How About Some Dinner with Your Movie?

© Matt Lancashire

Alamo Draft House, Austin

Dinner and a movie? Please. How passé. Dinner during a movie? Definitely cooler. Dinner during a movie where you can consume plentiful amounts of your favorite alcoholic beverage while watching both first-run movies and cult classics? Score one for whoever planned this date.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is a beloved Texas institution, with four theatres in Austin, two in San Antonio, one in Houston and another in nearby Katy. It’s rare for a chain to be able to hold onto its indie cred, but Alamo has done it. Besides first-run movies, Alamo screens oldies and cult classics. But the theatre doesn’t just screen them; it plans entire evenings around them. R

ather than just showing Dirty Dancing, for instance, Alamo has set up a brunch and mimosa event to “optimize your Patrick Swayze viewing.” Different locations offer different events throughout the year: Alamo Lake Creek, for instance, hosts the annual Zombie Film Festival (Dismember the Alamo), while the South Lamar location host Fantastic Fest, a week-long event dedicated to screening “cult” horror, sci-fi, and fantasy films. A few of the many events Alamo offers include the Austin Air Guitar and Air Sex competitions; Terror Tuesdays and Weird Wednesdays; Quote-Alongs and Sing-Alongs; and Master Pancake Theater, where films are screened while a live panel mocks them a la Mystery Science Theatre. Alamo Drafthouse also hosts events where famous actors and directors introduce their films in person and answer questions.

Then there’s the food. Don’t think the food is an afterthought here – it’s really good. Customers write their orders on slips of paper during the previews, which are then picked up by stooping waiters and spirited away to the kitchen. Any of Alamo’s pizzas are a good bet – this reporter usually defaults to their delicious “Moonstruck” margherita-style pizza, although she’s never actually had anything at Alamo that wasn’t good. An utterly unscientific poll concluded the following:  Alamo employees prefer the Sesame Seared Tuna Salad and the sandwiches, vegans like the Constant Gardener grilled portobello sandwich and the falafel, and unapologetic carnivores go for the “Porky’s” pepperoni pizza. Everybody likes the red pepper hummus. 

Both food and drink specials are usually movie-themed. Somehow James Bond’s Vesper Martini tastes better than its less creatively-named counterpart, and for times “when you just need to abide” there’s nothing like The Dude’s White Russian. There are almost 20 beers on tap and another 14 bottled, as well as a respectable selection of red and white wines. If you really want to impress your date, you can ply her with champagne, sangria, mimosa or 10 year old port. There’s a good variety of desserts available too, but it would only be cruel to describe their deliciousity to anyone not near enough to partake.

There’s a reason that Alamo Drafthouse is beloved throughout the great state of Texas: movies can only be improved with good food and drink. (Drinking Arrogant Bastard while watching Where the Wild Things Are felt so, so right.)  Alamo’s embrace of everything classic, cult, and all-around crazy earns it the respect of even the most judgmental of scenesters. But really, everybody has good things to say about the Alamo Drafthouse. Your date will.