The Latest on the Braintree Dave and Buster's Outpost

We've been down this road before.  Yes, the orange and blue road known as Dave and Buster's.  While Dave and Buster's in Providence is usually on our New Year's Day agenda, the full court press was put on us by the children when the Braintree, Massachusetts outpost finally opened last week.  And after the kids brought home some pretty good report cards, we finally relented to their pressure.  We thought the place was going to be opening tomorrow, but when a friend indicated that they were there earlier this week, we thought it would be a good idea to take them for the soft opening.  Plus, it's a great time to be going to the mall - two Saturdays before Christmas...this could be really fun...

Braintree, MA 2pm.  The JMR party mobile was exactly that.  Screaming, excited kids.  Parents with splitting headaches.  In between basketball games 2 and 3.  We were a party on wheels, I'll tell you.  40 bucks in each of the kids' hands and off they went.

We walk up the stairs and the first thing I notice is that the parking lot is not that busy.  Strange.  I thought this place would be teeming with teenagers being adjacent to the mall and all.  The next thing I notice are all the doormen, greeters and managers milling around the front entrance helping customers.  I think it was one manager per child.  I'm not sure if they think we're all stupid, or if the City of Braintree was really cracking down on some of the issues that we took for granted in Providence.  Who knows what a couple of games like Skee Ball and Trivia might do to these teenagers.  Particularly creepy was the Secret Service-like headgear the managers were wearing. 

OK.  We finally power up our cards and sit down in the bar to drink.  The lady I was talking to explained that the City wouldn't let them put a bar in the gameroom area - one of my favorite parts of the Providence restaurant.  We thought we would be ok with that when we were told that we could sit in the bar and play games too.  OK.  Let's try that.  Hmm, they got that one slightly wrong as we spot C seemed to be scolded by one of the Managers with the CIA gear as he's pointing at us twenty feet away.  The manager beckons us over to tell us that we had to accompany our children around the games.  See, in Providence, we could go shopping or see a movie while the kids were playing games and no one would care - although it is Rhode Island I suppose.

But the food was good. The beers were tall and the games spit out tickets, two at a time.  We would be ok.  Some brief reviews from the kids.

C:  Enjoyed the Wheel of Fortune game, especially when his numerous swipes of his power card resulted in hitting the 1000 ticket jackpot.  Enjoyed the french fries.  Disappointed that his lava lamp didn't work.  I wish I could have just bought the lava lamp at the mall, myself.  Also won a huge three pound watch that only a grandmother could love and a life size teddy bear.  I'll be throwing those things out in a couple of weeks.

G:  Spent most of his money allotment on one of the bounce-the-ball-in-a-hole games.  I think he was gone for about 10 minutes when he found me looking for more money.  Jesus.  He had a lot of fun going through the ticket redemption island.  He ended up picking up an Angry Birds stuffed animal and a kickball.

S:  Another bling winner.  I kept trying to talk her into playing the games that spit out the tickets rather than the grabber or coin games, but then i thought that it really doesn't matter as long as she is having fun.  She ended up with some candy and a candy squirt gun.  That Squirt Gun didn't survive the night before Dad threw it out.  Sorry.

Overall, a very good experience.  I was disappointed that the kids couldn't roam around on their own (my 9 year old was more than happy to play the games by himself).  But the kids were entertained, my throwing shoulder aches, and the beers were tall.  Even the manager who scolded C came over and started to talk to S.  She looked at him like he was the Easter Bunny (that's not a good thing), but at least he was pleasant and helpful.  We'll be back.  I don't really have a choice, I think.