The Alamo Drafthouse in the Mission was like church for me.
It was something special and sacred, and I wanted to tell everyone about it.
“So… no, really, there’s a theater that serves amazing food and cocktails during a movie… you press a little red button and write what you want on a little card, and the best staff in the world will take care of you… Bonus: they’ll also kick anyone out if they’re loud, on their phone, or shitty…”
It was a movie-goers paradise. I was willing to knock on doors to tell people the good news.
The one in SF could do 70mm in the big theater. We saw Alien, Dunkirk, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and a handful more.
We did a whole prix fixe dinner themed to Road House.
We did so many movie parties with themed drinks, interviews, Q&A…
We went and saw a science talk about how plausible the stunts were, physics-wise, in Fast & Furious 6 and Star Trek: First Contact.
And can we talk about the food? I don’t even like popcorn, but that shit was amazing. All the food, the cocktails—so good!
A few days before the Pandemic lockdown, we did “Stars and Snipes Forever,” a 4-movie marathon where you didn’t know which Wesley Snipes movie you were going to get, so settle in for the marathon (it was New Jack City, Passenger 57, The Fan, and Blade). It was one of the best days of my life.
When I heard Sony was buying them out, I was worried: it won’t be the same. Though I’ve been back a few times (but arguably not much lately—so I’m clearly part of the problem), my heart broke last night when we went to see Primetime and… it was… bad.
They changed the seats to the generic (noisy) recliners. The staff is now nonexistent. You order through the app on your phone… which now means everyone is on their phones. Guess who doesn’t turn their brightness down? Everyone.
Worse: the food sucked. My summer special “kimchi hot dog” was cold and the bun wet and fell apart. The drinks sucked. Old fashioned? Undrinkably sweet. Bleh.
The whole place just felt soulless.
It’s heartbreaking to watch. I’m not sure we’ll ever go back.
RIP Alamo.