Pizza, Beer, and Indy Films

This week's Leo has a little piece on Derrick Beasley, who is starting a 'draughthouse cinema' styled after the Alamo in Austin: Beer and pizza served in a theatre showing independent, foreign and off-beat films. North End Cafe is in the mix. We need this in town! I'm a big indy film fan. Check out the web site:
http://www.louisvillevanguard.com/

Anybody else excited by this?

I am, there was a beer and movie place in Portland, Oregon I used to go to...

Back in the early 80's we had a place in either the Plainview Shopping Center or Dupont Circle that was a combination movie theatre and bar/restaurant. It had theatre style seats with cup holders, maybe 50, and behind the seats was an area with 8-10 tables. It had a full bar and a limited menu of sandwichs and the like. I cannot remember the name of the place to save my life. Anyone else remember this place?

Back in the early 80's we had a place in either the Plainview Shopping Center or Dupont Circle that was a combination movie theatre and bar/restaurant. It had theatre style seats with cup holders, maybe 50, and behind the seats was an area with 8-10 tables. It had a full bar and a limited menu of sandwichs and the like. I cannot remember the name of the place to save my life. Anyone else remember this place?

Showing my age, but I do remember. It was in Plainview. I believe it was more like the 70's. The food was OK as I remember it and the movies not first run, but I liked the arrangement.

Back in the early 80's we had a place in either the Plainview Shopping Center or Dupont Circle that was a combination movie theatre and bar/restaurant. It had theatre style seats with cup holders, maybe 50, and behind the seats was an area with 8-10 tables. It had a full bar and a limited menu of sandwichs and the like. I cannot remember the name of the place to save my life. Anyone else remember this place?

Showing my age, but I do remember. It was in Plainview. I believe it was more like the 70's. The food was OK as I remember it and the movies not first run, but I liked the arrangement.

It was in Plainview Shopping Center down from Kroger. Dementia has set in as I cannot recall the name of the establishment. I went once or twice and recall almost nothing.

I was always a Vogue fan...we drank our beer in the parking lot before the show...but that's another story.

The Vogue was movie mecca in our youth. The first place we actually got to see "real" movies. I still have a stash of those Vogue movie calendars. Thanks for the reminder of some mighty fine nights.

A wonderful idea. The sort of thing I've missed since living in Chicago. A great big no for me, however, reading the plans for how the thing will operate, the fact that waiters will wait on and serve patrons as they watch the movies. That sounds like a real nuisance for me, and I don't know that I'd feel very compelled to frequent a place very much who operates along those lines. I hope they change their minds in that regard.

[Robin Garr]

Anyone else remember this place?

Something like Cinema, Draft and Brewhouse. It preceded the still existing SIchuan Garden in that location. I'd say '80s too, Ed.

When I lived in Columbus, OH, they had a place called Flickers that had a similiar concept. 2nd run movies, beer, popcorn, pizza, regular movie concessions. It say around 30 people or so, but was a great concept for me when I was in my early twenties. We would sit up there all day, pay for a movie or two, drink beer, eat bad food, and have a generally good time. They were really good at playing a series of movies, like the Indiana Jones Trilogy, or Godfather, or Halloween and run those at one price. Great way to burn a Saturday.

Huntington, WV Circa late 60's had a PBF place that featured very good pizza, American swill and W.C. Fields, Laurel & Hardy and Three Stooges black & whites. Kind of a Thundering Herd hangout.........Lots of fun

where will it be located?

It's going to be at the Mellwood Arts Center, in that shell by the main building. It should anchor the Center nicely, and perhaps bring in more - and better - shops.

The pizza, by the way, is going to be well-made, wood-fired pizza and the beer and wine selections will include more upscale choices. As for concerns about waiter, food distractions during the films, they will be kept to a minimum: there are techniques learned from other establishments that do this sort of thing. The focus will be on cinema, on developing and serving a film-smart clientele. Rochester NY, where I lived for 35 years (after and before living here) is nowhere near as cool a place as Louisville, but does have a 5-screen art theatre that I miss terribly. My wife and I went there every week. Louisville is too hip not to have a real and serious film outlet. I'll be very disappointed if this doesn't fly. This week's Leo devoted to film shows that an informed audience is out there, and educating a wider one is possible.

Something like Cinema, Draft and Brewhouse. It preceded the still existing SIchuan Garden in that location. I'd say '80s too, Ed.

It expired in 1984 or 1985 ... I remember it well because I moved here in '83 and it was one of the cool places I liked! I saw "Top Secret" there ... still one of my favorite "yuk yuk yuk" movies today. We didn't have anything like the place back in my small hometown in Missouri, so it made a big impression.

There is one in the Mt. Lookout neighborhood in Cincinnati - The Cinema Grill. Same sort of deal. Second run movies, beer and bar food. We used to go there every now & then when we lived in Cincinnati about 9 years ago.

Indianapolis had the downtown Hollywood Bar & Filmworks for about 15 years. It closed in 2006 due to parking problems.

Unlike that one and some others mentioned, it is my understanding that the Vanguard won't show second run movies. Like the Austin and Portland ones mentioned, it will feature artsy/independent/foreign films that used to play here all the time at both Baxter and/or the Vogue but tend to bypass our city these days.

As an example, Woody Allen has been releasing one or two new movies every year for the past few decades, but his latest from last winter, Cassandra's Dream, was the first one that did not show in Louisville, and that is pathetic. It played in Lexington and Indianapolis, but not here.

The development of Vanguard is the best Louisville cinema news I've heard in many years.... I'm really looking forward to it.