To be transferred into a world that leaves school at the cinema doors is the perfect way to end the day. To have the crisp iced pop, clear your throat. To have buttery popcorn, grease your hands. All while resting your back in the recliner chairs and watching a movie on the big screen. These sensations are perfect for relaxing after a school day, but is the Texas-founded Alamo Drafthouse Movie Theater the perfect place to experience them?
When judging the cinematic appeal of a movie theater, it all comes down to the five s’s: setting, service, snacks, specialties, and $$$.
Unlike other movie theaters in the Austin area, instead of checking your ticket and purchasing your food all before you take your seats, at the Alamo Drafthouse, you walk straight to your respective theater and wait for your order to be taken. The seating offers a comfortable recliner chair with a side table to hold all of your snacks. Once you get situated, a staff member checks your ID and tickets before taking your order.
Each staff member I have encountered has talked with me, my family, and friends with the respect expected from those in the service industry. Staff are attentive to customers while giving off a cool, all-knowing vibe in the world of cinema.
Now, what if you take so long looking at the menu, the theater lights start to dim? The Alamo Drafthouse has planned for this. Once you have decided what you would like to eat, you can write it on a piece of paper that is provided, hit the button located on top of your side table, and the staff will do the rest. Throughout the movie, staff will check up on customers regularly to ensure that everyone’s needs are fulfilled, showcasing the attentiveness of the staff that you can’t find in other movie theaters.
For the movie experience to be perfect, the snacks need to be as mouth watering as the movie is jaw-dropping. The Alamo Drafthouse delivers this expectation with its award-winning cuisine. Their five-page menu consists of made-to-order adult drinks, appetizers, popcorn, sweets, shakes, salads, wraps, sandwiches, wings, chicken tenders, pizza, and a kids’ menu.
With every movie I see at the Alamo Drafthouse, I always order their fried pickles with a side of ranch, a Texan classic. The pickled spears continuously come out, respectively hot, never burning my tongue, but indicating their freshness. The pickles are crispy as you bite and juicy as you start to chew, and overall, a necessity for the custom pre-show the Alamo Drafthouse presents in place of ads.
The showstopper of their cuisine is the unexpected movie theater meal, the Royal with Cheese burger, with the complementary fries and ketchup on the side. This burger contains Tillamook cheddar, a beef patty, bacon, caramelized onion, lettuce, tomato, and lemon-garlic sauce, all smashed between two toasted buns. With your first bite, you will be able to taste the smokiness of the bacon that adds to the flavor of the beef patty. By your second bite, you will taste the juiciness the tomato adds to the burger, and by your third bite, you will need a napkin.
Only at the Alamo are you able to view special events and curated collections of movies to pair with holidays, movie genres, and throwbacks. For example, the Great Bites movie collection, showcased at the Alamo currently, has staff-chosen movies of animals fighting back that are copycat films of the shark attack movie, Jaws.
For Mother’s Day this year, the Alamo is hosting a Mother’s Day Feast screening of MAMA MIA! This event provides a luxury movie theater experience with a three-course menu that differs from the usual menu. After the viewing, attendees will have ABBA songs stuck in their heads and a complimentary Alamo Drafthouse mug that is detailed with a floral design.
Events like these show all movie enthusiasts what’s special about the Alamo Drafthouse. When you’re expecting just a movie with popcorn, you are given a fine-dining experience.
However, with all positives come negatives. With fine-dining service, you are expected to pay fine-dining prices. Special items that are not available in other movie theaters, such as the Royal burger, can reach up to almost $20, not including tax. Other standard items, such as their bottomless popcorn, do not differ much from the prices of other movie theaters in Austin, such as Cinemark. Although a little pricey, when the food is steaming with freshness, splurging on snacks at the Alamo Drafthouse comes easily.
Although the service is great, the food is phenomenal, and the seats are comfortable, there is one drawback besides the price of snacks. This theater requires all attendees under 18 to have a legal adult accompany them since it is also a bar. This rule extends to all movies, even ones rated PG. Making sure all viewers are accompanied by an adult prevents child-like behavior and protects the cinematic experience that the Alamo Drafthouse staff work so hard to provide. I understand the reasoning behind this rule, but my dream of relaxing after school to watch a movie in a place as cinematic as the Alamo Drafthouse cannot be complete unless I have an adult with me.
The Alamo Drafthouse has a location on Slaughter Lane, right down the road from Bowie, but because of the age restrictions, kids cannot experience an after-school movie unless an adult is accompanying them. Despite most high schoolers nearing adulthood, and taking up adult-like responsibilities such as driving and working jobs outside of school, the Alamo’s age policy is strict, and those without an adult will be kicked out.
The Alamo Drafthouse has the potential to be the perfect after-school hangout spot for film-lovers or otherwise, but this rule prevents that from happening.
As a high schooler, I can see problems that people my age could create, such as making unnecessary messes by throwing popcorn, as seen in movie showings of the Minecraft movie. I understand the Alamo Drafthouse age policy, though it is at the expense of those who respect the movie theater setting.
I am one of those people who respect the movie theater setting, so I will convince my mom to accompany me any time I want to see a movie, so we can get the five-star experience the Alamo Drafthouse provides.
