The Screening Room
54 Varick Street
212-334-2100
Here's the riddle: For 60 bucks, where can two people dine in a sleek candlelit room and then, like VIPs, get offered great seats for the art film playing next door? You're right if you guessed the Screening Room. We're not talking pizza here, either. How about roast duck and wild-rice soup, cider-glazed salmon, and green-apple sorbet? The signature screening room holds just 131 restored Golden Age-era cinema seats, and the films are some of the best in town. The prix fixe deal is not only generous but flexible: If you prefer to see the movie first ($9 each), you still have the option, after the show, of having the three-course meal -- a limited selection from the larger menu -- for the same $21 per person. Sure, Urbanfetch can bike over a DVD and a lobster, but if you absolutely must go out sometimes, you might as well go out like this.
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