Studio Movie Grill: Great Concept, Poor Execution

Nice Concept
So my girlfriends and I went to a local Studio Movie Grill to watch SITC, have dinner and imbibe some adult bevs. SITC was excellent, the plot was ON POINT!!!, The fashion was ... FABULICIOUS (well, except Samantha's wardrobe! WTF???). Problem was Studio Movie Grill (SMG). SMG supposedly resolves the age old dilemma of "dinner before movie?" or "dinner after movie?" by allowing you to have dinner with the movie! They have a full dinner menu (American grill, anyway) and a full service bar. For SITC, they even put on "signature" drinks such as Carrie's Cosmo, Miranda's Strawberry Mojito, etc. Nice concept.

Horrific Execution
We got to SMG about 45 minutes before showtime (7:35 pm) and found that the movie was already seating (before the 7:00 pm show!). No problem. We got two great tables adjacent to each other. Other groups weren't so lucky. If you didn't get a table, your group was relegated to sitting in a row, shoulder-to-shoulder at a table height bar-like thing. Not so conducive to a "group" event, IMHO. Apparently, SMG had actually added 1 or 2 extra chairs to each row to increase the theatre's capacity (isn't that a fire code violation?). Those folks really were shoulder-to-shoulder!

While we were waiting, we ordered our adult bevs, popcorn, and a couple of other appetizers to start and began to peruse the menu. The waiter so kindly offered to bring us water "just in case." Thank goodness, because 30 minutes later all we had was water! The popcorn (drenched in un-ordered butter) showed up 15 minutes later (after the previews had started). At this point, the movie had started so we decided to go ahead and order food for fear of starvation.

hroughout the movie, the waiter for our area kept standing up in front of us while helping other customers. When we asked him to squat or kneel down, he replied snottily, "I'm just trying to do my job!" Of course, this was after we just witnessed him squat down to serve the ladies a few tables down from us! You got to figure on some noise/distraction at a place that serves dinner during the movie, but come on! I'm absolutely sure that those waiters are trained to squat, kneel, crawl, whisper, use mental telepathy, anything to minimize the disruption!!!

We finally got our food about one hour into the movie. And two of our group never got their signature drinks! Again, thank goodness for the "just in case" water! I didn't wait around to speak to the manager, but the head waiter for our theatre comp'd our appetizers and the dinners of those whose drinks never arrived. Even so, I'm planning a strongly worded letter to the management of that SMG location and to SMG corporate headquarters!