Originally Posted By TP2000 I forgot about Dive. I ate at the Century City one once, probably in the summer of '95 right after I moved back to SoCal. I remember the bubbling portholes, and that it looked kind of neat. But I don't remember the food, and I never went back. Ahh, the 1990's. I'm still quite amazed that Rainforest Cafe has stuck it out, and that they can still get people to eat the food there.
Originally Posted By leemac <<I'm still quite amazed that Rainforest Cafe has stuck it out, and that they can still get people to eat the food there.>> Landry's own over 400 restaurants and they aren't wedded to a single brand so can absorb any underperformance to a degree. They recently added Morton's The Steakhouse and McCormick & Schmick's to their portfolio which is more upscale than their usual brands like RC, Bubba Gumps and Landry's Seafood House.
Originally Posted By leemac <<I ate at the Century City one once, probably in the summer of '95 right after I moved back to SoCal. I remember the bubbling portholes, and that it looked kind of neat. But I don't remember the food, and I never went back.>> The whole backstory was that Spielberg couldn't get any decent sub sandwiches in LA so he decided to build a sub restaurant. I think the prices were pretty steep - more than Earl of Sandwich charges today. I honestly can't remember anything else about it.
Originally Posted By Nobody I ate at the Century City Dive once. Ironically, I didn't have a sub sandwich, but opted for one of the daily specials (a chicken and mushroom pasta, which I recall was just fine). My memory may be off, but in addition to the bubble portholes and lighting/sound effects, there was also a themed elevator (sort of like the hydrolators). This has certainly turned into a fun topic. We should compile a real list of these places. Wasn't there also something like "Country Star Cafe"? One last side-note. There used to be a place down in San Diego's Mission Valley. Really just themed as a classic diner with some cracks here and there. Every half hour or so, the music would dip, and the sub-woofers would crank up the rumbling. Somewhere I have a matchbook labeled "Earthquake Cafe Gas Leak Detector".
Originally Posted By leemac Motown Cafe was another one - they had a location in Manhattan - not far from Columbus Circle - and another two in Orlando (Uni CityWalk) and Las Vegas (Hotel New York New York - that became ESPN Zone). Never ate there but I gather the food was surprisingly good.
Originally Posted By tonyanton I ate at the Motown Cafe a few times...on 57th Street (not far from where I worked...the 5th Ave Disney Store). They had performers who sang Motown tunes, which being in NY, were always good.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>It looked like a submarine but it didn't take the concept any further.<< Sure it did. It went under!
Originally Posted By skinnerbox Encounter @ LAX. Not exactly a 'theme restaurant' per se. But it's got the cool retro Googie vibe. Plus the food is good. Nice job, Eddie Sotto. It works for me.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt I've been there too. My only complaint is that the restaurant is very difficult and confusing to get to.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Encounter is still there? For some reason I thought it was gone. It is really cool, pricey but good food.
Originally Posted By leemac ^^ Yup. The most recent menu update cranked the prices up even higher. Most of the entrees are pushing $30 now - even for stuff like pasta.
Originally Posted By leemac <<Nice job, Eddie Sotto. It works for me.>> And Ellen Guevara and Michael Valentino! It always bugs me when certain folks get all of the credit on a project - Eddie didn't work alone on Encounter. It is a very '90s design - I'm not sure it has really held up all that well over the years. However it is still a very unique space inside a classic Googie. Apart from Dulles main terminal building and the old TWA Flight Center at JFK both by Eero Saarinen there can't be many more recognizable airport buildings in the US.
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 NYC still has a couple themed restaurants left..and they really should be put out of (our) misery. Like Jekyll & Hyde, and also Ninja. Thank God Mars 2112 closed. It went downhill ever since opening and it's last few years were just horrible. Just for fun, go read Yelp reviews for the place to see how far it had fallen. Although I'll admit to liking Marvel Mania, and tolerating places like Planet Hollywood and Hard Rock. I just don't quite understand the thrill of eating in such a noisy, distracting place for dinner. Unless you really DON'T want to have any kind of conversation with your family, and DO want to participate in forced, cheesy dialogue. Oh, that reminds me, there is one other themed eatery I forgot about...Bubba Gumps. (we also have one in NYC) That place is just weird. I'll admit, the food was decent for a themed place. But the theme was just too intense for me, especially for a singular movie that isn't all that popular anymore. A friend of mine went for the first time and once the waitress started her spiel and started asking trivia (he'd never seen the movie, so had no clue) he told her to please just knock off the act. She was shocked, but honored his request. He left her a generous tip for allowing him to just eat in peace.
Originally Posted By leemac <<Like Jekyll & Hyde, and also Ninja.>> I'm amazed that J&H has survived. I guess it is all tourist traffic as every hotel I've ever stayed at in the city or NJ has pushed it. I had to Google Ninja - never heard of that one!
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<And Ellen Guevara and Michael Valentino! It always bugs me when certain folks get all of the credit on a project - Eddie didn't work alone on Encounter.>> The only reason I didn't mention their names, Lee, is because I can never remember them. Eddie has mentioned them over on the other web site whenever Encounter has popped up as a topic of discussion in the longest thread ever created. But sadly, I'm really bad with names sometimes.
Originally Posted By leemac ^^ My comment was unduly snippy - it was meant to be a more generic comment. I'd heard he was on WDW Magic or something and that he was opining on a vast array of subjects. Eddie's Disney story is a sad one. He really shot himself in the foot - as a SVP in Creative Development in the late '90s he should have been front of the line for the expansion projects - instead he got himself shoved out the door. He has been out of the company for 13 years or so and I think his work has been limited to a restaurant and a car dealership. Very sad and a tremendous waste of talent - the guy was always one of the strongest futurists at WDI.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Don't know if this meets your definition of a themed restaurant, but there is always the Heart Attack Grill in Vegas! Never ate there but walked by outside... the most bizarre darn thing I've ever seen!
Originally Posted By RoadTrip While I'm on Vegas, let's not forget Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. Between the young woman crawling up the side of and sacrificing herself to the volcano (ending up in a giant vat of "margarita") and the guys walking around on stilts it is a pretty strange experience. Strangely, it seems to fit PERFECTLY in Vegas!!
