The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a movie theater and eatery chain started in Texas, recently opened its doors for a private hard hat tour Monday evening amid the unfinished rooftop, loose wires and gutted walls of its newest location, 2548 Central Park Ave. in Yonkers.
This space, a former movie theater with 1,781 seats, is being transformed into six customized theaters with a total of 666 seats and a dine-in service that caters to customers while they watch movies ranging from first-runs and indie films to documentaries and foreign films. The Alamo promises to bring to the community an atypical movie-going experience and with it new jobs and business partnerships.
Alamo Drafthouse CEO Tim League hired general manager Doug Bowmen of Queens last summer to run the theater. League said, the Alamo will be central to Yonkers and become a “neighborhood theater that”™s part of the community – not just a stand-alone business.” Although he declined to disclose the exact cost of the renovations, League said that the project is under $10 million. He plans to hire between 120 and 130 people.
Construction is ongoing with the bare bones of the seats, walls, projectors and light fixtures already in place. The majority of the work that”™s left includes unpacking boxes of supplies and installing equipment in the brand new kitchen and bar space, League said.
The movie theater”™s new additions are the kitchen and bar space, which Bowmen said is equivalent to opening up a restaurant inside a cinema.
“The biggest challenge is running the gas lines into a movie theater and putting in exhaust hoods,” Bowmen said. “The equipment for the kitchen, electricity, plumbing and utility bills will add extra to the cost of a standard movie theater.”
Neighboring meat shops will provide the theater with fresh ingredients to serve burgers and other foods, including “bat wings” and eight-course “Hobbit meals” that the chefs will cook on scheduled movie marathons for the “Batman” and “Lord of the Rings” series. Each theater will contain rows of tables that run the width of the room and food servers will come around to take orders and also monitor the noise levels.
For certain movies, the theater will bring in popular drinks from the time period the films are set in and the Alamo plans to provide 32 beers on tap. Captain Lawrence in Elmsford and Yonkers Brewing are local breweries partnering with the dine-in theater business.
Captain Lawrence founder Scott Vacarro said Alamo will help drive sales of his popular beverages, including the Pale Ale and Liquid Gold as well as seasonal brews, such as the Sun Block and Pumpkin Ale.
As renovations progress, the theater has already begun hiring and training employees for the theater”™s projected grand opening. The Alamo needs to hire about 40 to 50 more workers.
Awilda Cruz, 63, picked up a job application form. She was looking for work as a bartender. “I think opening up the theater would be great for people because jobs are so difficult to find these days,” Cruz said.
Ticket prices for the theater will be $9 for matinee, children and seniors and $12 for general admission. The Alamo plans to invite schools, advocacy groups, independent film directors and artists to showcase films at their micro theaters once the renovations are complete.
“We want to be a cultural oasis and hub for the people in Westchester,” said Alexis Meisels, private and community events coordinator at the Alamo.
