With so many developers wanting to piggyback off the appealing energy of Downtown Austin, they’re making life impossible for some of the businesses that made it so attractive in the first place.
Last night, as a farewell to the Alamo Downtown at Fourth and Colorado, Quentin Tarantino hosted the last night of his three-night Last Night at the Alamo Grindhouse (that’s a lot of last nights). The only Downtown cinema has, like so many businesses in the area, been forced from its current venue by rising rents. This minifestival of drive-in classics was the director’s way of saying farewell to this local institution at its original site. Apart from the first two QT Fests at the Dobie Landmark, Tarantino has held every one of his tributes to B-,C- and Z-grade movies under the angled roof of this Downtown institution.
While the Alamo Drafthouse remains open at this site until the big finale on June 27, before moving into the old Ritz picture palace on Sixth (and, of course, there’ll be no change to the rest of the local minichain), it was still a night of mixed emotions. It was quite moving to see Tarantino and Alamo owner Tim League realize there would never be another QT Fest in this building and that the number of Music Mondays, Weird Wednesdays, and Terror Thursdays left was small.
This article appears in May 11 • 2007.
