The place is called "The Metro Cinema Cafe & Bogart's Lounge" (have any idea yet what it might have been like?). I took my five year old son, eleven year old daughter and sixteen year old sister. We walk into the place and the front part of it is a bar. There were also a couple of pool tables, a jukebox and a couple of tv's turned on to the horse race.
There were two "theatres", one on each side of the bar. You enter them through these short, little hallways and through a pair of double-doors. Each theatre looks like it has seating for about a hundred people. The seats are not your typical movie theatre seats. Inside the theatre there were a number of small round tables set up. Each table had two high-backed chairs. The chairs were pretty comfy, the back had some give and there was adequate padding where it needed to be.
We went in and commandeered two of the front tables. The screen was about the size you'd find in any of the smaller theatres that you would find inside of a modern 16 - 24 screen megaplex. After we sat down our waitress, that's right, our waitress, came and took our orders. They had drinks ranging from soda and pink lemonade to a full liquor bar. They also served all sorts of different foods, they had hamburgers, hot dogs, popcorn, and even a surf and turf. The food prices weren't that bad. I ended up paying about $2.95 for two hot dogs and some chips. We ordered two of those and a couple pitchers of soda.
Get this, they even allowed smoking inside of the theatre, not that I smoke mind you.
The quality of the picture was about what you would expect for a bit of film that has been played now for going on seven months. The only real complaint I had, other than having to bring my family through a real bar to get to the theatre, was the quality of the sound. It sounded like there was a channel missing. Another way to describe it would be that it sounded like you were listening to something in mono that should have been in stereo. For example, when Bilbo and Gandalf were in Bilbo's living room discussing what Bilbo should do with the Ring, the fire in the fireplace was one of the loudest noises, it was like the background noises were clearer than the main sound.
All in all it was an interesting experience. Right now I would say that I won't be going back, at least not with my kids. We'll see what next June brings when it is the only place still showing The Two Towers.
-Kevin
And if you do not believe in God or the effectiveness of prayer, he could still use your words of encouragement.
Thank you.
-Kevin
Except for the poor sound quality, that sounds like it could be a very interesting setting in which to watch a movie. There's a similar place here in Austin called the Alamo Draft House... you not only can order dinner and watch the movie from your table, they also have a microbrewery producing their own beer, if you like that.