Dinner and a movie may be one of the oldest date nights in the world, but in Naples, Silverspot Cinema’s innovation has managed to update the format by fulfilling both parts of the equation with ultra-comfortable theater seating and food options that score well above the buttered popcorn and cheese nachos genre.

Movie-goers here have the option of dining in Silverspot’s restaurant or ordering to-go items from the counter to take into the theaters with them. Make your movie reservations, and get your tickets at home online or at the kiosks outside the theater.

Inside one of Silverspot's luxurious theaters — Photo courtesy of Silverspot Cinema

Arrive about 90 minutes before curtain, and you will have time to enjoy table service in the dining room and an appetizer such as shrimp spring rolls, a Caesar salad or pecan-crusted grouper, among a well-rounded selection of other dishes, including pizza, deli sandwiches and kids' meals.

“We wanted to keep the movie-going experience sacred while offering higher-end food,” says Marketing Director Tom Stoup.

Or go more casual with a truffle chicken sandwich, mini cheeseburgers or goat cheese pizza. For dessert, there are locally famous Norman Love truffles and, from Grace and Shelly’s Cupcakes down the street, such flavors as red velvet and brown sugar caramel.

A full bar serves all your favorite beers, wines and cocktails, including film-themed specialty drinks such as Kryptonite (spiced rum with coconut and melon mix, pineapple juice and Midori), Clockwork Orange Martini (blood orange  juice, Stoli Orange, triple sec and pineapple) and Dragon Tattoo (dragon fruit-infused vodka with triple sec and pineapple juice).

Enjoy your adult beverages on the comfortable sofas and stuffed chairs in the open lounge, which overlooks the street scene below. Or repair to a separate bar area outside the main theater lobby that offers bar and table seating.

Silverspot Cinema crowns the nightlife scene at Mercato entertainment center — Photo courtesy of Chelle Koster Walton

Inside the 11 theaters, the over-sized, top-of-the-line seats with their soft leather upholstery provide ample platform space between them to accommodate drinks and food boxes – worth the $16 ticket price (for adult non-matinee tickets) right there. Silverspot also offers lunch and a movie and dinner and a movie packages that include food, beverage and popcorn.

If Silverspot restaurant's menu does not appeal to your appetite du jour, Mercato gives you more than 20 other options for pre- or post-show dining in flavors from Asian and Mexican to Italian and all-American.

The first of three such theaters in the United States, Silverspot boasts its 60-inch space (as opposed to 45 inches in most theaters) between rows and state-of-the-art digital projection and sound. Besides first-run popular movies, it shows operas and indie art films, the latter as part of the ongoing Naples International Film Festival.