An escape to Atlantis, next door

What better escape from a dismal economy -- and whatever else ails you -- than immersing yourself in a good movie?

You can ring in the New Year with mini escapes to Burnsville's new monument to such escapism: The CineMagic Atlantis 15 Theatres, where giant statues of the sea god Poseidon and mermaids tower alongside murals that depict the legendary sunken city.

That'll get your imagination going even before you step into one of the 15 theaters, which include two 70-foot screens. But you can't eat in the restaurant and bar long planned for the CineMagic, if that's what you hoped to do.

The long-awaited second-level bar and restaurant was to open in August, and, when that plan was delayed, in time for the holidays. Now, the opening is pushed back until spring, co-owner Steve Tripp said.

Reasons include a slow construction industry, skyrocketing food prices and a decision to shy away from a restaurant that would have provided higher consumer prices than the owners want. The owners also expanded kitchen plans.

"The restaurant, when we originally designed it, was much smaller than what is being put in," Tripp said. "We're going to have seating for roughly 200 now; we had planned for 90."

Those plans are to build on the business the theater has steadily built on the east side of Burnsville Center, just south of County Road 42, and to expand the 15-item menu first planned.

Tripp said the public asked for more of a full menu. People wanted to make an evening of it, with before-movie drinks, after-dinner drinks and dessert, he said.

"People were looking for more rather than less," Tripp said.

"Now we're really looking at getting this done and having a spring opening, to coincide with the veranda opening."

The 50-seat veranda will be on the second level, overlooking the mall. It'll be outside the bar and above a canopy over the main entrance.

CineMagic already boasts wall-to-wall screens, high-rise stadium-style seating with high-back rocker seats, and Dolby and DTS digital surround-sound in all the auditoriums.

"It's really great ambiance," said Lynda Babcock, 46, of Burnsville, after she and Vance Severson bought tickets.

"There's some great make-out chairs," said Severson, 42, of Shoreview. Babcock agreed, laughing along with him.

They said they hope for a restaurant and bar soon so that a patron can get a beer.

"Once they get that, then it will all be good," Severson said.

The theatre and its concession stand opened last July after construction that presented some difficulties, including a 20 percent difference in grade from one end of the building to the other, Tripp said.

When gasoline prices hit $4 last summer, Tripp said, movie attendance dropped, perhaps because teens couldn't afford both gas and movies.

Now, as cost-conscious families look for "staycations" rather than vacations, he hopes they'll head to the movies.

"I think theaters are a little bit more immune to some of the effect of the economy that we've seen in traditional retailing," Tripp said.

Movie-goers Eucebio "Gas" Gastelum and Sonia Gastelum drove from their Lonsdale home to a matinee recently, where they raved about the theater itself. Gas Gastelum said the concession stand has reasonable food prices but few selections. He's looking forward to more choices.

"Everything is beautiful, everything is wonderful," he said, "and they say they are going to open a bar."