Beer Invades the Metroplex
Note: Because it's apparently not clear in the post, Portland has had beer in theaters since at least the late 1980s. The McMenamins may well have had the first theater-pub in the US when it opened The Mission in 1987. Now probably 80% of the indies and local chains serve draft beer. It is Regal, the Tennessee-owned chain, that has finally--at least in one location--decided to get on board.
I abandoned movie theater chains a decade ago. They had become too abusive: a high-volume onslaught of TV-style ads in the theater before the movie, sky-rocketing ticket prices, and concessions that were as bad as they were over-priced. Meanwhile, the proliferating indies offered ad-free viewing, low prices and--now almost uniformly throughout the city 4-8 handles of great beer and cider. I could go to the St Johns Cinema on opening day, grab a slice of pizza and a beer for barely more than it cost to go to a Regal metroplex. I was not alone. I watched as the traffic abandoned the Regal experience (a deliciously ironic name) and came over to the indies.
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I abandoned movie theater chains a decade ago. They had become too abusive: a high-volume onslaught of TV-style ads in the theater before the movie, sky-rocketing ticket prices, and concessions that were as bad as they were over-priced. Meanwhile, the proliferating indies offered ad-free viewing, low prices and--now almost uniformly throughout the city 4-8 handles of great beer and cider. I could go to the St Johns Cinema on opening day, grab a slice of pizza and a beer for barely more than it cost to go to a Regal metroplex. I was not alone. I watched as the traffic abandoned the Regal experience (a deliciously ironic name) and came over to the indies.
Yesterday Sally
and I decided to catch a Christmas Day matinee of the latest spectacular
spectacular, but the indies were not available. (Good for them, giving
the employees the day off.) So off we went to the Lloyd Center Regal
and: ho!, what is this?
They haven't yet gotten to installing draft lines, but you can actually get a decent bottle of beer now.
(1)
This illustrates an interesting fact about the rise of drinking culture
in the US. We no longer drink as much beer as we used to, but we like
good beer when we go out to get a bite or catch a movie. This was never
going to happen before craft beer came along. (2) Is this a thing
everywhere, or just beery Portland, Oregon? My dataset is way out of
date.