Maybe, but Ward and June never bathed their infants in the prep sink. Paul Thomas Anderson He opened up his first movie theater in Bakersfield and Karrie joined him a month into operation, leaving a biomedical research position. Karrie: We were considering Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Austin—places like that. Leave them blank to get signed up. Tim: Over the years we’ve assembled this core group that makes up the programming office. The problem was that it was the wrong side of town—and really the wrong town. (The sous-vide method cooks food sealed in airtight bags in a water bath at a low temperature for long periods of time, preserving juiciness and flavor.) When that theater closed in 1995, they headed to Austin with 200 theater seats, a projector, screen, speakers and a passion to do it right the second time. (The sous-vide method cooks food sealed in airtight bags in a water bath at a low temperature for long periods of time, preserving juiciness and flavor.) We did our first food-themed events—in those cases we’d bring in a local restaurant to prepare a meal that was themed to a movie—and we’d do cult programming at midnight. That’s where the Leagues dine, after all—at least when they’re not at one of the Alamos. I bought a projector from a former theater operator in town, and part of the purchase price was that he had to train me. As we've grown to a national company with over 25 locations, this remains one of our core values. There was some Earl Scruggs/Lester Flatt, banjo kind of song on, which got us to talking about the movie Deliverance and what sort of event we could do with it. What’s the appeal of that movie? Tim: Once we had the system down, we started to do more and more of these outings—it was a natural evolution to go from showing Deliverance on the banks of the Colorado River to saying “Wow, wouldn’t it be cool to show it on the actual river where it was filmed in Georgia?” I don’t know when that leap came, but we thought, “Hey, we should do a big tour of extreme movie events,” and we loved the idea so much that we just went out and did it. “My favorite action comedy.”, Klown (2010) Tweet. Peel, dice and sauté the tongue in the olive oil until slightly crispy and browned. Jae-young Kwak “Our first date was a picnic,” Karrie remembers. dir. Having quit engineering jobs to buy and run their first movie theater, they didn’t have much choice. We figured we weren’t going to kill each other after that. Karrie’s parents are on their way and high chairs are waiting in the dining room. (Mason jars filled with infused gin line the top of their stove—an experiment left over from brainstorming sessions for The Highball cocktail menu.) People don’t really understand the sale and don’t realize how we don’t have anything to do with all these new locations that are opening. To the Leagues, however, it made perfect sense. Karrie: When we started we just showed second-run Hollywood movies and every once in awhile we would do something special just to keep ourselves entertained. When will that be ready? “My favorite classic comedy.”, Dr. Strangelove (1964) “When I was a young man, I kind of discounted silent films.”, Armour of God 2: Operation Condor (1991) It was never my idea or Karrie’s idea, but we were convinced by some folks within our expanding organization to go ahead and embrace the franchise concept. Back in 2000, Karrie and I were coming back from watching an advance screening in Dallas, and we were listening to the radio. Tim and Karrie League, founders of the Alamo Drafthouse, met and later graduated from Rice University in 1992. “We had a Crock-Pot and a rice cooker and our dinner would stew all day. How do you choose the films, and thus, the locations? Having quit engineering jobs to buy and run their first movie theater, they didn’t have much choice. I haven’t made any arrangements to even start thinking about that, but that’s certainly a pie-in-the-sky one. This Year, It’s Wreaking Havoc. The financial side of the business was never my strong suit. “It was…curated.” They began cooking in earnest only to save money. Tim and Karrie set up shop in a former parking garage in the Warehouse district in Austin. Karrie: We had people coming to us saying, “We love your idea, we really want to franchise,” so we did grant franchise rights. How did that come about? So we rounded up as many canoes as we could, enough for seventy people, and we rented a U-Haul trailer. We always enjoyed doing those special events, and Tim is just this gold mine of ideas—his brain never shuts off. “Oh, it’s so Leave It to Beaver,” Karrie says. We ate a lot of ramen.” “Five years ago, I discovered ramen was an actual food,” Tim adds, but his Twitter and Facebook followers already know about that particular obsession, as well as the “agave-centered spirits” bar at the new Drafthouse on Slaughter Lane, the recent milk-shake contest and the very detailed Austin restaurant guide associated with Fantastic Fest. The Crock-Pot’s long gone, replaced by a sous-vide machine that someone gave the couple. Serve the meat on corn tortillas with chopped onion and cilantro. Tim and Karrie League Let’s get the groaner of a pun out of the way: These slacker marrieds, the co-founders of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain, are in a league of their own. Our mantra is if we’re having fun participating and taking part in it then we’re going to keep on doing it. “It was…curated.” They began cooking in earnest only to save money. It’s going to be the nicest one out there for sure. If you are an existing subscriber and haven't set up an account, please register for an online account. “Our first date was a picnic,” Karrie remembers. Jay Hartzell outlines his plans for the university’s pandemic strategy, introducing a more diverse student body, and renaming buildings with racist connotations. Austin had everything we were looking for, and it had a comfort level that the other cities didn’t. After we opened up our first franchise—that was the Lake Creek location—Karrie and I were of the mindset to pull back and make sure we had everything in order. 2016. It’s hard to believe League’s early menus consisted of “food that’s fast to make and easy to eat in the dark.” Now, with chefs in his employ and menus constantly in development, he never misses a chance to “spitball, taste, refine…yeah,” he says, “I’ll definitely give my sage advice.”Tonight’s main course has zero chance of being produced in a Drafthouse kitchen. Tim: I always thought it would be really cool to do a tour of Italy and show our favorite Spaghetti Westerns because a lot of those towns are still there. It was a financial disaster, but we had little spurts of money that would come in. Mikkel Nørgaard Additionally, the report claims that the woman, a longtime friend of Tim and Karrie League, informed the pair about the incidents and were told to just try to avoid Knowles. What was the impetus for that? We realized that it’s the greatest idea in the world. A culinary vein seems to run through most of their ventures, business and otherwise, and there’s lots of crossover. Tim League is also a member of Austin Area Research Organization (AARO). “One of us does the chopping, one of us wrangles the children and that’s how we do dinner,” says their mother, Karrie League, who is taking, as she puts it, a nice, long maternity leave. BBQ News Roundup: A Fort Worth Restaurant’s New Online “Meat Locker” Sells Brisket to Smoke at Home, Tom Brown’s Body, Chapter 1: A Pretty Little Place, Texas Is Screwed More by the Electoral College Than Any Other State, Despite Our Size, The List: The Top 50 Barbecue Joints in Texas. It was sensory overload, and the perfect example of what we’re trying to do. Karrie: It’s a little weird to have this other company with our name that we don’t have anything to do with. There’s an obligation that you fall under once you’ve started franchising. Don't have an account? Tim takes over—crisping the meat in adobo sauce and feeding masa into the tortilla press. Copyright © Edible Austin LLC. “And now we cook with it all the time.” Perfect poached eggs, for instance, from their own yard hens, and the “strange, cheap beef parts” Karrie likes to find at Fiesta. The Texanist: What Old Texas Games Can I Get My Screen-Addicted Kids to Play? Hollywood, Texas: What Will a Lizzo TV Show Look Like? Tim: It’s kind of miraculous that it didn’t fail more than it did. Tim: It is strange, but it was a great relief not to be constantly expanding. Karrie League: We’d heard about the concept of these theaters that served food and beer and wine, and we checked one out in Portland. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. Your big project right now is renovating the old Ritz Theater building on Sixth Street, in Austin, which will be the new downtown location. Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. We decide how far we want to go and what kind of a route we want to take and then we consult our master list and pick certain movies.