RALEIGH
An 11-screen movie theater that will serve gourmet cuisine, cocktails and a full range of craft beer along with eclectic programming is hiring an executive team for its new location east of downtown Raleigh.
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is interviewing applicants to oversee programming, events and promotion. It is also interviewing for venue manager, beverage manager and executive chef, according to its website.
It will soon post jobs for a projectionist and other management positions. In November and December, the company expects to hire about 160 people, most of them from surrounding neighborhoods.
Alamo has begun posting its arrival on Facebook, giving a social media audience an idea of what kind of programming and community events the theater chain is planning, said Steve Popson, its newly hired creative manager. Popson, who was in the ’90s indie rock band Polvo, is one of the former owners of Kings in downtown Raleigh. One example of what to expect? It teased the menu that will be served at Alamo’s Sept. 22 opening of “The Kingsmen: Golden Circle.” Lots of bourbon and British pub food.
The Raleigh Alamo team has also begun to seek customers by mingling in last weekend’s Hopscotch music festival, and it will hold a pop-up event at Trophy Tap and Table during SPARKcon, the downtown Raleigh celebration of creativity and the arts that kicks off Sept. 14.
Alamo Drafthouse is being built in the Longview Shopping Center on New Bern Avenue, an area that has struggled to maintain retail for many years. It will show new releases, independent, foreign and classic films on 35mm projectors.
The full package aims at cinephiles in general, but the Texas-based theater chain also caters to a hipster audience. It has 27 locations across the country.
The New York Post noted Saturday that the Alamo that opened in Brooklyn last October is an example of movie theaters looking for new ways to draw audiences at a time of sluggish ticket sales.
The Post said its “hipster cred” included street art on interior walls and the screening of blockbusters as well as cult classics. Not to mention the truffle Parmesan buttered popcorn.
In May, the company said it anticipated opening in Raleigh by the end of this year, but Popson couldn’t confirm that target.
Craig Jarvis: 919-829-4576, @CraigJ_NandO
This story was originally published September 11, 2017 6:06 PM.