend a few hours at the movies, and about half the bottles are under $30.

http://www.showplaceicon.com/

Thanks for this report, David. I regularly get free VIP passes to the Showplace Icon, but I haven't eaten there yet. Partly, it's because, with the free passes, I feel like I can justify a proper dinner elsewhere before or after the theater since I haven't paid for the movie. (This reasoning, I realize, is BS since I end up spending more on dinner than I would have on VIP tickets plus movie snacks.)

Partly, it's because I've never felt entirely comfortable eating at the movies. My father was a cineaphile, so movie-watching was focused business and back-to-back films and therefore a proper meal before or after was de rigueur. Or maybe it's just because my dad was cheap, but we never ate in the theater. So even now, all grown-up and without my father, more often than not, in lieu of the free popcorn I get with my Gene Siskel membership, I usually just ask for tea. I guess, like eating while shopping, I consider eating at the movies somewhat uncouth (unless I'm really hungry).

Lastly, I really think that the red pleathery seats at the Showplace Icon negatively affect my appetite. I can't explain this yet, but it makes me feel weird. Even more tangential, this photo of yours illustrates I think the main function of the small tables, which is that they provide "cubbies" for storing stuff.

David Hammond wrote:

I prefer cuddle-friendly seats.

happy_stomach wrote:I consider eating at the movies somewhat uncouth.

I definitely get that. I did feel a slight twinge as I hunkered down on my pizza, and that's actually part of the reason why I was thinking that next time, maybe just popcorn and wine (still eating, of course, but somehow more couth, which is always a consideration ).

I remember in high school, when we'd go to see a Bergman or Fellini double-feature at the illustrious old Clark Theater (the best film education imaginable), we could actually smoke cigarettes in our seats. Hard to believe that we found that pleasurable.

David Hammond wrote:I remember in high school, when we'd go to see a Bergman or Fellini double-feature at the illustrious old Clark Theater (the best film education imaginable), we could actually smoke cigarettes in our seats. Hard to believe that we found that pleasurable.

We didn't smoke, but my father used to pull me out of school so we could get a head start when there were film festivals in town. Some of my best education period.

Also, speaking of movies, food and nostalgia, one of my favorite food-drink-movie one-two-three punches ever, which lasted only from the late 1990s to a few years ago, but which I did every time, without fail, that I went home to Montreal: late-afternoon smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz's, followed by a cocktail in the lobby of the upscale art house cinema Ex-Centris, followed by a movie there. RIP Ex-Centris. Saint-Laurent is less without you.

Best not go when you're tired, those chairs are perfect for napping.

Honestly, I'm embarrassed by how much I like the bacon popcorn there. It's completely disgusting in the best way possible.

We have had a similar strategy to those two ladies -- we either eat before showing up or get there early enough to eat in the lounge, then have a bottle of wine and the bacon fat popcorn or the chips and onion dip (also quite tasty, probably less messy than the bacon fat popcorn) for the movie.

This joint has been my go to movie place for a while now. Pre movie drinks, followed by my favorite combo of bacon popcorn and a bomber of G.I. Matilda. I didn't even mind seeing Sex in the City 2 there (woah). 2 Matildas and about 1400 hundred calories really made the movie damn near spectacular.

At 5$ a basket, the bacon popcorn is really a great steal. Tons of nicely rendered smokey bacon chunks (some chewy, some meaty), a nice mix of crispy and fat-saturated kernels with just the right serving size to satisfy you without making you feel ungodly. I'd even see a Kathrin Heigl vehicle there. Swears.