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By Theodore
Fischer, Sidewalk
Here's an utterly
original, utterly fun, painlessly educational and not ridiculously
expensive answer to the mother (and father) of all questions: "What
can we do with the kids today?" At Build-A-Bear Workshop, children
don't exactly manufacture teddy bears from scratch. But they do
project-manage and lend critical hands-on assistance in the process of
turning an empty shell to a chubby chum to an outright fashion statement.
The evolution takes place in a procession of clearly labeled stations that
loop counter-clockwise around the Tysons Corner Center store. At
Choose Me, the first station, children select their
cherished-companion-to-be from bins full of furry pelts. Choices include
Baby's First Bear, Classic Brown Teddy, Floppy Bear and cousins Floppy
Frog, Cow and Monkey (among other varieties). Prices range from $10 to $25
and that's all you absolutely have to pay. Every expense from here on
down is an optional extra.
Hear Me offers six sound disks to insert into the bear: one with six cute
sayings ($5) and others with "Teddy Bear's Picnic," giggles,
oink, meow and so on. A huge Willy Wonka-style contraption performs Stuff
Me by blowing wads of 100 percent polyester stuffing into every appendage;
an attendant does the heavy lifting but kids step on a pedal to make it
happen. Stuff Me isn't over until a red heart is inserted and the child
whispers a secret wish into the bear's ear.
The biggest bottleneck of the process (especially on weekend afternoons
when lines can get fierce) occurs at Stitch Me, where store personnel,
principally teenage girls, hand-stitch the bear's backside shut, casually
chatting with young bear-builders during the process.
At Fluff Me, kids receive a brush and access to a giant blower to do their
fluff stuff (the most hands-on stage of the procedure). Children then sit
down at a computer to input information for either their new dolly's birth
certificate or a bear-child meet-cute story (tip: Try to come up with some
kind of a name before they reach this point because the program
won't work unless the name field is filled).
Dress Me is where you can spend serious bucks on clothing and accessories.
The various outfits (which run from $8 to $12) can turn the doll into a
cheerleader, golfer, basketball player, ballerina, bride, chef, rabbi
(complete with yarmulke and prayer shawl) or just a dressed-for-success
Teddy. Accessories, most of them in the $3 to $5 range, include shades,
purses, jewelry, shoes, ice skates and just about anything you might buy
for yourself. Just smaller.
The last stop is Take Me Home (aka Pay Me), when the fully built bear, its
ensemble and birth certificate/back story are tucked into a cottage-shaped
Cub Condo for the trip home. Of course Build-A-Bear Workshops offers
birthday parties for groups of six or more from $10 per guest
depending on the choice of party animal and togs. And the Buy Stuff Club,
its version of a frequent-flyer program, will encourage you to come back
for more.
As if Build-A-Bear Workshop weren't enough of a treat, Tysons also boasts
the Washington outpost of the child-o-centric Rainforest Cafe
who else provides valet parking for strollers? A jungle setting of hanging
vines and wild animals beneath a starry sky, it looks every inch the rain
forest. When lions roar, gorillas bellow and parrots squawk, it sounds
like the rain forest. Fortunately it doesn't smell like a rain forest, and
the climate is as temperate as the rest of the mall.
Some of the dozen or so items on Rainforest Rascals children's menu are
Gorilla Grilled Cheese, Castaway Kids Pizza and dinosaur-shaped Jurassic
Chicken Tidbits; everything costs $4.99 plus $1.50 for a beverage.
Grown-up menu names display similar whimsy: Volcanic Cobb Salad, Jamaica
Me Crazy (pork) Chops and Rasta Pasta among many other pastas, pizzas,
burgers and salads. It's a sensational idea to get here early on weekends
(they do breakfast) when the wait for a table can take as long as the
Amazonian summer all the better to give patrons plenty of time to
browse a "Retail Village" only slightly smaller than the
Serengeti.
Details
Build-A-Bear Workshop, Tysons Corner Center, Chain Bridge Road
(Route 123) and Leesburg Pike (Route 7), McLean, Va., (703) 448-2327. Open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to
9:30 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Rainforest Cafe, Tysons Corner Center, (703) 821-1900
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