Townsend Bar & Cinema — Restaurant in Greenwich

I do love this restaurant/bar! However this review is more for the movie theater experience as I had arrived with so many questions that could’ve been answered in the small print on the movie ticket.

Here are the questions I had that were answered either by experience or asking:

Do you need to pay for parking? No, they validate your parking when you leave at the table by the theater. Although when I left the gate just let me out and I didn’t need to use my ticket.

Can you order food in the theater? Short answer no, however you can order from the hotel restaurant or the café before and if the food isn’t done before the movie starts they’ll bring your food to you in to go bags. I don’t know if I’d eat dinner in the movie theater again because it’s so dark I had a hard time navigating. Also, I’d suggest getting food from the café as it’s more closer in price to movie theater pricing. If you do order from the restaurant I suggest getting there at least 45 min before your movie time because we were there 25 min before and we were scrambling.

Can you bring your cocktails from the bar inside? Yes, but ask the bartender/waiter to put it in a to go/plastic cup. My waiter seemed confused and gave us our cocktails in glass, even though I asked the hostess by the movie theater about the glass and she said to request a to go cup. We had to pour our drinks into a to go cup despite our waiter insisting we could bring the cocktail glasses in, so a slight miscommunication there (I’m sure they’re still working some kinks out).

Can you see the screen from any seat? Yes, the platforms the seats are on are staggered, I was confused about where to buy seats before I went.

How much are the tickets? I went to a 5:30 show on a Friday night and my ticket was $26. This is about $8 more than the regular movie theater. I did notice that if you went during the week, a non peak time/day the prices were more comparable to the regular movie theater pricing.

Okay! End rant. Wanted to put this info out there for others planning on seeing any movies at their Townsend Theater to hopefully curb any scrambling or stress like I felt...

If you ever find yourself lucky enough to be served by Billy, know you’re in good hands. I don’t say that lightly, I’ve been coming here and being served by him for over 10 years and no one compares to him(not citywide, statewide, I swear worldwide). From the moment I sit down, he makes me feel like more than just another customer.

Billy has this calm confidence behind the bar, and you can tell he’s mastered his craft LITERALLY! Whether you know exactly what you want or have no clue where to start, he listens, reads the room, and somehow always delivers exactly what you didn’t know you needed. The drinks? Perfect. The energy? Even better. And he’s such a great conversation person.

But what sets him apart isn’t just his skill it’s his presence. There’s a natural warmth about Billy. He’s attentive without hovering, fun without trying too hard, and professional without being stiff. You can tell he takes pride in what he does, and it shows in every pour, every interaction, every detail.

Billy stands out, writing this just for him because for all the years I’ve returned , it’s only been for his service and if you get the chance to experience it for yourself, you’ll see exactly what I mean. My review is very late, but it’s from the heart...

Possibly the most disappointing movie experience I've ever attended, and I once took my family to a theater whose furnace broke down 5 minutes into House of Gucci (iykyk) on a freezing Thanksgiving night.

There are no concessions, much less a full dinner theater experience as advertised. There are no waitstaff. The "popcorn" was $12 microwaved Pop Secret shoveled into a paper box from the hotel cafe across the lobby, whose staff are confused about why you would even ask for it. The movies are generic and awful.

The risers were built too low, so if you recline your chair it sinks below the seats in front of you and blocks half the screen. They'd be more profitable turning the projector off (the acoustics could be bested by a Costco TV-speaker combo) and marketing that $18 a pop for a darkened, mostly private room to take a daytime nap in.

NYC is full of dinner theaters who have made this concept work for years. Can't understand why it's beyond the capabilities of its...