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Alamo Drafthouse Owner Talks Opening In NYC
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jun 6, 2012
Modified Jun 6, 2012
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jun 6, 2012
Modified Jun 6, 2012
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In April we found out that the Alamo Drafthouse would finally be opening up its first New York City location, with five glorious screens inside of the historic Metro Theater on 100th Street and Broadway. For those not in the know, the Alamo serves you food and drink (created around each movie) right to your seat, and publicly shames anyone who uses a cell phone during a screening. Now founder and president Tim League has talked to West Side Rag about his venture into the city, and how they plan to renovate the old theater.
"We’re gonna fully restore the exterior, the façade and the neon and the marquee. As for the interior, a lot of the problems with why some of the old theaters faded away is that they are gigantic single-screen venues. Since it is already gutted out we’re going to turn it into a five-screen theater. We’re going to use every possible nook and cranny of the space. That’s not true to the original design of it. It will be a nice finish-out. We’re certainly doing some historical research to find out some of the key details and style. And we’ll use that as a baseline for our renovation work. But we’re creating a five-screen theater, we’re having to build a kitchen as well, so it’s not going to be a classic historic renovation."
He added that there could be more locations here in the future, though noted, "The first one has to work before we start talking about number two." That first one will open sometime next year... and we're counting down the days.
Tagged
alamo drafthouse
metro theater
Tim League
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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