Yes, skiing. Yes, I live in the southern hemisphere.
Only about a two-and-a-half hour drive from my house in Melbourne, you can get to a mountain high enough where there's skiing. You might remember I posted about seeing Aladdin on Mt. Buller in 2019, though that was only a day trip with the boys and we didn't ski, just built snowmen and stuff. If you don't remember that and want to go back to read the post, which includes our harrowing adventure getting down the mountain and multiple shenanigans involving snow chains, you can find it here.
No movie this time -- I knew we'd be tired from skiing, and I also knew I'd lose a lot of credibility with my wife. ("You can't even go three days without seeing a movie?" she might ask. And I have, since I haven't watched a single thing since Saturday night before we left.)
Truth is, I didn't actually feel the inclination, in part because I did scratch that itch with Aladdin four years ago.
I do, however, have a movie tie-in from this trip, and it's an odd one.
We're staying in the little village at the altitude necessary to ski, which costs a pretty penny, but we decided we had to have a "rich person's ski trip" at least once in our lives. Many of the food options are fit for hungry skiers who are not very particular about what they're eating, happier to get out of the cold and take off their ski boots than worrying about the quality of the grub. However, since the people who stay here do have a lot of money -- a lot more than we do, as this is probably a one-time thing for us -- there figured also to be some fine dining.
The place we chose also happened to have a When Harry Met Sally theme.
Sort of.
As you can see from the art at the top of this post, the place is called Harry Burns, which is the full name of Billy Crystal's character in Rob Reiner's classic 1989 romcom. My wife, who was the one who researched the dining option for our date night, knew it had a When Harry Met Sally theme (sort of) but did ask me why it was called Harry Burns.
"Because that's the character's full name," I responded.
She laughed. I doubt that's a thing a lot of people know about the movie, since they don't make a big deal out of it. In fact, I wondered if I would have been able to produce his last name on my own, or just knew as soon as I heard it that it sounded right. I guess I'll never know.
The place is halfway up one of the slopes along a road that runs up to some of the villas higher on the mountain. You can ski directly in during the day, but we were getting there about 7 o'clock so of course that wasn't an option. My wife had thought of organizing a shuttle, but since I'd seen it from the lift I knew it wasn't that far of a walk. Yeah, tell that to my legs that spent the entirety of the last two days skiing. It was less than a 15-minute walk, but the last ten of those were uphill.
It was worth the hike. The ambience was nice, the food was great, and two alcoholic beverages each -- I had pinot noir, she had an old fashioned -- were just the ticket at the end of a long day of skiing.
But the place had essentially nothing to do with the movie.
It was decked out with just your standard alpine accoutrements, like a wall comprised of firewood, and another decorated with (tasteful) animal fur.
The artwork on the walls had nothing to do with Billy Crystal or Meg Ryan either. Unless this is supposed to be Meg Ryan:
Well the menu surely has funny drink names related to the movie, right?
It does not. It has standard drink names.
I tried to think if there's a scene of skiing in When Harry Met Sally, and I could have almost convinced myself that there was. I can see a funny bit of physical comedy where Ryan is trying to carry her ski equipment and the poles and skis are all splaying out in different directions and knocking people over. But that isn't really a scene in the movie.
So what the hell is the connection? Were we even right that it was a When Harry Met Sally-themed restaurant? Could Harry Burns just be the name of the guy who owns this place?
It might be, but that doesn't mean he's ignorant of the connection, and indeed, we found exactly one piece of evidence tying this great restaurant into this great movie:
If you're having trouble reading that, it's the front of the drinks menu, and it reads "I'll have what she's having," partly in fancy curlicue letters and partly in all caps.
I thought about asking the very nice waitstaff what the deal was with this non tie-in tie-in to the movie, but they were giving off such good vibes that I didn't want to seem the slightest bit miffed about their restaurant, nor make them question their choice of workplace. For all I know, they brag to their friends about working in a restaurant that takes inspiration from -- it's fair to say that at least -- a 34-year-old movie that many of them may be too young to have ever seen.
I checked their website and this is what it says on the landing page:
"'The first time we met, we hated each other.' Instead, it's love at first bite at Harry Burns, newly arrived on Bourke Street and inspired by the movie When Harry Met Sally. Pop in for high-end Modern Australian (cuisine? it doesn't say) and signature cocktails in a cosy cabin style restaurant with open fireplace in the heart of Mt. Buller Ski Village."
Yeah who knows.
My wife and I wondered if the person who opened the restaurant just loved this movie and decided this was the best way to show that love.
It's debatable, but the food was sensational.
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