Progress is good… Right?

Avenue de la Gare used to be a major commercial street, home to small businesses as well as large department stores. Now it plays host to broken dreams and metaphorical tumbleweeds, gaudy fast food establishments and vaguely seedy bars. Those department stores now have empty windows or, even worse, have become discount shoe shops while the upper floors have become office space. As a commercial district, it has been killed stone-dead in the past ten to fifteen years. The change is remarkable. But what are the root causes? Being located near a station doesn’t usually help, despite potential passing trade. There is another reason. The same reason the Ciné Cité and Marivaux cinemas are gone: the steady rise of Kirchberg as a commercial centre, all sparkling glass and modern architecture. It makes the grime of Avenue de la Gare seem rather down at heel. Moreover, as Luxembourg has moved towards increasing car dependency, Kirchberg has become very accessible. On public transport it is also very accessible. Once the tram is built, it will be even more so. That Kirchberg is the beating heart of Luxembourg’s financial sector driven economy cannot be doubted. With MUDAM and the Philharmonie, it is a major cultural area too. Once the Auchan shopping centre was opened, prior to those attractions, it became a significant player in the retailing sector. And this does not even consider the major banking and European institutions present. Pretty good going for a place that was farmland forty years ago. But what of Kirchberg as a place for nightlife?

Utopolis is by far the dominant cinema in the Grand Duchy. As well as having ten screens which are very well appointed indeed, it is trying to be more than just a cinema. The owners have burdened it with the rather grating slogan “Movies, Moments & More…”. As a cinema, the first part of the slogan is fairly self-evident. However, the complex has branded itself as a multi-purpose entertainment venue, and there is a selection of restaurants and bars available, catering to most clientele and budgets. Some have shown longevity, others have swiftly fallen by the wayside over the cinema’s twelve year history. This article is as things stand in August 2008, and there will be a new venue opening soon for which the article will be updated. Starting from the far left of the building as you face the front door, the first restaurant is the Tiebreak Café, a sports themed restaurant and bar specialising in American and Italian food and perhaps overloaded with memorabilia. A particular highlight used to be the pizzas named after sports personalities, but these names have been replaced by more bog-standard alternatives. This is a pity as there aren’t many places in the world where you can order a “Billie Jean King” from the menu and be taken seriously. Aside from pizzas, pasta dishes and burgers are also available. As far as such foods go, the quality is perfectly acceptable at the prices quoted and Tiebreak is a safe option if one is not looking for a spectacular dining experience. Wines are available, but Tiebreak has the feel of a beer, cocktail and soft drink kind of place.

There is a more comprehensive wine list on offer at Club 5 Revival, the most upmarket of the establishments in Utopolis. Here, the cuisine is more French and Italian, and Carpaccio is the house speciality. That it targets a more mature audience is manifest by the décor. It is simple, mainly bare pinewood. If you order a mineral water, it does not arrive at your table accompanied by a tumbler. The food quality is good although could be a shade overpriced for some. It remains, however, a pleasant and bright modern restaurant, if a little incongruous with its surroundings. Also, one may question if it is worth making a detour to Kirchberg just to eat there. There are plenty of similar places in the city centre with at least equal levels of quality.

Coyote Café, situated at the far right of the complex as you face the main doors, represents another option if you wish to eat in Utopolis. This is a large establishment with several levels and looks like a typical Tex Mex restaurant, although it is decorated with movie memorabilia and American saloon style fittings rather than murals of cacti and mean hombres in ponchos. Tex Mex is not especially widely available in Luxembourg: Coyote café and Chi-Chi’s, in the city centre, are the only real options, and the food here is bog-standard Tex Mex, not surprising to anyone. Coyote Café also serves as a bar however and. Like Tiebreak at the other end, is better suited to beer and cocktails than wine. While Tiebreak often caters to families, Coyote Café seems more suited to young people without children as well as groups. It is also more of a nightspot, and it is easier to imagine people going to Coyote for the sake of it, rather than just passing time there before or after catching a film. The atmosphere is more vibrant than the other establishments in Utopolis and on a weekend night one wouldn’t necessarily realise one was in a cinema complex, unless one looked around and saw the large Lara Croft statue. Isn’t she a bit passé?

Opposite Coyote Café can be found a Subway, with the usual hypnotic piped smell of nuclear baking and clientele composed mainly of kids who must have cashed in their trust funds just to pay the necessary price to eat there. Also there is a sushi place called, with staggering originality, The Sushi Place. The food here is good if you happen to be passing by and have a craving. It isn’t worth a detour though, and there is another one on avenue de la Liberté in the city centre. Also, the over-abundance of Hello Kitty décor can get annoying. The final establishment on the ground floor of the Utopolis complex is Q45. Again reinforcing its status as a multi-purpose entertainment venue, Q45 is a bar and pool hall, where a full-sized table can be rented for €10 per hour. It also has free wifi. Aside from these factors, there is no reason go: the music is too loud to talk freely, the red lighting and predominantly purple décor are very much on the tacky side, and make the bar very dark and in danger of becoming dingy. Lastly, the staff are almost too cool to acknowledge customers they don’t know and are certainly too cool to smile at them. Or to thank them for that matter. Maybe I went on a bad day…

If you happen to be in the area, by all means pay Utopolis a visit. As a cinema it is very successful: it is comfortable and very modern, using state of the art audio and visual equipment to enhance an already first class movie-going experience. Likewise, their theme nights (premieres, ladies night etc) are popular enough to sell out and enjoy something of a cult following. If you aren’t going to see a film, I’d advise caution: it doesn’t offer as much as the city centre in terms of choice or atmosphere. This is understandable: space is very much finite. The restaurants and bars are better enjoyed as part of a cinema visit rather than for their own sake.