1400 Main | drafthouse.com/kansas_city
The year it opened, the AMC six-plex at the southwestern edge of the Power & Light District was an easy choice for us when it came time to name the city's best movie theater. It was a hometown company's deluxe restoration of a classic old building, and it signaled an encouraging move away from behemoth suburban multiplexes in favor of urban boutique cinema. Also: crazy comfortable. Three years later, AMC's HQ is on its way across the state line, and the whole chain has been sold to a megalithic Chinese corporation. But 1400 Main is still a digital-projecting, deep-chaired, liquor-serving oasis, thanks to the most beloved name in fan-centric moviegoing: Alamo Drafthouse. When AMC pulled out of its partnership with Cordish last summer, the Texas company swept in, keeping everything smart about Mainstreet while dosing the place on cult movies and cool. The food and drink are better, and the programming finds room for high-test nostalgia alongside The Dark Knight and The Master. There's free bicycle valet parking, the policy outlawing cell-phone use during a movie is thrillingly severe, and there is no ... fucking ... talking ... allowed. We've never been happier to have a neighbor.
