Remember the Alamo

Day three of the government shutdown, and things were looking bleak. Hoping for some respite from being unemployed, I ventured back into society this afternoon and joined my mother in one of our favorite pastimes- going to the movies.  Today we visited the Thirteenth Wonder of the World: the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.

Founded in 1977 by Tim and Karrie League in Austin, Texas, the Alamo Cinema Drafthouse chain of theaters is famous not only for its hard-line stance on theatre etiquette, but also their amazing food and beer selections-- that can be ordered and served to your seats in the theatre!  Fortunately for me, I've had the pleasure of visiting three of the Alamo locations: the Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz in Austin, Texas, the Alamo Drafthouse Winchester in (surprise!) Winchester, Virginia, and the brand-new Alamo Drafthouse One Loudoun in Ashburn, Virginia.


The new One Loudoun location is a beer aficionado's dream come true. Incorporated into the theatre is the Glass Half Full bar, which sports 32 draft beers on tap. Before our flick this afternoon, my mother bellied up to the bar ordered us each a Pumple Drumpkin Spiced Ale by Cisco Brewers in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Not to step on Brian's Octoberquest toes, but I did not care for this beer. It tasted rather chemically and nothing like pumpkin. In general, I don't really favor pumpkin beers.

The friendly bartender, hearing this and maybe hoping to pad his tab, suggested a bottle of Frog's Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale for the low, low price of $25. Now, maybe it was being off for three days in a row, or just because she's awesome, but when the lights went down in the theatre Mother ordered that $25 bottle of ale. And it was DELICIOUS. It tasted just like someone had liquified the best pumpkin pie you've ever had and put it in a bottle. Pumpkin-y, with just the right amount of spice-- this is a darn good beer.

Appropriately, the flick we saw this afternoon was The World's End, the finale to the famed "Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy" by Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The basic premise (spoilers ahead?) of The World's End is that a group of high school friends get together to re-do the epic pub crawl they didn't finish 20 years earlier. Called the "Golden Mile" in their hometown of Newton Haven, Great Britain, it consists of 12 pubs and ends at the pub aptly called "The World's End." I won't get into the nitty-gritty of it all, but the lads eventually find out that their town has been taken over by aliens looking to make Earth "perfect" so it can peacefully enter a intergalactic federation of planets or some such. In the end, the boys save the world, usher out the aliens, but end up plunging the world back into the technological (and literal) Dark Ages. Pretty deep for a film about a night out boozing, but I really enjoyed it. Edgar Wright has described the film as "social science fiction," and I think that is an excellent description. The performances were excellent, as can be expected from this group, and my mother and her boyfriend both professed to liking it, despite thinking it was going to be a buddy pic à la The Hangover and not a sci-fi film.

So there you have it- a location, beer, and film review all in one. If you're on furlough too, or just need a nice excursion out, do yourself a favor and find an Alamo and get there post haste. I promise you won't regret it.