Berkeley’s last movie house now offering prosciutto and champagne in bid to hang on (2024)

Earlier this month, the Rialto Cinemas in Elmwood — the last commercial theater in Berkeley — introduced its latest attempt to stay in business: hot food and a beer and wine menu to supplement the traditional movie-going fare. The theater received its liquor license from the City of Berkeley a year ago and debuted the new menu July 15.

“We needed to bring these amenities to the Elmwood to stay competitive,” said Ky Boyd, who has run the theater with his husband, Michael O’Rand, since 2007 and also has Rialto theaters in El Cerrito and Sebastopol.

The new food menu joins the usual candy, soda and popcorn offerings that have become synonymous with movie-going. Patrons will now be able to munch on items like Impossible chicken nuggets, White Castle sliders, pizza, and hummus with pretzel chips and baby carrots. The priciest item, at $13.75, is a “Grown-Up Lunchable” — prosciutto and mozzarella, kalamata olives, almonds, crackers and baby carrots. The drinks menu boasts six beer offerings, six types of wine, champagne and Golden State Brut Cider from Sonoma.

The new food and beverage offerings are part of a national trend that seeks to make movie-going more like a night out, with some theaters selling lobster tacos and truffle mushroom pizza. As a result, sales at movie theater concessions are up. Theater seating already includes slots for drinks, so the tricky part will be the eating, which is why portions are small enough to fit on a lap and do not require utensils.

Like many movie theaters across the country, the Rialto, originally called the Strand, has struggled to stay open after moviegoers switched to streaming services during the pandemic, when theaters, some already suffering from dwindling attendance, were forced to close. In Berkeley alone, three downtown theaters have gone out of business between 2020 and 2023. As recently as the early aughts, the city had a half-dozen movie houses. Now it’s just the Rialto and the Pacific Film Archive, home to more arthouse fare.

Boyd said despite a small rebound, attendance at the Rialto has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. He said they made use of the closings by having all the seats in the Rialto’s three theaters reupholstered. (Theaters 2 and 3 had been carved out of the mezzanine of the main theater.) He also pointed out that the pandemic was just one challenge in the theater’s 100-year-old history.

“We’ve survived a fire, a flood, an earthquake and a poodle crash,” Boyd said.

The fire occurred in 1988, when the theater was owned by United Artists. Instead of making repairs, UA planned to sell to an Oakland developer that wanted to demolish the building to make way for a mini mall. A broken sewer line caused the flood in 2004, leading to $1 million in repairs. The “poodle crash” happened on July 19, 2023, days before the opening of Oppenheimer, when a driver lost control of his car after his poodle jumped into the front seat. No one was injured, but a front wall was damaged, along with an electrical panel.

Last year’s actors’ and writers’ strikes “were like a one-two punch to the theater,” Boyd said, but Oppenheimer gave the theater a boost. So far, attendance is up over last year, but may be slightly lower by the end of the year since there isn’t another blockbuster in sight. Nevertheless, the theater is breaking even, he said. “The Elmwood is definitely holding its own.”

The new menu is the latest incentive the theater has introduced to keep audiences coming. It also offers a Movie Lovers card, offering free perks and discounts, free weekend matinees for families, free Big Screen Classics and National Theatre Live, which are performances by the Royal National Theatre in London broadcast live via satellite.

Last Thursday, three days after the new menu rolled out, the theater hosted a reception featuring its new menu for Elmwood merchants and members of the Elmwood Theater Foundation, which has owned the theater since 1991. In attendance were many who had been involved in the grassroots effort that saved the theater from demolition, among them: Burl Willes, a former Elmwood business owner and author of a book on Elmwood history, who spearheaded the preservation effort; David Salk, who owns the nearby Focal Point Opticians and has been president of the Elmwood Theater Foundation since its founding; and Laurie Capitelli, a real-estate agent, longtime city councilmember and former mayoral candidate who has been the foundation’s treasurer since its founding.

Silent films featuring Charlie Chaplin played in the 178-seat main theater while merchants sampled the new offerings and weighed in.

“I love it!” said Tarah Ornelas, the owner of Scents by the Bay, of the new menu. “It makes movie night more of a date night.” She added that “the drinks are very good,” while sipping a Golden State cider.

“I think it’s amazing,” said Claudia Hunka, owner of Your Basic Bird, which has been in the neighborhood for 43 years. “This is the last picture show in Berkeley and people need to support this.”

With so many longtime theater supporters in attendance, the reception turned into an impromptu meeting to plan for the 30th anniversary of the theater’s reopening in 1994, after years of renovations. The tentative date set for the anniversary is Oct. 22.

Marlene Costa of Berkeley and Jeff Chang, who were heading home after watching Kinds of Kindness in Theater Three, were unaware of the new menu, but said they think it’s a good idea. Both are longtime patrons who want the theater to remain open.

“Since the other theaters have closed,” said Chang, a patron for the past 12 years, “I’m trying to patronize this theater, knowing it’s the last one.”