Lovers of Austin! The Alamo’s new series, Date Night, offers an intimate and romantic dinner-and-a-movie scenario with gourmet cuisine. Our first event, for the mouthwatering CHOCOLAT feast last month, was a huge success, and we’re pushing forward. Our second Date Night brings us ANNIE HALL, the classic romantic pairing of a jew and a goy as they hurdle through a 1970s Manhattan in their memories. The film perfectly captures every landmark in a relationship’s trajectory, from first date and first kiss to meeting the parents, taking trips together, and even the fighting.

And while Woody Allen might not be the traditional matinee idol-type romantic lead, Dianne Keaton as the titular Annie Hall more than makes up for his nebbishness. Her beauty is matched only by her distinctive style, her tie/vest ensemble single-handedly defining a trend in fashion that still persists today.

With this tender film, Alamo Executive Chef John Bullington and Village Head Chef Brandon Hanna will be preparing a succulent menu to get you going. Drawing inspiration from the film, they’ve created this marvelous feast:

“I need it to get in the mood”
A Blue Point Oyster with fresh garlic on the half shell with micro-arugula in champagne vinaigrette

Dynamite Ham
Jamon Serrano, Prosciutto d’Parma, Jambon de Bayonne, grilled fig, smoked carrot-mustard glaze

Catch It If You Can
Steamed Lobster on boggy creek arugula, caramelized tomato, truffled squashes in garlic-brown butter vinaigrette

We Hope Jew Like It
Chocolate Blintz, Honeyed Cheese, Port Strawberries, cayenne pinenut

So, whether you’re falling in love, already madly enraptured, or maybe just starting out, this Date Night: ANNIE HALL dinner is the perfect thing for your beating heart.

Date Night: ANNIE HALL – Alamo Village, Thursday August 26, 7pm.

Mon Chéri! Cara mia! Ohh la la! Le Alamo is bringing forth a whole new series designed specifically for lovers. Finally a safe place for sweet romance, tender embraces…all that stuff. Have a glass of wine, cuddle up, and celebrate your amour with some of the silver screen’s greatest passions. We’ll be dishing up a mini-feast with each film in this series, so that you lovers can come for a special date and enjoy a fabulous meal from some of the top Alamo chefs. For couples, for lovebirds, for hopeless romantics and for the casual friends that need a little pressure to get to the next level, this is your series.

Did you know that at ancient Greek and Roman marriages the brides carried bouquets of garlic instead of flowers? Did you know that April 19 is National Garlic Day? How about that it was once used to treat acne, warts, and toothaches?

Chances are, you didn’t know any of those things. You should free up your calendar, grab some stainless steel object (that’s the only material that takes the smell of garlic off the hands), and plan to have THE ULTIMATE GARLIC EXPERIENCE at the Ritz tomorrow night.

You probably won’t learn any other fun facts about garlic, but you won’t care. Why would you? You’ll be watching two of the most seasoned docs in cinematic herb history: Les Blank’s GARLIC IS A GOOD AS TEN MOTHERS, the poetic picture of the history, consumption, cultivation and culinary/curative powers of the “Stinking Rose,” and WERNER HERZOG EATS HIS SHOE, a film by Blank of famed German director Werner Herzog eating his shoe (after boiling it in garlic first, of course).

The best part, though, is the garlic feast. Check out this menu!:

I – Watermelon Insalata Caprese
with heirloom and roma tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, whole roasted garlic and garlic infused balsamic vinaigrette

II – Lobster Fritters
with red pepper garlic aioli and pickled garlic

III – Braised Pork Roll
stuffed with garlic, prosciutto and parmesan with penne pasta and garlic meat sauce

IV – Chocolate Tartlet
with roasted banana and garlic-orange caramel and candied truffled whole garlic

Drink pairings are as follows…

First Course:
Bacardi Rum, Maine Root Lemon-Lime soda, sour mix with cucumber garnish

Second Course:
2008 Selbach Riesling

Third Course:
2008 Cycles Gladiator Pinot Noir

Fourth Course:
Croft Tawny Port (dessert wine)

You know you love garlic. It can spice up even the most bland of dishes. For instance: Do you want to eat bread? No, of course you don’t want to eat bread. How about garlic bread? Exactly.

So put your money where you mouth is and come out to THE ULTIMATE GARLIC EXPERIENCE, Wednesday at 7pm at the Ritz. What else are you going to do, eat an onion?

Next Thursday, the Drafthouse and Ballet Austin have a monumental treat in store for your eyes, ears, and taste buds. On this night, we’ll present the stunning restoration of THE RED SHOES with an exquisite red-themed menu and wine pairings. It’s a classy, sensual affair with all proceeds benefiting Ballet Austin.

Michael Powell and Emerich Pressburger’s 1948 film about a young dancer and the all-consuming nature of life in the ballet is nothing short of cinema magic, inspiring many a young girl to put on ballet slippers and many a director to create a film as captivating. Martin Scorsese is fan. Such a fan, in fact, that he spearheaded the restoration project via his newly formed World Cinema Foundation.

To hear Robert Ebert tell it,  “You don’t watch [THE RED SHOES], you bathe in it.” If this is true, than we will be absolutely soaking in its magical beauty with this screening of the frame by frame, 4K digital restoration of the film paired with this menu created by Alamo Executive chef Trish Eichelberger:

- Kir royale champagne cocktail, Windsor red English cheddar, Texas plum gelee
- Roasted red pepper soup, rye crouton
- Baby red oak, strawberries, shaved sweet red onion, toasted pine nuts, blood orange vinaigrette
- Redfish en papillote, fresno pepper butter, honey roasted maroon carrots on roasted red rice cake
- Dark chocolate cake, cherry crème fraiche, bittersweet chocolate shavings

Attendees of this event will also have the first opportunity to purchase tickets to our Sept 11 screening of METROPOLIS with live score at the Seaholm Power Plant before they go on sale Friday, Aug 6. In addition, we’ll be raffling off two VIP passes to the show, as well as passes to Ballet Austin Fete10 “Party of the Decade” (9/10, value: $250 total)

In preparation for this night, we encourage you to check out the “Making Movies” exhibition at  U.T. Austin’s Ransom Center featuring RED SHOES set designer Hein Heckroth’s storyboards for the film. Go now, the exhibit closes Sunday!

Romance is a time-consuming proposition. We all want to treat our loved one to a lovely dinner and a perfect night out but sometimes it’s hard to find the time. That’s why we’re offering a new, ongoing series of feasts just for you.

This is like the Alamo-plus, a take on the dinner-and-a-movie formula but with more elegance.  Date Night is especially set up for those interested in fine food and great films, and sharing them with the people they love.  It’s like this: one of our fabulous chefs is going to prepare a delicious meal inspired by a romantic film, pairing each

course with the perfect wine in order to create an atmosphere of drunken passion.  This is a smaller and more intimate version of our signature feasts, and purposefully so.  The aim here is to make this an informal, cozy affair you can share with your special one on a regular basis.

For our first event, we’re showing the wildly romantic CHOCOLAT.  Vianne (Juliette Binoche) moves to a small French village with her daughter to open a chocolate shop, but the repressed townsfolk take offense to her sticky-fingered disregard for small town mores. But soon her cocoa concoctions turn a lot of frowns upside down. Add Johnny Dep

p as a sexy river Gypsy to this sumptuous confection and you can’t lose.

Pairing with this delicious film is a menu by our Executive Chef John Bullington, a list of courses so delectable you’ll be crying chocolate kisses by the time you finish reading:

- Provencal Tomato Soup with Prawns with shaved dark chocolate

- Richardson Farms Chicken Breast draped in bittersweet chocolate with flageolets and haricots verts

- Chocolate surprises throughout!!

Mmmmm.  Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp, and chocolate.  I don’t think there could ever be a better night.  Grab your darling and race to the theatre for this special night of love.

Advance ticket available here.

Mon Chéri! Cara mia! Ohh la la! Le Alamo is bringing forth a whole new series designed specifically for lovers. Finally a safe place for sweet romance, tender embraces…all that stuff. Have a glass of wine, cuddle up, and celebrate your amour with some of the silver screen’s greatest passions. We’ll be dishing up a mini-feast with each film in this series, so that you lovers can come for a special date and enjoy a fabulous meal from some of the top Alamo chefs. For couples, for lovebirds, for hopeless romantics and for the casual friends that need a little pressure to get to the next level, this is your series.

Raise your glass to our brothers from the Great White North as we prepare to celebrate Canada Day (July 1, duh) with a special beer-laden screening of STRANGE BREW at the Alamo South Lamar. If our anecdotal evidence of Canada is in the least bit accurate, then the typical Fête du Canada is spent stocking up on two-fours, getting blindingly drunk, cracking some hoser’s head over the eternal debate of Gretzky vs. Lemieux, and then capping the night off with late-night donuts and double doubles at Tim Horton’s. Admittedly, this may be a somewhat singular view, but what can you do when the better part of your Canadian exposure has come from watching SCTV reruns and old Bryan Adams videos? Hey, at least we didn’t resort to cracks about maple syrup and the majestic beaver.

All joking aside, many great things have come out of Canada over the years: the lightbulb, Donald Sutherland, RUSH, back bacon, flannel shirts (or BC dinner jackets if you will), poutine (google that shit), and the endlessly entertaining big-bag-of-crazy that is Céline Dion. The list goes on and on. But in our minds, the aforementioned SCTV, and particularly the characters Bob and Doug McKenzie, are about as fiercely Canadian as you can get. These two characters epitomize the beer-swilling, toque sporting, dimwits that we all strive to become one day.

It’s time to raise your maple-leaf flag and get ready to drink and eat your way through a cross-section of Canada’s finest as we present STRANGE BREW on Canada Day. There’s a reason this film has stood the test of time, and it only gets better the more times you watch it and the more beers you drink while doing so.

A movie-only ticket is available for any hosers who may wish to attend.

Last Sunday, a theater full of deeply devoted nostalgists/adventurers hunkered down for one of the greatest film trilogies of our lifetimes: the BACK TO THE FUTURE saga, presented by Fantastic Fest.

We had gorgeous new 35mm prints…we had a delicious 6-course feast…we had three (!!) Deloreans parked out in front of the Ritz…

It was beautiful.

But, in the tradition of the great scientific pioneers of yesteryear, we were compelled to reach out further into unexplored territory. We needed something spectacular to make the event absolutely unforgettable.

Then, at 11:31 AM, a fourth Delorean pulled up by the curb. The passenger door opened — vertically, of course — and out stepped Doc Brown himself, Christopher Lloyd. Here’s the News 8 Live footage of that incredible moment!

Mr. Lloyd introduced the event and followed Part 1 with a Q&A, where he casually expanded on the BTTF universe and made everyone wish he was a member of their family. People were genuinely overwhelmed, giving him a standing ovation.

But, oddly enough, he wasn’t in the room during the following segment from BACK TO THE FUTURE III, where his on-screen son “Vern” does something very unusual when he thinks no one is watching:

Anyway, it was a perfect journey through time for everyone in attendance. View our Flickr photo set HERE (all pics by Mary Sledd), and watch for the upcoming Alamo Don’t Talk message from Christopher Lloyd, soon to grace our screens. In the meantime, keep an eye on FantasticFest.com for additional outrageousness!

This Sunday Hallmark tells us to love our mother’s, as if we don’t do just that everyday.  Ther is only one way to do it right though and its by taking the chick that gave you life to a flick.  But its so much more than a movie, it is a feast!

Show her how much she means to you by stopping by South Lamar to see the timeless classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s with a mouth watering five course meal each paired with a different sparkling wine.  The price alone is worth the bubbles you will be washing down your amazing brunch with.

first

blackberry danish with espresso mousse

Trevisol Prosecco, Italy

second

house smoked rainbow trout with spring onion slivers, capers  and creme fraiche on whole wheat bagel toasts

Poema Cava, Spain

third

chilled sorrel soup with fresh crab and chanterelle mushroom

J Cuvee 20 Brut, Russian River Valley ,California

fourth

poached eggs, jamon serrano on toasted brioche in bearnaise with truffled sweet potato hash

Schramsberg Brut Rose 2006, Napa Valley. California

fifth

bourbon flamed baby red banana in a mocha crepe with tangerine glaze

Mumm Napa “Cuvee M”, Napa Valley, California

Or, hit the Village for The soon to be timeless classic Mamma Mia.  Executive Chef Brandon Hanna’s dueling flavors of Greece, Great Britain and Sweden on the same plate will make you feel a welcome guest at this song filled wedding.
First:
Roast Goat
Roesti Potato Hash topped with a duck egg and brie sauce
Pairing – Fresh Juice Champagne cocktail

Second:
Stuffed Trio
Dolma, balsamic syrup
Cremini, sausage, stilton
Boiled red potato, smoked salmon florette, roe, Crème Fraiche
Pairing – Boutari Moshofilero, Greece

Third:
Meatball Trio
Swedish on potato pancake
Greek on mini pita with yogurt
English on whole grain toast with brown gravy
Pairing – Turnbull “Old Red Bull” Napa Valley

Fourth:
Seafood Salad Trio
octopus, trout, shrimp salads with pomegranite-grapefruit relish and served with Knokker Brod
Pairing – Bouvet Brut, France

Fifth:
Traditional Greek wedding honey cheesecake
Pairing – Port Royal with Taylor Fladgate Port, Portugal

We guarantee your mom will leave full, a little light-headed and knowing how much you care that she made the world a little brighter by bringing you into it.

Get tickets for Mamma Mia here

http://www.originalalamo.com/Show.aspx?id=6396

Or Breakfast at Tiffany’s  here

http://www.originalalamo.com/Show.aspx?id=5345

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN – Saturday 3/6 and Sunday 3/7 at the Ritz
Advance tickets available here

There are two types of people in the world:
1. Those who love the classic musical extravaganza SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN
2. and those who haven’t got around to seeing it yet.

Hollywood’s last great masterpiece of entertainment, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN is a heartwarming love story, a fabulous comedy, and a loving tribute to Hollywood history that is at once educational and hilarious.

And the songs. You cannot forget about the songs. Even the unlucky few who haven’t been graced with the film know the iconic “Good Morning,” “Broadway Melody,” and “Make ‘Em Laugh.” Even more so, the title song “Singin’ in the Rain” is engraved so deeply in our culture’s musical heritage that I bet you’re singin’ it in your head as you read these words. I know I am.

The dancing sensation Gene Kelly co-directs (with musical legend Stanley Donen) and stars alongside the energetic comic genius Donald O’Connor and the beautiful and talented Debbie Reynolds in this beloved and epic, glorious motion picture.

This Saturday and Sunday March 6 and 7, we’ll be having special brunch screenings of this movie in 35mm, the way the film was meant to be seen, on our biggest screen at the downtown Ritz theatre. In addition to the normal brunch menu, chef John Bullington has prepared some special delights available only at these shows!

Lockwood and Lamont 13.99
Seared T Bone topped with two fried eggs on a quarter Belgian waffle with fresh strawberries

Good Mornin’ 9.99
Strata of sourdough, fresh spinach, sundried tomatoes, wild mushrooms, manchego and asiago soaked in herbed egg cream and baked and a side of strawberries

So, if this film is one of your best loved Hollywood memories and you want to relive it in all of its splendor, or if you have always been meaning to see it but just never found the right chance, come out this weekend for a wonderful early-afternoon at the movies.

Get your tickets for this great show now