Date night and a nod to Kevin Smith

Sorry about the delay, I realize I kind of skipped last week, but you'll get 2 posts this week to make up for it, promise! 

While it is no surprise to most of my readers, I have to begin this post with a serious admission.  I don't cook. At all. Ever. Well.. hardly ever.  Notice the word choice used above.  I do not cook, not cannot cook. I am a perfectly decent, sometime bordering on good cook when I set my mind to it, however those moments are few and very far between. Jackson is also a decent cook, but we aren't amateur gourmets like some of our peers.  We don't enjoy cooking dinner every night and if we cook dinner it is normally from a bag from Trader Joe's (and it's delicious, so don't judge).  Which leads me to the point. We eat out, a lot. Probably two or three times a week. A typical week looks something like this:
Monday:  Exhausted from the back to work scramble, I pick Jack up from the train and we decide we have errands to run and stop to eat on the way home.
Tuesday: I often have a dinner meeting for work and Jackson fends for himself.
Wednesday: We unfortunately eat at the Piccadilly because of trivia.
Thursday: We cook a pre-made Trader-Joe's meal and watch NBC because The Office and 30 Rock are that important.
Friday: We go out to eat or order in.
Saturday: We go out to eat with each other or friends.
Sunday: We normally eat at my mom's house.

So, by the end of any given week, I normally have quite a few places to review.  This week I narrowed down the options to my new favorite decently priced sushi joint Osaka which we visited on our pseudo-date night on Friday.

If you are looking for the best sushi in the city, go to Baba, but if you are looking for a good meal, with a relaxed atmosphere and friendly service, Osaka is it. Tucked away in the White City Plaza, this little gem is surprisingly popular on any given night. They pack a lot in a little space, but it never feels overly crowded.  They have a long bar you can eat at or just have a drink.  They have a section with booths for family dining and 4 hibachi grills for dining and entertainment.  Jack and I like to sit at the bar because I am fascinated by the process of creating sushi rolls and Jackson likes that their tvs are always tuned to ESPN.  The waitstaff is great, always attentive and personable and (though I embarrassingly admit this) when I left my phone behind once, the waitress found it and kept it behind the hostess stand for me.

After a quick dinner (we were running late) we picked up our favorite 3rd wheel - whose never really a 3rd wheel- Maria and made our way to the West Boylston Cinema to see The Fighter.   I'm not evaluating the movie, there are film critics for that and honestly, this one speaks for itself, but I am going to tell you all about the treasure that is the West Boylston theater.

Back in high school, this was everyone's favorite cinema for a few different reasons.  One, they didn't really card, so R movies weren't an issue for those underage (I'm sure they've gotten better about this...) two, they have an awesome selection of candy, and three they are ridiculously cheap! Now, back in high school, I had one idol: Kevin Smith. I had a phase where I wanted to be a director and Kevin Smith was the man. Honestly.  I can still quote the Jersey Trilogy and Dogma, word for word. My friends and I all respected Mr. Smith's genius and in honor of "Mallrats" we deemed the West Boylston Cinema the "dirt theater" in direct reference to Brody's (Jason Lee) favorite mall affectionately know as the "Dirt Mall." The dirt theater stretched our meager funds to the max.  It's still only $5 for a movie - less on Tuesdays.  Popcorn still comes in buckets and it's wicked cheap as well.

The only downside is you have to wait about 2 months to see a movie after it is released.  For Jackson, this is a problem.  He loves to see movies on opening weekend, if he can help it.  And while there are a few movies I'll undoubtedly go to a midnight showing for -namely Harry Potter- I really don't mind waiting a month or so to see some movies.  So this is how we ended up at seeing the Fighter on Friday night.  Jackson had already seen it (of course), but he decided it was good enough to watch again and Maria and I, being the big Bale and Walberg fans we are, were psyched to see it on the big screen. 

There is something charming about the dirt theater and it's "Building 19" feel.  It's not flashy like new theaters.  They have posters from hundreds of older movies decorating the walls (we're talking early Kevin Smith movies old - not Casablanca old) and their bathrooms haven't been renovated since approximately 1989, but you get what you pay for.  The theaters are small, but intimate and it's always funny to see trailers for movies that you might have already seen at a larger theater, but again, it's part of the dirt theater experience.  The staff is a bunch of polite, yet disinterested high school students, who I would bet are geeky film buffs like I was at their age.  It's kind of great to go to the movie and not be overloaded with the corporate feel - no one asked me if I wanted to upgrade to the larger soda of just $.50 more and it made me smile because honestly, I ordered the medium on purpose and I don't need a patented sales technique to try to change my mind. Of course for research sake, I had to order a soda, popcorn and snack just to be able to report to all of you that I spent less than $10 on snacks! Unheard of at a movie night nowadays!

I managed to juggle my obscenely larger Medium popcorn and soda and my packet of Junior mints as I made my way to the quiet little theater at the end of the hall with Jackson rolling his eyes at me the entire way.  We enjoyed our movie and exited the theater without having to worry about the traffic and parking issues of some of the larger theaters and even if the movie sucked, we wouldn't have been suffering any buyers remorse from spending way too much money on a night at the movies.

This weeks rating: 2 thumbs up for both venues! Great deals! Great news for Worcester!

Until later this week... heh heh...

<3 K