The blockbusters opening this Memorial Day won’t just be the movies — it’ll be the movie house, too.
Williamsburg will welcome a new two-screen independent movie theater and full-service restaurant, a project that has been in turnaround for seven years.
Nitehawk Cinema, which will occupy two floors in a five-story apartment building on Metropolitan Avenue, will show both feature flicks and independent films for $11 a ticket.
But here’s the kicker: owner Matthew Viragh added waiter service to the experience.
“We’re going to take movie-going to another level,” Viragh told our sister publication, the Wall Street Journal.
It almost didn’t happen.
The theater-residential complex, once called the Cassandra Cinemas and Metropolitan Cinemas, stalled in 2008 after its original owners could not secure financing.
But Viragh bought the project about two years ago, attracted to its Berry Street location and the prospect of owning an entertainment space without building it from scratch.
“The model is based on theaters he’s been to in Texas where you can order food and drinks,” said architect Jonathan Taylor, of Caliper Studios, who designed the space. “He was looking for a project that would allow him to tailor the cinema. At that point, they were vanilla boxes.”
The 92- and 68-seat theaters will feature tiered seating with the restaurant on the ground floor — and there’s even a small screening room for private parties.
The theater will be Williamsburg’s second movie house, joining one-screen independent film hub Indiescreen, which opened on Kent Avenue last May, and a three-story theater developed by the owner of Cobble Hill Cinema, which should open later this year.
