First look: Epcot’s Space 220 restaurant opens

[Disney4me]

Space 220 restaurant, the most Epcot thing at Epcot, had its grand opening at Walt Disney World on Monday.

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Early Space 220 explorers lineup at the new Epcot restaurant on opening day. (Dewayne Bevil / Orlando Sentinel)

 

If “Epcottiest” were a real word, I’d use it in the following sentence. Space 220 restaurant, the Epcottiest thing at Epcot, had its grand opening at Walt Disney World on Monday.

Space 220 is futuristic with a hint of retro, sticks to its outer space theming at every turn and tosses in educational matter just for fun.

“Guests will experience a fully immersive signature dining experience that will take them 220 miles above Earth to the Centauri Space Station, where they’ll have amazing views of the Eastern Seaboard, Epcot and Florida,” said Seth Rose, general manager. “They’ll be able to witness space tourism at its finest while enjoying out-of-this-world culinary cuisine.”

Here are a few things we noticed in the countdown to Space 220′s opening.

Epcot guests step into a virtual space elevator at Space 220 restaurant to feel as if they travel from Earth to the Centauri Space Station. (Todd Anderson / Courtesy photo)

Going up

The restaurant’s entrance is built into the right-hand side of Epcot’s Mission: Space attraction in the Future World East area, which will be called World Discovery (add swooshy sound effect or Dame Judi Dench’s voice here) in the future. From there, reservation holders pick up boarding passes in a curved lobby with wispy blue-marbled floors and giant ads for the restaurant with slogans such as “Elevate Your Dining.”

Then diners enter a space elevator to carry them 220 miles to the space station/restaurant. This is where folks need to buy into the theme as it will become more and more relentless with workers talking about airlocks, changes in pressure, decompressing and such.

Before you ask, “artificial gravity” helps us all dine without floating. Play along.

In the elevator, passengers look down on Earth as they go up. They first see Epcot, naturally, right next to Mission: Space’s big red ball, and then the view widens to include the rest of the theme park, Disney World and eventually the Florida peninsula and a good chunk of the home planet. The trip isn’t rough and takes about a minute.

The trip down, the crew member said, was 13,000 mph. Go with it.

Space 220 diners have a view of the cosmos during a preview Monday. (Dewayne Bevil / Orlando Sentinel)

Star grazing

The dining room is wide-open, semicircular and mostly oriented toward 11 big screens that frame views of the cosmos and Earth. Each screen has two booths at the base of it, then various combinations of seating work back from that to the entrance and bar area. (The Space 220 space seats almost 400 people). Sitting farther away from the screens gives a wider view. And the view changes.

 

“You’ll see some satellites. You’ll see astronauts working in space. You’ll see a family with their dog in space, and you’ll see the X-2 spaceship,” Rose said, the last one being the vessel portrayed in Mission: Space. “You’ll see a lot of different things that you would see if you were in space.”

There are daytime and nighttime views out the windows.

The sounds in the restaurant are in the eerie/otherworldly category, and they follow you throughout, including into the bathroom.

“The music, the background music, all that was curated by WDI [Walt Disney Imagineering] and our Imagineers,” Rose said. “They’ve set the light level; they’ve helped set the background music level.”

The colors are smoky grays, blues and purples. The molding and other touches are modular and geometric, somewhere in the style continuum between Spaceship Earth and Space Mountain. The bathroom symbols — including an astrobaby above the changing table — have a space traveler vibe, and thus, the theme continues. A sign near the sinks says “In the unlikely event of an artificial gravity malfunction, fluid vacuum containment systems will engage.” Hey, artificial gravity malfunction happens.

Symbols above the elevator indicate that the lift is on Earth, at the space station or some level in between. Another Epcot-esque touch: Before entering the dining area, guests see a “Grow Zone” of spinning vegetables that represent menu ingredients.

On the Space 220 menu: seared tuna with avocado, marinated egg, brown rice, edamame, pineapple and radishes. (Dewayne Bevil / Orlando Sentinel)

In the cards

For the kids, there are Space 220 collectible trading cards, which are included with purchase of nonalcoholic cocktails and children’s meals.

Each pack comes with five cards featuring illustrations and facts about space exploration, food in space and other innovations. There are dozens of sets to encourage repeat visitors.

Among the topics in our pack: why straws don’t work in space, how space junk adds to Earth’s weight and the joys of bacon for Apollo 11 astronauts. (The headline was “Bacon makes everything better.” That’s just science.)

Yes, starry calamari

Some menu items have spacey names, including big bang burrata, Neptuna tartare, Centauri Burger, X2 Duck and starry calamari. On the liquid side are stargaritas and the nonalcoholic lightyear lemonades (hold the Buzz and the buzz). Others are more earthly, such as seared tuna, roasted free-range chicken and Florida red snapper.

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This is a prix-fixe menu situation. A two-course lunch includes an appetizer and entree for $55. The three-course dinner is $79 and includes a dessert.

Space 220 is a product of Patina Restaurant Group, which also developed the concepts for the Italy pavilion restaurants at Epcot plus Disney Springs establishments, including Morimoto Asia, the Edison, Enzo’s Hideaway, Marin & Enzo’s and Pizza Ponte.

Disney started taking reservations Monday for Space 220, but slots for meals through mid-November went quickly. There will be walk-ins available through Sunday. But note that by 12:30 p.m. Monday, folks getting in line were told it would be a three-hour wait. The line had stretched out the door, around the corner and into the shadow of Test Track.

 

Dewayne Bevil

Orlando Sentinel