Who goes to the cinema these days anyway? Movie houses have long been a victim of the digital age, where content is cloned, curated or stolen.
Disruption has strangled many old-fashioned favourites like live TV, postage stamps and snail mail, but the one we miss the most is the cinema experience – the smell of salt in the air, the feel of crushed popcorn or something sticky on your seat, and stepping on the feet of a stranger in the dark.
Cinemas bring people together in more ways than one, and who hasn’t giggled at another person’s funny laugh? It’s a costly experience too, which is the real reason fewer people are going to the movies.
Thankfully, there are some folk who still believe in the romantic notion of the cinema experience.
In Loop Street, the Pepper Club Hotel and Spa’s dinner and movie nights add a touch of class to the cinema experience with an elegant meal, fine wine and a 29-seater Odeon Cinema that will enthrall your senses. It is the perfect date night package, and for R195 per person, at a 5 star hotel – it is so affordable.
Dinner choices varied from peri-peri chicken to a grilled beef rump. I ordered the steak and it was anything but ordinary – probably one of the most delicious pieces of meat I have ever tasted. It was perfectly prepared, well-rested and so succulent it melted in my mouth. All date nights should begin like this.
We sipped on some excellent Merlot with our dinner and talked the time away as movie time approached. My mind compared this pleasant experience to one where we were rubbing shoulders with pushy teenagers while we queued for popcorn and watched sugared-up kids buzzing around us. There is no comparison.
Back in the real world, there was still time to squeeze in dessert before being led down the stairs to the intimate, 60s-style movie theatre. It’s the kind of cinema that successful rappers have in their homes – big seats, big sound and a high-quality screen.
We watched The Greatest Showman, which coincidentally (or not) is about the birth of show business and one man’s vision. In the movie, PT Barnum, the founder of Barnum & Bailey Circus capitalised on people’s need to be entertained, their desire to escape reality and be transported to another world.
The Pepper Club Hotel & Spa may not be another world but they have created something special. A sumptuous dinner and a luxury movie experience for less than R200 per person? That’s out of this world.
Contact: +27 (21) 812 8888
Address: CNR Loop and Pepper Street, Cape Town
Website: www.pepperclub.co.za