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Dinner and a movie have long been separate activities in New York, unless you were doing them at home. That’s starting to change — and today in Williamsburg, the city gets its first movie theater with table service.
I took my wife, Emma, on a date to the three-screen Nitehawk Cinema anonymously a few days before its official opening. We wanted to see how this concept — long available elsewhere in the country but only lately emerging in less ambitious forms here — works in practice. Surprisingly well, it turns out, in terms of both the movie and food. We chose “The Trip,” a comedy about a pair of actors’ gastronomic tour of northern England, a thematic fit with the evening. (Admission is $11, with no requirement to purchase food or drink).
The 60-seat auditorium was more like a private screening room than a multiplex. The screen was larger than at some Manhattan art houses. The projection was bright and sharp, with excellent sound.
The rows were widely spaced to facilitate the servers’ movement, with small-but-not-tiny tables in front of the recliner-style seats.
Audiences are asked to arrive at least 30 minutes before the movie, and the preshow began with an animated explanation of how the Nitehawk works. (It and the menu can be found on the theater’s Web site.) Most orders are placed verbally and delivered preshow.
After the film starts, orders can be placed by writing them down with the paper and pencils provided — there’s a light under the table — and placing them in a coil where the servers can see them. This was accomplished fairly unobtrusively by the well-trained staff.
Food isn’t my field, but we were impressed by the relatively ambitious fare devised by chef Saul Bolton of two well-regarded Brooklyn restaurants, Saul and the Vanderbilt. While you can get popcorn, Bolton’s menu went far beyond the usual butter, salt and nachos, to things like homemade beef jerky.
We shared three small plates ($15 total) of cheese empañadas, fried calamari and spicy mushroom tamales as appetizers. Emma then enjoyed fish tacos ($12), and I had flavor-packed smoked kielbasa (also $12) on a potato roll with beer-braised onions and fries. (Popcorn is also available.)
Other entrees, all priced from $12 to $14, include a burger, veggie burger and sandwiches. There are also specials geared to each of the three features shown at the theater.
We shared a Greek salad ($10), which, while fresh, was the most awkward item to deal with in the dark. Dessert for Emma was a sundae with a brownie, with Key lime pie for me (each $9). Other options are also available.
Servers were faster and far more attentive that at many restaurants, and the bill was presented, and paid, before the movie was over.
Emma, who’s a far tougher judge of food than me, enthusiastically pronounced everything delicious. “I would happily return to any restaurant that serves this quality of food, with this kind of service,” she says. “And I would gladly return to any theater this comfortable.”
One thing was conspicuously missing: booze. You can order soft drinks, iced tea and coffee, but not beer, wine or mixed drinks. There is a full bar in the lobby, but because of antiquated state liquor laws, alcohol cannot be taken into the theater.
Nitehawk’s executive director, Matthew Viragh, said the menu was designed to be eaten in a darkened auditorium — “mostly things you can eat with your hands” — which minimized the potentially distracting clatter of utensils and plates.
The theater will show mostly art-house flicks. “We’re going after the audience that would be attracted to the Angelika or BAM or the Sunshine Landmark,” Viragh says.
I’m curious whether the format will work as well with something like “The Tree of Life” — a film requiring intense concentration that’s scheduled to open soon at the Nitehawk.
But combining food and cinema seems like the wave of the future, at least for people who don’t need to be totally focused on what they’re watching. (Two major chains — Regal and AMC — have been testing the concept nationally, though they haven’t gotten any closer to the Big Apple than Edison, NJ.)
“There’s probably some sort of gee-whiz chemistry behind it,” says Aaron Hillis, programming director at the reRun Gastropub Theatre in DUMBO, which started showing movies while serving food a year ago (and can allow alcohol during viewing, since it’s legally considered a bar and not a movie house).
“Maybe we’re attracted to eating while watching because it stimulates all of our senses at the same time.”
lou@lumenick.com