Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Mash House and Hilltop House Serve Up New App by SHANNON ANGRY No, it's not a new appetizer. It's a phone app that is bringing big-city shopistication to Fayetteville at two of our finest eateries. Not only can mobile-phone users check bank balances online and use social media to connect with people around the world, now they can make restaurant reservations for a more trouble-free and convenient dining experience with apps like OpenTable. This online system is an expedient reser- vation booking solution for more than 20,000 restaurant customers each month. The Hilltop House in Haymount, and the Mash House, located on Sycamore Dairy Road, are Fayetteville's first — and, so far, only — establishments to use OpenTable, and it is making life easier for both the res- taurants and their customers. Since1998, OpenTable has seated more than 250 million diners around the world and has become the organizational tool for many owner-operated restaurants in metropolitan areas. Local customers can make reservations online with- out even placing a call to a restaurant. Diners have access to booking a table 24/7 on OpenTable where they are provided with real-time availability. Imagine the possibilities for using this convenient piece of technology: last minute out-of-town guests, a great piece of news like a promotion or a pregnancy, remembering a birthday at the last minute or maybe its been a long day and you just want to meet some friends for a relaxing dinner. OpenTable will make it fast and easy, so customers can focus more on what really matters to them. This is just one more way to make a great dining experience better. OpenTable has proven beneficial to restaurants that have made the system a part of their overall management. It aides in the proper running of the restaurant by creating a system that can book seats online for any size party without the hassle of numerous peo- ple calling at potentially busy times. It helps counter overbooking by providing true avail- ability for online and even phone bookings. In the end, it can increase revenue for restau- rants and improve service quality for customers. Both the Mash House and the Hilltop House are impressed by the system and look to see reservations grow using OpenTable. Nikki Atkinson, manager at the Mash House, has used the system before with differ- ent companies. She lived in Boston and says that it is very common for restaurants to use OpenTable. "It is very convenient and the touch screen system keeps it orderly for my staff," Atkinson says, "I would love to see more restau- rants use it." The Mash House is located right in the heart of Fayetteville and offers customers a unique dining experi- ence. OpenTable gives customers easy and hassle-free access to their freshly-made food and award-winning, hand-crafted beer. The Hilltop House has also been pleased with OpenTable since they started using the app in early January. Beth Shearin-Smith, owner of the Hill Top House, appreciates the efficiency it brings to managing her business, and based on the response, customers think it is great, too. "We had OpenTable reservations within 24 hours of going live with the system," Shearin-Smith says, "It has made a tremendous increase and impact to our business." Shearin-Smith felt it was the right time to start using the system given the way social media has become so vital in peoples' lives. She wanted the Hilltop House to stay as up-to-date as possible and she could not be more impressed with the results the app has shown in such a short period of time. "As a business owner, the system shows great results," Shearin-Smith adds, "It is a very good organizational tool." Because of the business they have received from OpenTable, Shearin- Smith says the "Hilltop House is able to show how great the food, service and ambiance is." It is one more tool that enables restaurants to better serve customers. For more information about Open Table visit www.opentable.com. Channing Tatum is Dumb and Gross Haywire (Rated R) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS Seeing as how Haywire (87 minutes) features a supposedly strong female lead, I really, really wanted to like it. But I didn't. I thought it was improbable, poorly cast, badly acted, stupidly plotted and inanely written. Points for getting Michael Fassbender to star in your crappy movie Steven Soderbergh, but you get an F- for everything else. And Fassbender, you're on notice. Star in one more crapfest and I'm not your girlfriend anymore. The film opens in a good place, a clearly half-frozen woman, Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) eyes a roadside diner from a snowy wooded area, focusing particularly on the hot coffee offer in the sign. I feel you Mallory! She is cautious for some reason, but eventually heads in and orders something. Not too long after, a guy named Aaron (Channing Tatum, who is dumb and gross) walks in and orders some of that coffee. This is when the movie lost me, as Mallory has possibly the most grating throaty tone I have ever heard coming out a woman's mouth. It sounds affected and pretentious, and I hope at some point she gets a karate chop to the throat and can't speak for the rest of the movie. So, like Itchy and Scratchy, after a few preliminaries Aaron and Mallory fight, and bite, and fight and bite and fight, involving all sorts of innocent bystanders in their ballet of combat. Given the options, I am not sure who to root for. Mallory manages to extricate herself and grab a would-be knight in shiny armor's car. Scott (Michael Angarano from Sky High) is surpris- ingly blasé about the whole thing, and way more helpful than I would be at this point in the discussion. What's that? You're on a black-ops mission for a com- pany that is sending people to kill you and are now kidnapping me and stealing my car? Why, of course I will extract the bullet from your arm and dress your wound while you drive us to points unknown! Since you're so pretty, there's no way you're an evil spy! 18 UCW FEBRUARY 8-14, 2012 Now begins the super irritating narrative framing device that I am sure Soderbergh just felt so arty and clever for using. Mallory starts to tell Scott about a mission in Barcelona, quizzing him every few scenes on names and details like they actually matter. You know what would have been cool? If it turned out she was pulling a Keyser Soze, and the whole story was based on random stuff she found in stupid Scott's stupid car? I really wish they had gone there. It turns out that she is an ex-Marine, working as a subcontractor with her ex- boyfriend Kenneth's (Ewan McGregor) company. Kenneth was hired by a government agent, Coblenz (Michael Douglas) and some other character, Rodrigo (Antonio Banderas), to rescue a guy named Jiang (Anthony Brandon Wong) from Barcelona. The next part of the story involves Mallory getting yet another assignment, working with British Intelligence. Her contact, Paul (Michael Fassbender) meets her in Dublin, and spews sexist comments at her for a while. Rightfully suspicious, she figures out that some kind of double-cross is in the works and starts beating people up and running around Dublin. She runs for a really long time, and then contacts Coblenz to set up a meet with Kenneth. Which should totally work, because of all the people who might have been involved in the set-up, I am totally sure that guy who part of your last mission that you now know caused all the trouble is com- pletely trustworthy. That brings us back to the beginning of the movie, and, lucky for Scott, Mallory sends him on his way and heads out to meet her Pop (Bill Paxton). The two set up an ambush that is both elaborate and stupid, which should not work, but which does thankfully speed up progress towards the climax a bit. Overall, I have never sat through a lon- ger 87 minutes in my life. View at your own risk. Now showing at Wynnsong 7, Carmike 12 and Carmike Market Fair 15. HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upand- comingweekly.com WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM SHANNON ANGRY, Intern. COM- MENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com