Revolving restaurants are becoming ten-a-penny these days. I think the first one was in Winnipeg, Canada, but now they're springing up all over the place. Mumbai, Kurachi, Beijing - at this rate it won't be long before teenagers at every fast food joint in town are commanded to crawl underneath the building, drill through the foundations, and fill the basement with ball bearings. Then, as they emerge sweating and blinking back up into the light, they'll be told to split up, grab a corner of the building each, and push. Clockwise.
But what I'm imagining is a restaurant/bar, preferably with glass walls, and preferably situated quite high up in some beautiful city somewhere. That's the ideal, anyway. But you could do this in even the most dingy, concrete-based dive, if ever their budget would stretch to it.
Let's imagine you and a couple of your friends stumble into this place by accident, unsure of what to expect, but looking for a bite to eat, a few drinks, and a fun night out. You've arrived slightly early - but, being the accommodating people they are, they politely ask you to wait for a couple of minutes "while things warm up". You're already intruiged by the place, so you do. And as you wait, you look around. You can't see much from where you're standing, but already you can't put your finger on what this establishment is trying to be - there seems to be a themed Irish bar right in front of you, but you can also glimpse bits of what looks like Indian art on the walls elsewhere, and, if you really crane your neck, you could swear you can see the edges of a "Bud Light" neon sign. Eventually the barely audible-humming sound that you have been hearing since you arrived subsides, and now you and your friends are ushered into the seats that were right in front of you.
Then it's Guiness all round. As you sink your pint of the black stuff, it takes you a few minutes to notice that your seats are actually moving. Very slowly, they're creeping around the establishment, sliding slowly from bar to bar. You finish your pint, and take a quick trip to the toilet. When you next rejoin your group, they're drinking Indian beer and snacking on samosas. All good fun, and very satisying for your snack cravings. You get engrossed in conversation with someone, and for a moment you're bemused when you pick up a snack and it's an enchilada - slowly you realise that, in this establishment, the tables are fixed and the patrons move from bar to bar. Like a very slow rollercoaster, your seat (and your group of friends) has been travelling round the room, up and down stairs, from themed buffet to themed buffet, taste-travelling their way around the world in the space of a couple of hours.
Again, I haven't explained this very well. Still, it would make a nice change from the room spinning round around me as I lie helpless in my bed wishing I'd scarfed down a few more snacks before I started my night out...-- lostdog, Aug 07 2003 I feel sick.-- DeathNinja, Aug 07 2003 There's also a bucket beneath every table, just in case.
(And, before you ask, no, they don't wrap the contents in a bit a pitta bread and serve it to the next cyclical customer that drifts by as a delicacy: that would be taking recycling a bit too far)-- lostdog, Aug 07 2003 line your stomach with milk before you go out, lostdog. tut!-- po, Aug 08 2003 I like it. I like it a lot. Great job describing it, too.-- motive power, Aug 08 2003 So its like a carousel? The tables don't move respectively to their neighbors, but only to the bars/restaurants? I am confused, but I like it! (+)-- silverstormer, Aug 08 2003 It reminds me strongly of 'The Faraway Tree' by Enid Blyton - but updated for adults.
Ah! - Nostalgia is not what it used to be.-- HouseFly, Aug 08 2003 How about a sushi restaurant with the food going round the belt in one direction, and the seats going in the other?-- friendlyfire, Aug 08 2003 I like your roaming barstools, [forsakenpup], but have one question: Are sippers charged by the glass? I don't think I'd get my money's worth at a place that displaced my beverage every ten minutes. I couldn't afford it.-- k_sra, Aug 08 2003 This might need some tightening up here and there, but it's pretty neat. +-- snarfyguy, Aug 08 2003 [bliss], spiders not allowed. : )-- k_sra, Aug 09 2003 I suppose the stools must drift into Leftover Lounge every now and again - "A pint of your finest Wrung Mop Water and a bag of crunchy stale floor sweepings, please..."-- lostdog, Aug 09 2003 I like [friendlyfire]'s idea a _lot_. It would actually be quite feasible to have a great big table with a conveyor belt on it. Maybe they'd charge you by the minute or something...great way to try new varieties of sushi.-- Eugene, Aug 09 2003 If you include the Entree river, the stools would have to float.-- silverstormer, Aug 10 2003 Hasn't the sushi thing been baked by Yo! Sushi?
Like the bar idea though, although I'd want to be able to drink Carling at each bar....-- Morals, Aug 14 2003 What's "Yo! Sushi"? And, importantly, is it fresh?-- Eugene, Aug 16 2003 random, halfbakery