The horror that is Johnny Rockets
So yesterday we decided to go down and check out the new little shopping area at Atlas Park here in Glendale. The area used to be unused/abandoned wear-houses beside the train tracks. Now is is a good size retail park with upscale shops, food, and a movie theater (both Meg and I are most interested in the still coming soon Boarders Books they are building). Anyway we wandered around a bit, but most of the stores, like I said, are more upscale (for us) clothing stores. We went into the calendar store and walked around the area (they had pony rides for the little kids 12 and under so Meg was out of luck).
Well the main purpose of the visit was to go to the theater to see “The Prestige” which is the OTHER movie about turn of the century magicians (we saw “The Illusionist” last week). The theater is nice, it only opened back in May so everything is still new and shiny. Movie it self was alright, the visuals were good but the plot/story was a tad confusing because they were doing a flashback in a flashback and they really didn’t make it clear what story/time period they were in. Still it was fun, and worth the ticket price.
After the movie we decided to get some early dinner out. Right now the only two food places open around there are “California Pizza Kitchen” and “Johnny Rockets”. Well neither of us were really in a gourmet pizza mood so we though we’d try Johnny Rockets. Um…Oops. Now don’t get me wrong, I like pseudo-50′s-kitsch as much as the next person but this was just a bit too much. I mean it’s like they were trying WAY too hard to be “50′s” yet at the same time everything was brand new and shiny. And not like 50′s chrome shiny but just, well new shiny. The food it self was alright, cost a lot for what you got but that’s more NYC then anything else. But what made it a truly horrifying experience was when the music got turned up loud and the entire staff (which as far as I could tell was made up of 14-16 year olds) would sing/dance to musical numbers (“Staying Alive” is from the 50′s?). I mean I guess they were trying for cute dining experience but it was really more annoying then anything. Plus one came just as they were supposed to be getting us our check so we had to sit there and wait though a musical number before we could even pay. Do they do this at all the restaurants or is this something special to the Queens, NY one?
Needless to say next time I think we will be trying the pizza kitchen.
