Beer Soup
I Can, and I Do
Posted February 20, 2010 11 Comments | Post a Comment
Along with their greater safety for beach trips and golf courses, and lighter weight on backpacking trips, there’s another reason to value craft beers in cans. It’s one the breweries can’t extol—so I will.
A cold night, a dark cinema, and film in which there is lots of jolly eating and drinking. I have come to see “It’s Complicated” with a band of friends. The movie is laugh-out-loud funny. I reach into a largish purse, and pull out a plastic pint glass in which nestles a can of Oskar Blue’s Ten Fidy.
Position the beer, wait for a big laugh line, then psssst. I pour the inky stout into my glass—hey, I’ll bring it in a can, but I won’t drink it from a can. All around me, patrons are munching from barrels of bad-smelling popcorn and glugging down 64-ounce sodas. And there, in row M, I have a generous serving of a wonderfully satisfying imperial stout—from a can.
I’ve tried this trick before, with bad results. I brought a nice bottled IPA to “Lost in Translation,” then had to dig around in the dark for my bottle opener before I could open and pour it. I settle in to enjoy the beer and the film, only to knock the empty bottle over with my foot during a touching scene, and have to concentrate Very Hard on the screen as the bottle rolls gudda-gudda-gudda under every row of seats to the front of the theatre. Thus, my enthusiasm for the can.
I don’t sneak beer into theaters to protest the outrageous concession prices—though they are outrageous. It’s the selection that’s a problem—that, and the insult of having to pay $9.50 to see a grown-up film without the pleasure of grown-up beverages. At the local performing arts center, one can sip fairly decent wine or beer during “Mama Mia.” I’ve nursed a drinkable cabernet through the second half of “Swan Lake.” And the local independent movie venue offers a small but tasty range of craft beers, another reason they win my support.
The day the multiplex sells Bell’s Two Hearted next to the vats of Pepsi, I’ll patronize the concession stand. Until then, I’ll smuggle my contraband into the seven o’clock showing. See you at the movies.
Yes! I love cans and will help bail Julie out of Theater Jail if she gets busted!
Austin, TX- Home of the Alamo Drafthouse, with upwards of 60 beers at any given time, 30 or so on draught. We feel ya, but count ourselves lucky. Nothing like throwing back a Ska Decadent while watching a movie.
Out here on the left coast we actually have movie houses that let you in for $4 and have nice sofas and beer on tap. No smuggling, good pop corn and pizza. So they are second run movies but why pay extra for the first time around and have to bring your own beer.
You wasted a beer like Ten Fidy on a “chick flick”?!?! I’m glad to know you have a sneaky side though
Fingers crossed you get an indie movie theater out there that “gets it.” Adults should be able to drink adult beverages. I do not scoff at BYO beer into a threater, especially to save money. I also think that at $9.50, you have it good. But there’s a theater in SF that actually sells great craft beer at normal (by Cali standards) bar prices:
http://www.examiner.com/x-11696-SF-Craft-Beer-Examiner~y2010m1d18-Stone-Avatar-Bastard
Thanks for the offer to make bail for me, Jonathan. I’ll call you.
And to the rest, who have opened my eyes to the possibility of good beer at a movie without stealth, I just hope someone in the local area picks up on this business possibility. I know of a few breweries that consider showing films, but there’s a real opening here for a cinema with a decent bar!
Yes! I love cans and will help bail Julie out of Theater Jail if she gets busted!
Austin, TX- Home of the Alamo Drafthouse, with upwards of 60 beers at any given time, 30 or so on draught. We feel ya, but count ourselves lucky. Nothing like throwing back a Ska Decadent while watching a movie.
Out here on the left coast we actually have movie houses that let you in for $4 and have nice sofas and beer on tap. No smuggling, good pop corn and pizza. So they are second run movies but why pay extra for the first time around and have to bring your own beer.
You wasted a beer like Ten Fidy on a “chick flick”?!?! I’m glad to know you have a sneaky side though
Heineken, best beer EVER