Last Chance To See 600 sq mi: Hidden
Missed Connections: Gefilte Fish...and "Chain Connections"
H-Town Rock
Rock Talk, Vol. IX
Good news: The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is opening their second theater in the Houston area next Friday. Bad news: It’s in Katy, not Houston.
If you’re not familiar with the Alamo Drafthouse, here’s a brief tutorial: Take a traditional movie theater, remove every other row of seats and replace with rows of tables, add food and beverages (including the adult kind) and, viola! – you have the Alamo Drafthouse. It began in Austin in 1997 and has expanded to four cinemas in the capital city, one in San Antonio, and now two in Houston (the original Houston location is in West Oaks Mall at Highway 6 and Westheimer).
Besides being able to drink beer while you’re watching a movie (which we love to do), the best thing about Alamo is the “Signature Series,” which features cult or just plain weird movies and animation specials. Our favorite, though, is The Sinus Show, which is similar to Mystery Science Theater 3000. Houstonist caught The Sinus Show parodying Karate Kid and Britney Spears’ Crossroads a couple of years ago – we laughed so hard that beer spewed out our noses!
Houstonist is happy that we’re at least getting another Alamo Drafthouse in the area next week, and that we can catch The Sinus Show there on Feb. 9 and a midnight showing of Labyrinth on Feb. 10 and 11. However, we’re puzzled at why a franchise hasn’t been open inside the loop, where we think it would have more success. I guess we’ll have to settle for a cocktail at the River Oaks Theater for now.
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i've been puzzled at alamo's reluctance to open in the downtown vicinity. when they opened their 1st location in austin, the 4th street corridor was still developing, and attendees came in droves. possible problems w/obtaining a liquor license in houston proper? hmmm. driving to west oaks and/or katy sucks - I would give up all multiplex attandance in lieu of a inner-loop alamo...really!
The folks at the Alamo have had their eye on an inner-loop location ever since they got to Houston. But the biggest hangup is finding a location that allows them to be free & clear on licensing rights to show most first-run movies. Theaters operate under an agreement that gives them so man miles of territory to have something of a monopoly with. Inside the loop, you're either looking at high real estate prices, or not having those rights. Remember, it's not like the 'Mo will have a 30 screen theater in town to spread the costs out.
But still ... wasn't there a location up near the Greenspoint/1960 area? It's not listed on their site, but I'm curious if that's because it was set to be a franchisee location.
Yeah Greg, I thought the north location (I think it was somewhere around 45 and Greens Road, maybe across the freeway from Greenspoint) was up and running, but apparently it's not. Maybe they scrapped that to try to find something even farther north.