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\u201cThe best part of it is hanging out with friends, having a quiet meal in a private suite,” Metro Private Cinema founder Tim League said of the boutique cinema experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
PROVIDED BY METRO PRIVATE CINEMA<\/p>\n
Ever dreamed of what life must feel like for a Hollywood mogul with their own screening room? Invite friends over for a chef-prepared dinner before settling into comfortable couches and recliners to view a new release or classic film on an almost-20-foot screen, bottles of wine polished off over post-film discussion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Austinites will be able to approximate that luxurious experience next year, when Tim League opens Metro Private Cinema Austin in the historic Baker School building in Hyde Park.<\/p>\n
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Tim League revolutionized the independent cinema world<\/a> when he and his wife, Karrie, opened the first\u00a0Alamo Drafthouse in Austin in 1997<\/a>. He\u2019s looking to recreate that magic on a more intimate scale with Metro, the first location of which opened in Manhattan last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Metro, which will be housed in the century-old building that was home to Alamo Drafthouse headquarters until early July, will feature 11 salons, with seating for 4, 6, 8, 12 or 20 people. The kitchen team, overseen by executive chef Josh Guarneri \u2014 whose r\u00e9sum\u00e9 includes time under April Bloomfield at the Michelin-starred Breslin in New York City \u2014 will create a tasting menu of about a dozen dishes. Moviegoers will enjoy dinner and drinks at a dining table in their private screening room before retreating to comfortable seating for movies ranging from the latest Hollywood blockbusters to the obscure indies they choose.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0League, who is currently raising money for the project, said he expects Metro to open about six months after the financing is finalized.\u00a0<\/p>\n ‘COVID changed everybody.’<\/p>\n The idea for the boutique experience first originated almost a decade ago, but League was focused on expanding the Drafthouse brand nationally. The COVID-19 pandemic crippled movie theaters across the country, including Alamo Drafthouse,\u00a0which entered bankruptcy in 2021<\/a> and was purchased by Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2024<\/a>, but it also inspired League to revisit his vision of independent moviegoing in the 21st century.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cCOVID changed everybody. I felt my inner recluse taking over,\u201d League told the American-Statesman recently over coffee.<\/p>\n Tim and Karrie League revolutionized the cinema experience in 1997 when they opened the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin and League is looking to do so again with Metro Private Cinema.\u00a0<\/p>\n PROVIDED BY METRO PRIVATE CINEMA<\/p>\n After building out a test screening room at the Baker School, League hosted screenings for friends and family to test the concept and bring people back together in a communal way that had been lost during the first year of the pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the first test events in the space right after\u00a0COVID, people were almost in tears because they were hanging out with friends again,\u201d League said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The experience validated for League the idea that people still wanted to log off and gather together to enjoy film, to enjoy each other. It was an evolution of the dinner-and-a-movie experience that made Alamo Drafthouse a national sensation, one built around personal relationships and pleasures that went beyond the mass-produced culinary offerings of a large theater.<\/p>\n Food is central to the experience<\/p>\n An educated lover of food and a seasoned traveler, Metro allows League to celebrate cuisine in a way not possible at an Alamo Drafthouse. Instead of serving pizza, beer and burgers to more than 1,000 people a night, the small size of Metro \u2014 fewer than 100 total seats spread across the 11 rooms in Austin \u2014 means the kitchen can focus on creating meals that require greater intention and craft.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with beer and pizza, I had it yesterday,\u201d League said with a laugh. \u201cThe kitchen we\u2019re building here, they do higher-end, really beautiful food all the time. It is definitely an elevated approach that we are taking.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Metro Private Cinema Austin will serve multicourse fixed menu meals and a selection of \u00e0 la carte offerings.\u00a0<\/p>\n PROVIDED BY METRO PRIVATE CINEMA<\/p>\n The Press Room at the Baker School, which the Leagues purchased from the Austin school district in 2017, will serve as a cocktail lounge and waiting area for moviegoers, who will get a chance to letterpress print items from League\u2019s collection of historic movie ads before screenings.\u00a0<\/p>\n A fresh approach to programming<\/p>\n Metro keeps a hard drive with about 40 titles at any given time, which viewers can choose from when making their reservation. With two weeks’ notice, guests can select from thousands of historic titles from Hollywood plus independent and foreign cinema. The most popular specialty title at the Manhattan location has been \u201cGoodfellas,\u201d while the first movie ever booked by a couple nostalgic for their first date was Andrew Bujalski\u2019s \u201cComputer Chess.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the first theater in the world that\u2019s ever booked movies like this,\u201d League said.<\/p>\n Guests can watch first-run features, classics and movies of their advanced choosing at Metro Private Cinema.\u00a0<\/p>\n PROVIDED BY METRO PRIVATE CINEMA<\/p>\n Guests have a 3.5-hour window in the private screening rooms. They are able to start the movie at their leisure following dinner and drinks, order more drinks during the film via a call button and use the end of their allotted time to hang out in the room to discuss the film over drinks.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe best part of it is hanging out with friends,\u201d said League, adding that unlike traditional theaters, which serve a more spontaneous purpose, Metro is enjoyed by people looking to plan and gather. \u201cMaking the experience of going out and communing with your friends so magical \u2014 one of your favorite memories of the year. That\u2019s what we\u2019re gunning for.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Tickets, which include popcorn, will cost about $35. Dinner will feature a seasonal menu of about a dozen dishes that will likely cost around $90, though all prices are still to be determined. Metro also offers one fixed menu tied to a new release. The Food of the Gods menu currently served in honor of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d at the Manhattan location features a mezze spread, roasted lamb, branzino and more for $115 per person. The Austin location will also serve a la carte dishes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Metro will also offer a limited membership program with an annual fee that allows a small group access to early screenings, special\u00a0tastings, filmmaker conversations and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n League believes that Austin will serve as a solid test market for the concept that he thinks has potential to grow across the country due to its unique appeal and the cinema\u2019s ability to exist in myriad types of existing real estate properties such as the Manhattan theater, which was built in a defunct pharmacy.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThe experience at Metro is so different from traditional cinema,\u201d League said. \u201cThe industry shrank during\u00a0COVID but cinema is still the place where creators want you to see their work, and I\u2019ve always looked at my position in this business as being in service of those creators, and I think the experience when done well is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe best part of it is hanging out with friends, having a quiet meal in a private suite,”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-378634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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