They giggle. They really do.
Visitors to the Premium Cinema in Lombard take their first look at the opulent, $15-a-head deluxe theater, and can’t help but laugh a little.
High-backed leather chairs, arranged in pairs and equipped with end tables, stretch the length of the surprisingly deep (for 58 seats) theater. Lower-level seats rock (I’m not saying they’re, like, awesome; I mean they move); upper-level chairs are tiered, stadium style (the height of the fellow sitting in front of you no longer matters). Aisles are wide enough that you could ride a bicycle to your seat.
The chairs are camel-colored, the leather soft as popcorn butter. Speaking of popcorn, it’s free; there are baskets of the stuff on each table. Not that you have to settle for freebie munchies; a cadre of waiters hovers nearby, eager to fetch you a salad, a cappuccino, a $75 bottle of wine.
Even by conspicuous consumption standards, it all seems a bit over the top. So people giggle. It’s either that, or launch into a rendition of “If They Could See Me Now.”
And that’s just the theater. The experience of America’s first premium-priced, premium- amenity movie theater starts at the front door, when a uniformed valet takes your car and directs you to the private Premium Cinema entrance. (Valet parking is a $3.50 option for the hoi polloi attending one of the regular flicks at the Yorktown 18 complex.) At the concierge stand, a hostess collects your admission fee (which is not quite double the $7.75 charge at Yorktown 18’s other screens), checks your coat and seats you in the cafe, a small space with bistro-sized tables set with crisp white tablecloths, cloth napkins and elegant-looking stemware.
You can dine here, dine in the theater itself, or do a bit of both. On my first visit, it was appetizers in the cafe, main course in the theater. On visit two, we had appetizers and entrees in the cafe, dessert in the theater. The only catch is that once the film starts, service stops. You want anything else, you get it yourself.
The compact menu lists four appetizers and five entrees — a manageable number of manageable dishes. There’s nothing on the list that’s going to send Charlie Trotter back to the drawing board, but compared to standard movie food (there’s an oxymoron for you), it’s definitely several giant steps up in class.
Premium Cinema’s food won’t run any of Lombard’s restaurants out of business, but its service might. Waiters are charming and eager and could hold their own in most restaurants in Chicago. I hope they’re getting tipped enough.
They probably are. So far, evening shows have been jammed, and weekend screenings sell out well in advance. Given Premium Cinema’s instant acceptance, General Cinema already is looking for sites for additional Premium theaters in Chicago, Evanston, Seattle and Atlanta, among other cities.
Meanwhile, customers are flocking in from everywhere.
“I’ve had people in from California,” says Jamie Bauer, general manager for the Premium Cinema. “People have come in from Australia and Japan, just to see the Premium. The Embassy Suites (the closest hotel to the Premium Cinema) is going to do well.
“Sometimes they don’t even ask what movie is playing,” Bauer says. “They don’t care. They just want to be part of the Premium Experience.”
Generally, when I eat at a food establishment that considers itself to be the best of its kind, I expect a bit more on the menu than Caesar salad and a grilled chicken sandwich. In this case, however, I’m inclined to cut the chef some slack, given the limitations of cooking for a movie theater.
“Basically, we can do anything; we have a fully equipped kitchen,” says Bauer, whose restaurant background includes stints with Levy Restaurants and Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises. “The hard part is creating a menu that can go into the auditorium, where people have to eat sideways.”
Thus, Bauer says, she has ruled out steaks, most pastas (“Maybe ravioli and tortellini, but no linguini”) and other unwieldy, potentially messy items from the Premium Cinema menu.
Starter courses include Florentine bread ($6.50), which is a sliced-lengthwise baguette covered with spinach and basil and topped with broiled cheese. It sounds like something found in the frozen-foods section of your supermarket, but the greens are fresh, as is the bread, which helps immeasurably. One order will suffice for two munchers.
Also sharable is the spinach and artichoke dip ($7), served with blue and red tortilla chips. It looks cute, though the artichoke flavor is scant at best; the whole dish could use a little oomph.
Salads, satay and sandwiches
Caesar salad ($7) is pretty good, boasting crispy, fresh Romaine lettuce and a dusting of grated Romano cheese; there’s also a chicken Caesar salad, with pieces of grilled chicken, available as an entree ($9).
My favorite entree is the $7 chicken satay. The skewered chicken breasts are juicy, laid over a pile of pad Thai noodles dressed with peanut sauce. Though devotees of Thai food won’t be impressed, but there’s at least a whisper of spice to this effort.
Something called a prime rib sandwich ($12) conjured up images of a thick slab of pink meat on a toasted baguette, but instead the meat is sliced very thin and grilled until the exterior is crispy. Not bad, but not what I expected. The grilled chicken sandwich ($8) comes with a honey-mustard sauce or chipotle mayonnaise; I ordered the mayo but could detect no smoked-pepper flavor. The chicken breast, however, is nicely grilled.
Individual deep-dish pizzas, $7, are topped with plenty of cheese and a decent tomato sauce. Apparently the dough comes from Pizzeria Uno, but the similarities end there.
Desserts include Haagen Daaz ice creams, and an assortment of baked desserts, including the ubiquitous tiramisu (acceptable) and an apple-caramel tort (quite good).
Bauer also assembled Premium Cinema’s impressive wine list, whose 18 selections include some very good wines priced below what most restaurants charge. A particularly inspired decision was the inclusion of three wines bearing the Francis Ford Coppola name, including a moderately priced chardonnay and claret ($26 and $22, respectively) and, for the deeper of pocket, Coppola’s prestigious Rubicon ($75 a bottle). All but the three highest-priced wines are available by the glass; pours are generous.
There are 10 bottled beers available, including one non-alcoholic brew. Prices range from $4 to $4.50.
One can only guess what the crowds might be like if Premium Cinema started showing, oh, good movies. So far, the offerings have been less than stellar: Opening week, the featured flick was “Mercury Rising,” followed by “City of Angels” and the current feature, “The Big Hit.”
Starting Friday, Premium Cinema will screen “Titanic.” You know, the movie whose most unsympathetic characters are the swells in first class? That should be an interesting film to view from a reclining leather chair, a bottle of champagne at your elbow.
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Chat on-line with Phil Vettel at 8 p.m. Sunday at metromix.com, where you also will find Chicago Dining, a new source for expanded restaurant coverage.
