Cinematic Escape

Cinematic Escape: Dine like the main character

By Sara Delgado

If life were truly like a movie, we would all eat out at restaurants more. What better place to develop the main character of your story?

Filmmakers understand that a restaurant is a choice; an expression. Carrie Bradshaw would forego dinner and empty out her wallet for the September issue of Vogue because it “fed her more,” yet you can’t watch a single episode of Sex and the City without seeing her at a café or bar.

Quentin Tarantino famously uses restaurants to introduce his characters by placing them in a setting the audience can immediately familiarize themselves with like a diner. In the Mood for Love, a devastating portrayal of yearning and desire, gives two star-crossed lovers residing in the same building one place where they can disguise themselves in plain sight: a restaurant.

For the last decade, like everyone else in this city, I have been mesmerized by how restaurants have become even more of a “scene” place to be. Distracted by the grandeur and scale of the space, I often find myself mentally calculating the countless hours and dollars that must’ve been spent so that guests can walk in and exude what’s now commonly referred to as “main character energy.”

Want to travel back in time to a 1920’s boxing lounge? Go to Marcel (marcelatl. com).

Craving lunch in Copenhagen without the airfare? Try Le Bon Nosh (lebonnosh. com)

Curious about what it would feel like to be in Alice in Wonderland? Make a visit to The Garden Room (thegardenroomatlanta. com).

Even Little Trouble (little-trouble. com) opened its doors with the tagline “what if Blade Runner were a bar.” It seems as though restaurants have become less about rolling out the white tablecloth and showboat-y service, and more about transporting guests into alternate realities.

Restaurants let us be the writer, director, and protagonist all at once. They present curated moments where we get to control everything from what we eat and drink to the people we surround ourselves with, down to selecting a seat with the most flattering light.

I once went on a second date where the guy insisted that we sit at the corner of the bar at Lyla Lila (lylalilaatl.com) where it curves because it guaranteed the best view of the bar,

Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung dine in Wong Kar-wai’s “In the Mood for Love.” (Courtesy Criterion Collection)