This post is part of a collaboration with The MovieGrille. All opinions are my own.
The first date that Joe and I went on as parents, a week and a half after Bensen was born, was to see the most recent Avengers movie in theaters. My mom offered to watch the baby and we decided that we couldn't turn her down. As much as we loved our new bundle of joy and our new role as parents, it was nice to spend a few hours together as a couple, without our responsibility as parents in the forefront of our minds.
Since that night, all of our movie nights, with the exception of a night out for Joe's birthday, have involved takeout and something that we own, find in Redbox, or from our Netflix queue. Dinner and a movie date nights can be expensive, especially for parents. Not only do you spend a lot of money on your movie tickets, and wherever you choose to eat out, but you're usually gone for 4-5 hours, and that's a lot of time to pay a babysitter for. BUT, one of our date night bucket list activities for this year changed the future of our dinner and a movie date nights. After our date to The MovieGrille, it's safe to say that there will be many movie nights out for Joe and I in the near future. In fact, we know which movie we're going to attend next!
The MovieGrille is a dine-in movie theater where you can watch your show from the comfort of a recliner (or standard theater seating) while enjoying gourmet food and drink. Tickets are only $3 if purchased online ($4 at the door), and the price of a meal is reasonable, especially if you take advantage of the Wednesday Date Night VIP Experience. From the first time I heard about The MovieGrille, people have had nothing but good to say about the venue and the food. My expectations were high going in, and everything about our experience was just as perfect as I'd been told it would be!
We ordered our tickets online a few days before our date night, and chose recliners for optimal movie watching comfort. When we arrived at The MovieGrille, we checked in with the staff and made ourselves comfortable in the theater, where we made the difficult decision about what we should eat. We finally settled on an appetizer of the Deep Fried Mac & Cheese Bites that I'd heard so much about, and for our meals, I chose the BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich and Joe picked the Hawaiian Luau Pizza. After we had our food choices squared away, we settled in for our showing of Antman.
Antman was the perfect date night choice! We love any movie that combines action, comedy and a has a little bit of romance. The last time we watched a movie in theaters, I couldn't stop thinking about how nice it would be to have the experience of the big screen and surround sound with the comfort of my home seating. Watching Antman at The MovieGrille was even better than I have been wishing for because we don't have recliners in our home. It's seriously the best way to watch a movie! Everyone that I've talked to about our MovieGrille experience would tell you that those recliners are one perk I always emphasize!
The other thing that I was really impressed with was the food. If it hadn't been dark when our meal came, I would have taken pictures of it all, but especially the Mac & Cheese Bites. They were served exactly as pictured on the menu, with the dipping sauces decorating the plate to spell out Movie Grille! Some movie theaters serve food, but none of their food is as high quality and delicious as our dinner at The MovieGrille was.
Your date night to The MovieGrille is bound to be better than ours, only because this week is the soft opening of Club Soda, something that we haven't gotten to experience yet! Club Soda will be a drink and treat shop in the lounge and will also service drinks and treats to all theaters.They will serve handcrafted, fresh ice cream cookie sandwiches and flavored sodas that mix classic sodas with fun flavor shots and cream. I can't wait to try the ice cream cookie sandwiches during our next movie! You are able to create own sandwich by choosing your cookie, your ice cream and your toppings. I took a peek at their menu and I already thought of four or five combinations that sound good, so good luck to me picking which one I want to try first. Below is a sampling of Club Soda's Club Creations, how fun and clever are they?!
When I asked Joe if there was anything that he thought I should add about this date night, he said, "I expected it to be sticky, but it wasn't." After a few follow up questions, I translated that statement to mean that because it is a family friendly movie theater that serves all types of food, he expected the seats to be sticky from people's hands and spilled food. Thinking back on our night, I'm pretty sure it's the cleanest movie theater I've ever seen! There was no popcorn on the floor, my shoes didn't stick to spilled drink residue, and there was nothing on any of the seats. Just another pro for The MovieGrille!
We will be heading back to The MovieGrille within the next month to see Bridge of Spies, and then I'm sure we'll find an excuse to go back again soon after that! I'm really glad that I overheard some of my coworkers talking about it earlier this year so that I could get it added to our date night bucket list. And although I wish we'd gotten to go a little bit sooner, I think I appreciate some of the aspects of the theater more now that we're parents and our time frame and budget for date nights aren't what they used to be. This will also be a theater that we visit often in the future to minimize costs and have a more enjoyable movie going experience as a family!
Tell me which of the Club Creations you can't wait to try first!