Mars 2112 - Sci-Fi Restaurant (Gone)
New York, New York
A few blocks north of Times Square lurks an elaborate underground theme restaurant -- Mars 2112. Outside, near a scaled down flying saucer, wandering Martians and Spaceport personnel snag potential diners. Patrons are issued passports and escorted to a full-sized flying saucer, where they are subjected to a bumpy 5-minute motion ride through a "Translunar Wormhole."
The Martian Colony is series of fake rock passageways that lead to a star bar, video arcade, and ample seating for diners in a cavernous ... cavern. A giant video screen and smaller TV monitors display 1990s computer landscapes accompanied by robotic, noodling music (Tangerine Dream and others). Occasionally a Pepsi logo floats across the screens. Waiters and waitresses clad in Federation uniforms describe the Terraforming Tuna tostada and Ziggy Stardust's Spaghetti. A bug-eyed Martian in a pink jumpsuit wanders between tables for photo ops.
Patrons exit on a much faster transport -- an atomic disintegrater -- and are spewed into the gift shop. Overall decor is great, effects are fun, food is pricey (though not for NYC), story premise is kinda lame (couldn't they hire a real SF writer to do it right?).
Jan. 2012: RIP Mars 2112. The SF-themed establisment closes, a mere century before we'd find out whether their vision of future off-planet dining was accurate.
