The COVID 19 Pandemic brought huge changes to The Magic Lantern. Our top priority was keeping our audiences safe while making sure everyone still had a wonderful time. We decided to remove every second row of seats as this allowed us to more easily social distance people, as well as giving us room to add tables for people to put their drinks and snacks on. The next obvious step to prevent crowding in the bar to queue for drinks was to offer waiter service.
This was intended to be a temporary measure during social distancing, but our audience loved the waiter service and the extended food and drinks menu so much that we decided to keep it.
When you visit The Lantern, you will be directed straight to your seats where you will have your very own table. There you will find a menu with a huge range of drinks and snacks. A waiter will come and take your order and then deliver it to you.
While this is a lovely experience for the customers it is really hard work for our fabulous team, on busy showings they spend an hour literally racing around the building, taking orders, carrying trays, making cheeseboards, nachos and even cocktails! Please help them as much as you can by arriving in plenty of time (at least 20 minutes before the start time – more if you possibly can!) and wait patiently for them to come and take your order.
Everyone who arrives on time will be given a card to put on the table – this tells the waiter that you need to be served and so they will come to you. Even if they can’t keep track of the order you arrived, you will be served before the film starts.
If you arrive late you will unfortunately miss out on waiter service, and depending on how late you arrive, the bar and kitchen may be close. We will do our best to serve everyone, but we have to prioritise the people who arrived on time and ensure the film starts promptly. The bar remains closed during the film to keep disruption to a minimum so make sure you order enough when your waiter takes your order.