
Ubiquitous non-spoilery SW7 image above, specifically for the TRDL/R3 brand-awareness of it.

The Alamo Drafthouse SF opened this past weekend, with SW7 being the official hard launch debut film. They actually opened for a soft launch the weekend prior, but I wasn’t able to attend. The Drafthouse series of theaters is like Sundance on crack. You have a bar, you have full food and drink service with a pretty awesome menu, tables at the seats, and less publicized but equally entertaining: curated pre-show content and integrated viewing experience. The short review is: loved it.

I had heard from friends that went on opening night that its best to arrive early, in order to make the dining orders and possibly have them arrive prior to show start. Our tickets were for the fifth day of the theater’s grand opening. So, they had had some time to start smoothing out some of the kinks. When you think about it, training staff in one week (they started hiring the week before last) to basically spend their entire shift bent over (not metaphorically, even) is a tough nut. The whole operation depends on them being subtle and unobtrusive, lest they be distracting during the film. Anyway, we arrived at 2:30pm for a 3:30pm show, and had time to kill.

We grabbed seats at the in-house bar, Vs., which were BTW super comfy leather… we were waiting for my lovely wife to arrive separately via Lyft and the crew were cleaning the auditorium from the previous showing. The access controls are basically like the train… you waltz right in, go to the theater, find your seats, and then your server comes to you to introduce themselves and go over the process of ordering and such, and then casually checks your tickets ‘to make sure you are in the right seats’… so, I really like the smoothness of this operation. Though, admittedly, it depends on people arriving early enough to get all that sorted prior to film start.

At the Vs. I ordered a Boulevardian, which was not surprisingly bourbon, campari, orange and lemon bitters, and zest. DELICIOUS.

At 3pm, we decided to head over to the main auditorium (across the hall) and get seated. Each pair of seats share a little table between/in front of them. Menus are in slots below, and the order slips are in a stack with pens. You write your order out, and then put the sheet upright in the thing. My lovely wife arrived at about 3:30pm so we weren’t able to get our order in and on the table prior to start, but my sister-in-law and her husband had ordered right at 3pm and their stuff began arriving right around 3:30pm. If you extrapolate this to a restaurant environment, you’re looking at a few hundred unique orders all needing to arrive around the same time, as well as follow up orders throughout the film. Frankly, I thought there would be more delay than there was. Having ordered shortly before start, I think everything came by about 20 min into the film. Note, they bring things one or two at a time, so they can logistically stay bent over and not spill stuff. Our sever said she isn’t ‘seeing the effects’ of the position in the mirror yet, but sure as hell is feeling it, abs and glutes. Our server was also extremely ebullient and charming, which added to the experience.
We ordered a shaved brussells sprouts salad (big bowl), a fungi personal pizza, an order of the famous chips and ‘queso’ which is essentially a green chili white cheese dip (and amazing indeed); she had two whites, and I had a second Boulevardian and a 750ml red rye ale.
The food is half the battle here. It’s not your typical ‘special cinema’ menu (Sundance’s offerings are already great, but here, the eccentricity of the menu is a point of pride. I basically wanted one of everything. Being middle of the afternoon, we kept it reasonably light.
Note: you can customize off the secret menu…
http://www.slackerwood.com/node/4385

Another fun thing is the pre-show content, curated to match the film you are going to see. This time, it was a melange of awkward musical numbers from 70s and 80s SW TV specials and Disneyland shows, youtube videos of the dancing Stromtroopers etc, Cat Star Wars and so on. Very cool. Even old Kenner TV commercials.
I hadn’t had a lot of sleep, much water, or really much to eat, so about 25% in to my beer, I was starting to feel the burn, so I laid off the beer and just rode out the last act of the film, which I admit I resorted to one-eye viewing (hahahahha) but not too badly, fully present, just a little more of a heat on than intended or expected off of 2.5 drinks in 3 hours. Just a metabolic misfire.
Anyway, I gave my server my card at the start to streamline closing out the bill, which was great, since I didn’t have to fish around for it during the intense last 20 minutes of a film, right. It’s by no means cheap, but I thought very well worth it and very entertaining as a filmgoing experience.
Definitely doing so again! I think I will stick with the AMC 1000 Van Ness IMAX awesomeness for the big MMM days, but for date nights or more eccentric films like Coen Brothers or Wes Anderson or the like.