If you’ve recently taken the family out for dinner and a movie, you know that such a night on the town can inflict a dent of Grand Canyon proportions on your bank account.
    After paying for the meal, buying the tickets and a tub or two of popcorn, you’ve expended roughly the entire annual budget of a breakaway Russian republic.
    Fortunately, for both your family and your finances, Huske Hardware House in downtown Fayetteville has a solution: the restaurant/brewery is offering Dinner and a Movie Night every Tuesday, with kids 10 and under allowed to eat for free.
    Tonia Collins, co-owner of Huske Hardware House, says Dinner and a Movie Night will screen films at 6 and 8 p.m.; plus, she says all movies will be family fare, rated PG-13 or better.
    “There will also be romantic movies for a date night,” said Collins. “And even families can enjoy a date night; we’ve got enough room so kids can sit at a table or booth separate from mom and dad so the parents can have their own personal date night.”
    Collins says the movies will either be played off a DVD or streamed via satellite onto the restaurant’s two large screen TVs — an additional pair of large screen televisions will be set up in the future.
    {mosimage}Collins says she believes the idea is original to Huske Hardware House and she also says that viewers will not only be treated to great food and a great picture, but great sound as well.
    “This idea came to us when we were doing a UFC fight and we previewed a movie afterwards,” said Collins. “We played it late that night after we were closed and we realized what a great sound system we have ... it was almost like a theater. So we thought how great it would be to have a movie night.”
    The sound system is so good, in fact, that Huske Hardware House has another cinematic idea coming down the pike in February after football season is over: “almost live” concerts on Monday nights, featuring prerecorded video concerts such as Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
    A specific time for the video concerts has not been decided on, though Collins says it will probably be a little later in the evening, perhaps eventually segueing into midnight movies.
    “We don’t necessarily want to be playing Pink Floyd’s The Wall when there are a lot of children in the restaurant,” said Collins. “But this does offer a lot of possibilities.”
    Collins adds that restaurant goers uninterested in a movie or video concert need not be concerned about the noise level generated by these events.
    “The sound for the movie is great, but you can still have a conversation,” said Collins. “The way the restaurant is built it absorbs the noise. You can have the TV blaring and still have a conversation.”
    Collins says Huske will probably offer drink specials for the Monday night concert films and perhaps movie-themed meal specials on Dinner and a Movie Night, which started on Jan. 6.
    For a list of upcoming movies, call Huske Hardware House at 437-9905. 

Contact Tim Wilkins at tim@upandcomingweekly.com