The Lobby. Sabai Sabai Thai Cuisine. That coffee shop with the motorcycle in the window. Post-rebranding Crossroads. All of these Middlebury dining institutions have opened during my time at the College. Their introductions into the community have, at least from college students, always been met with considerable hype. I remember rumors that The Lobby was going to be Mexican food, no, the best Mexican food in Vermont, no, the best Mexican food anywhere in the world other than California! Sabai Sabai was going to be flying in sushi-grade hamachi daily from Japan (and dolphin if you knew who to ask), and Crossroads was going to have new chefs rotating every semester, starting with Bobby Flay and followed by Action Bronson.
This kind of hype is typical in a small town where any addition to the list of options, and the list of restaurants that aren’t Fire and Ice, is cause for sweaty excitement. For god’s sake, when Yogurt City, a frozen yogurt shop that is literally inside of a Benjamin Franklin store, opened, many of us living in Middlebury over the summer camped out the whole preceding week, just to get a scoop of that first batch. The hype is unavoidable, and it certainly helps the restaurants develop a foothold. But don’t we owe it to ourselves, and the establishments, to temper our expectations just a tad? Isn’t it possible to be excited for something without dubbing it the saving grace of life in Middlebury, the long-awaited messiah delivering that long-awaited, long-needed dash of urbanity?
I ask these questions in advance (at least when I’m writing this) of the highly anticipated re-opening of the Marquis Theater on Main Street, which began welcoming patrons this past Monday, Nov. 3. The theater, recently acquired by new owners, will boast an almost entirely re-done interior, in addition to offering....MEXICAN FOOD! (On their website it says Southwestern food, but as far as I’m concerned Southwest is an airline, not a cuisine.)
Come on, are you stoked or what? The menu is up on their site, with six entrees listed, in addition to a few apps and kids offerings, all delicious-sounding takes on Mexican standards. Above the menu, they invite us to “eat nachos and guacamole during a show” or, perhaps even more excitingly, “have a coffee while your kids watch Guardians of the Galaxy at lunch.” Sign me up for that 121 minute lunch break! I’m joking around, but for serious, this all sounds pretty dope. The promise of new screens alone has me pumped after watching all of Skyfall trying to ignore the beige, Florida-shaped stain in the middle of the picture. But as a tenured member of the community with many grand openings under my belt, I feel compelled to offer a voice of reason.
The concept of dinner-theater is a tricky one to pull off well. Do you emphasize the dinner or the theater? I love the idea of eating a hefty serving of Enchiladas Caseras while taking in the newest David Spade flick. But going to the movies will, for me, always be about the movie first and foremost, and I’m nervous that the excitement over MEXICAN FOOD! will lead to a ambiance that is more fiesta than spectatorial.
One of the other oft repeated attractions the new Marquis will offer is a weekly Game of Thrones screening, which can be enjoyed, the website tells us, with “a stein of beer.” Yes! That sounds fantastic. But if you’re like me, that sentence makes you dread the possibility of drunken jokes about Littlefinger’s little finger gurgling out from the back of the room. Yes, this is coming from somebody who once paused GoT to explain to a friend’s girlfriend who had never seen the show that it wouldn’t be possible to explain the entire series to her during this episode, so she should probably just stop asking questions. The point is, the mixture of cinema with fun foods and drinks demands responsibility and respect for the artistry of the moving picture.
A good way to foster that environment (i.e., the one that I want) is to have a realistic expectation of the Marquis experience going in. At the end of the day, it’s a movie theater, not an all-inclusive samba club with California level tacos and an open tequila bar. It’s not going to solve the manifold problems of the Middlebury social scene. It will, however, provide solid MEXICAN FOOD! to be enjoyed before new, state-of-the-art sound and projection equipment. I’m excited to see what kind of concerts and live events they will host. I’m excited to have a movie theater in town again. I’m excited to ask them to microwave my Butterfinger bites and put them in the popcorn. The more we approach new additions to the Middlebury town and campus with the perspective of what they can offer, and not what we want them to offer, the more we will find ourselves fulfilled by our college experience.
Artwork by BOONE MCCOY-CRISP
