Photo Essay: Alamo Slaughter, A Theater In Progress

I recently participated in a hard-hat tour of the newest Alamo Drafthouse in the Austin area, which is called "Alamo Slaughter" since it's on Slaughter Lane (just off Mopac). As I mentioned yesterday, Alamo Slaughter will start showing movies for the first time as a SXSW satellite venue -- it'll also have a "soft opening" starting March 8, with some second-run selections. The theater will officially open to the public with first-run movies on March 22. Alamo Slaughter will have eight screens -- the largest ones seat about the same as the big theaters in Alamo on South Lamar, and the smallest one is more like a half-theater, with 32 seats, a nice choice for private rentals.

But on to the photos! The tour was conducted by the four gentlemen in the following photo: Alamo Drafthouse CEO and co-founder Tim League, architect Richard Weiss, Executive Chef John Bullington, and Beverage Director Bill Norris. We all wore hard hats and construction was still actively going on around us in some parts of the building.

The lobby was still unfinished, but the amazing sign over the lobby bar was complete. The Drafthouse has a blog entry all about how this sign was created. Apparently every new Drafthouse will have some kind of "attack" theme in its lobby decor. Since Alamo Slaughter is near the Wildflower Center, plants do seem appropriate.

John Bullington led us through the kitchen, where we learned a lot of details that probably would make more sense to me if I were a food blogger. It was very impressive even to someone who is more at home in an actual theater. With eight screens full of hungry audience members, Alamo Slaughter is going to be the largest and busiest restaurant in Austin.

Want to see an actual theater? Here we go. Obviously the wrappings will be off the seats before the theater opens -- Tim League is not your overprotective grandma.

Instead of the long tables we're used to at Alamo Drafthouses, the theaters will have small tables for two people sitting next to one another to share. But I won't be able to impress people anymore by ducking under the table to get to my seat without touching the floor!

The big screens in these theaters are, frankly, really big. In addition, there's a large space between the front row and the screen, so no more crazy neck craning if you get stuck in the front of the theater.

One thing I could not photograph well in the dark hallways was a great new feature in this Drafthouse: rows of glass-fronted cabinets in the halls between theaters. These cabinets will display many of the prints in the American Genre Film Archive, a nonprofit associated with Alamo Drafthouse that preserves genre film prints. The Drafthouse needs more storage space for these prints, so these will be functional and (if you like genre movies) attractive.

I did, however, get a dark but not-bad photo of Tim League showing us the projection room. Alamo Slaughter will be an all-digital theater; Alamo Drafthouse will use other Austin locations for screening 35mm film prints.

We also got a look at 400 Rabbits, a small tequila-themed bar located off the lobby. It seats maybe a few dozen people, tops -- this is not like The Highball. You can have a drink while waiting for your movie to be seated, or just go hang out there whenever. A few snacks will be available -- I may or may not have squealed a bit when Sonoran hot dogs were mentioned -- but not a full menu.

I mentioned sitting in the bar to wait while your movie is being seated ... as opposed to standing in line. Yes, it looks like Alamo Drafthouse is finally going to adopt the "boarding pass" ticketing system that it already uses during Fantastic Fest, although Tim League did not specify a date when they would start implementing it. When they originally announced a trial of this system a couple of years ago, a lot of blog commenters went ballistic and Alamo decided to wait. I think the negativity is because these people haven't experienced it yet. I vastly prefer sitting outside on a patio with friends waiting for my ticket number to be announced, as opposed to standing in line in a crowded lobby for ages. And the patio outside of 400 Rabbits looks pretty nice, or it will be when they replace the ladder with some tables and chairs.

I don't know the Slaughter/Mopac area very well -- I live near Alamo Village myself, so it's a long drive for me to get to this new theater. I had planned, after the tour, to wait out rush-hour traffic at a nice coffeehouse or restaurant near the theater, but my few choices were big-chain and cookie-cutter strip-mall selections. Those of you who live in the area, where would you go before a movie for drinks, or afterwards for coffee or ice cream? (I love Wholy Bagel, but that's more of a morning thing.) Tell me in the comments what I'm missing, so I can add this info to our Slackerwood listing for this new venue.