One of the coolest things my friends and I did in Austin was to visit the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.
A movie theater you ask? How can that possibly be cool?
Well, let me tell you, this isn’t your ordinary cinema.
The Alamo is a small chain of theaters which sells food and beer during the movie. Not at the concession stand, mind you, but personally delivered to your seat by actual waiters. I’ve heard of this concept before, but never visited such a place until I went to Austin a few weeks ago.
The set-up is brilliantly simple. The theater is arranged so that a thin long table is in front of every row of seats with enough room for a waiter to deliver your food without obstructing your view of the movie. Tiny little bulbs mounted on the bottom of the tables provide just enough light to read the menus. All you have to do is write down what you want on a small piece of paper and stick it on the edge of your table. A waiter will swing by and if everything is written clearly, he reappears with your food a short time later. Or so the theory goes.
For some reason, our order kept getting screwed up. First the wrong drinks came out. Then our food was delivered about an hour into the movie–long after everyone else around us had eaten. The wait staff knew they had screwed up and offered to take our food off the bill as long as we paid for our drinks. But when the food finally came, one of the orders was also screwed up. The manager offered sincerest apologies, took the drinks off our tab (final bill: $0) and gave us three free passes for another screening. Wow. The response was so professional and unexpected that despite the problems, I still highly recommend the place (and also have to mention that my Austin friend experienced perfect service all the other times she visited).
The Alamo just isn’t about eating and drinking, however. The theater incorporates a number of creative themes and ideas to make the movie-going experience a truly outstanding one, such as their Saturday Morning Cartoon Program with an all-you-can-eat cereal bar.
We were lucky enough to see Borat at the Alamo (review to follow) and experience a typically, over-the-top thematic experience. Not only did the Alamo include Kazakh food on the menu (Steamed Lamb and Pumpkin dumplings) but they also hired an actor dressed as Borat to entertain people waiting in line and to give all of us high fives as we exited the theater. Niiiiiice…!
The Alamo turned out to be one of my favorite highlights in Austin and was practically worth the trip on its own–of course it certainly helped that Borat was side-splittingly funny (both the actor and the movie).
Yesterday: Austin Restaurants