Saturday, October 07, 2006

American Girl Cafe at the Grove

American Girl Place is every marketers dream. From the moment you walk in to the time you leave, moms, dads, and grandmas are plunking down credit cards all over the store. It's a place where the average visit lasts 4 hours, the average purchase tops $300 per girl, and because it's usually centered around a birthday, the money flows all year long.

Oh, and if you want to eat there on a weekend, you need to call months in advance. It's a hotter reservation than El Bulli.

Well, that's not entirely true. You can eat there on very little notice if you pick the 9:30AM breakfast seating, which is exactly what I picked to celebrate the 11th birthday of my little sis, K.

K and I showed up bright and early, right as the store was opening at 9AM. That gave us a little time to peek around and decide what she, her doll Lily, and I would do after breakfast. Just as we were oohing and aahhing over the doll-sized shoes and dress hangers, an attendant rang a bell and asked the 9:30AM group to form a line outside the cafe door. It's funny when little girls go to a faux grown-up restaurant: you could tell they all wanted to rush up and push and shove their way to the front of the line, but because it was the American Girl Cafe, they were on their best behaviour and (im)patiently bounced and fidgeted until it was their turn to be seated.

The American Girl Cafe couldn't possibly be any cuter. Designed to look like a fancy restaurant that's just for girls, they have both indoor and outdoor seating, plus special chairs that allow your doll to sit next to you at the table. K and I decided to sit outside on the patio, where we had the entire balcony to ourselves.


While the restaurant decor is special by itself, it's all the little details that really take it to the next level. For example, the napkin holders are pretty hair scrunchies, there's a fresh pot of pink sunflowers on each table (they're fake), and a polka dot gift box holds a set of "conversation starters" designed to provoke the thoughts of girls and big sisters alike.


The food is nothing to write home about, but it's certainly cute and a lot of fun. To start, mini cinnamon buns - these were probably the best part of the meal.


K had heart-shaped waffles, which came garnished with star-shaped fruit. I'm sure they'd make the sausages a special shape too if that were possible, but then again, let's not give them any funny ideas.


I had a quiche. I think. I've never seen a quiche that looked like this before - it was more like an eggy doughy puffy soggy thing.


The grapes were good! Oh well, I had some of K's waffles to curb my appetite.
At the end of the meal, out comes dessert: chocolate mousse topped with Oreo cookie crumbs, plus a little daisy. Cute, cute, and cute.


I remember when American Girl first launched in 1986. Even though I thought I was too old to play with the dolls, I still loved reading the books and looking through the catalogue. Today, American Girl has grown from just a few historical doll characters to a dozen, plus an entirely new line of dolls that are "just like you" (in case you're wondering what I look like, check out GT25H).


After our meal, we decided to take Lily (the doll) on a little spa day. First we'd style her up, then we'd do a photo shoot with her and K. Here Lily is getting her hair done:


Yes, there really was a 60 minute wait to get your doll's hair done. Don't worry, you can always shop while you're waiting! (hmmm... methinks the wait is on purpose)

After the hair salon, we headed upstairs for a photo shoot, then headed home.
All in all, it was a very special day with a very special girl! Love you, K!

8 comments:

KT said...

The American Girl Place kind of scares me. Those dolls kind of scare me.

I walked in there one time, with my husband and my gay boyfriends, just to see what it was like in there. You should have seen the look on the employees' faces when a grown woman walked in with four grown men and no kids or dolls.

We turned around and walked right out. We were just looking! Jeez!

Very cool idea to take your sis there though. I bet she had a great birthday.

Eddie Lin said...

rosie,

your kid sis has the same pixel disease that dylan has. i hope this nastiness isn't contagious.

also, please let american girl's parent company, mattel, know that boy's need dolls too. american boy is a logical line extension. american psycho is a great movie!

happy birthday, lil' sis!

Danielle's Daughter said...

Oh, the AGP horror! I worked at this Mattel-owned monstrosity back in April when it opened, and lawd, was it both the cutest and most frightening thing on earth. Like adorable!!!! Like, scary!!! Little girls hugging their JLY dolls and even littler girls hugging THEIR Bitty baby dolls and the DOLLS hugging THEIR Bitty Bear dolls and the mothers looking wild eyed and dazed from the sheer shock of the American Express bills they'd soon be getting. *LOL* It was both touching and educational, and homogenized and Disney-fied. I had to get out before my brain liquefied into the pink and red and purple carpeting.

I knew i had to leave the morning Madonna brought her 9 year old daughter Lourdes in and in less than ONE HOUR spent $33k on doll merchandise, dolls themselves, and doll DVDs. Madonna had been living on the westside while she rehearsed for the opener of the Confessions tour, and so one morning after the grand opening, we were all asked to come in exxxxxtra early because we were having a VIP guest. I thought, no biggie, Teri Hatcher had already brought her little girl in and had a ball. but this was MADONNA. She was sweet and said hello to everyone, had only one bodyguard and was saying she'd left her son at home with her husband because this was "Just ladies today!" Sweeeeet. But the insane thing about it was, the child was wearing COACH and GUCCI from head to toe, carrying a little handbag, with meticulously coiffed hair and lipgloss, looking bored picking at her nails staring into the cases, while Madonna was wearing grubby sweats, a hole-y tee, scuffed loafers and a baseball cap, no makeup, hair scuzzy, holding her daughter's doll and freaking out excitedly over all the cool Doll stuff, "Lola, do you want Felicity's horse? Lola, come look at this blue dress, its a limited edition thing! You want it? Why not? Its so cute! Lets get it! Look, Samantha comes with a coat and look, come look at the pretend food!" while Lola looked disinterested and said "Moooo-om! Can we just go?" Madonna: "No, don't you want to get Addy's schoolhouse desk? Look at it, its so cool the way the chair is attatched!"

*LMAO* I swear, i'm convinced Madonna had it all shipped to their compound where Lola ignored it and SHE HERSELF sat on the playroom floor immersed in Doll-topia.

And yes, that Quiche?? It came frozen, was quickly reheated and plated, as is every other food item on the menu with the exception of the fruit and the coffee. Did you read the lovely story on the back of your menu about the American Girl founder and her CINNAMON BUNS? Touching, eh?? *puke* Alls i know is, the experience is all about that money, honey! As a child i was obsessed with the Molly doll, but Madonna seemed to favor Kirsten over all the others. ;)

Chubbypanda said...

Ohs nos! The pixelitis! It spreads!

What a sweet place. Some of it would probably send me into sugar shock, but I imagine it's because I'm a 26 year-old guy and not an 11 year-old girl. However, I know Cat would love it.

BTW, totally grooving on the dessert. I have got to figure out how to make a completely edible one of those.

- Chubbypanda

Scrapbook Buddies said...

Like you, I decided to take two of my...let's call them "neices" to the AGP. The girls had a blast, but from an adult's perspective, I was entirely disgruntled by the moody servers, the lack of good service (or food, frankly) and the weird men standing by the doors. I'm glad you and your sis enjoyed yourselves, though. By the way, I love your blog...=D

Brian Gage Los Angeles said...

that dollversity pic looks like something out of "We"...

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