Sing For Your Supper
I just don't get the whole dinner theater concept. To me, eating is just one of those necessities that does not need to be accentuated with some sort of a revue. I mean, do I really need a chorus line to shove potatoes in my mouth? I don't think so.
Dinner theaters have a way of springing up around all the tourist hot pockets. It's as if when people are on vacation they feel they deserved to be entertained every moment of the day. I don't know who first introduced the idea of a bread-breaking gala, but I bet it was the same person who invented the TV tray table. Like them or not, the dinner show has become part of the necessary fiber of roadside entertainment. And as one might expect, the Smokey Mountains, Myrtle Beach and Orlando serve up some offer the most diverse menus. My first taste of the dinner extravaganza came at Wild Bills in Orlando. After the posse of patrons was herded up and seated by ticket number, the evening's rations were doled out. Long picnic style tables were each given metal buckets of soup and chicken. The people situated at the end of the table always got the best pick. If you were unfortunate enough to be the lonesome cowboy at the opposite end, you ended up with the scraps no one else at the table wanted. Everyone ate off of pewter plates and bowls to create a rustic ambiance.
Patrons not sporting rat-tails or NASCAR numbers seemed less than enthused. Wild Bills closed the following year and the stockade fences that surrounded the theater were revamped into a pioneer style strip mall. Orlando still had plenty of treats to foot the Bill. Waiting in the wings was Night of Wonder with a magic show and pizza buffet. Medieval Times had damsels to be saved by jousting matches. Capone's offered a 1930s Chicago mob setting. Arabian Nights romantic horse interludes were still a draw as one of the areas oldest eating experiences. Still more took the mystery meal approach.
A glutton for punishment, I took a second helping of this phenomenon at Capone's. The food, an Italian buffet, was kicked slightly up a notch from its predecessor. Waiters taunted diners in mob speak trying to create the atmosphere of a 1930's speakeasy. The women became dizzy dames as drinks were served at the end of a Tommy gun. Unlike the all you can drink beer and wine only standards of the other joints, the free pouring rum runners made the Capone's experience a bit more palatable.
Wild Bills
Capone's |
