I couldn’t make the presser at Alamo Drafthouse on Friday morning so I asked local photog Max Guliani to take my invite and get us a good look at the place. The long-anticipated movie theater definitely takes a new twist.

The theaters are only a few rows deep — between 29 and 56 seats in all. And they serve food at the seats. (See the close up of the ordering system below, though you can also order when you buy your ticket online; the is menu here.) The servers are trained to quietly attend to the orders throughout the movie from inside the theater. They also encourage you to come a half hour early for the “preshow entertainment” — a curated collection of rare and humorous clips themed to each movie. See the lineup here. Tickets are $18.50.

The Press Room bar will eventually have 48 taps running and a bar manager who creates craft cocktails and includes a 1938 Vandercook letterpress that prints custom posters for the events — that’s a real pressman, not a wax figure! On weekends, he will be printing souvenir postcards from antique plates.

I will give them a few weeks and then sample the menu. They were not offering food at the press preview, but Max said the place was amazing, and offers “a more intimate experience than the Regal theaters in Battery Park City.”

The theater chain, which was founded in Austin, is also famous for its no-tolerance texting and talking policy, and will throw a customer out if they do either. They have well-known PSAs featuring Ann Richards, Jeff Goldblum and others, but this this one is the best:

Alamo Drafthouse
28 Liberty on the Lower Level
between Nassau and William
Suite SC301
332-216-3200