Thirsty at the movies? At this theater with a new liquor license, you can serve yourself

Thirsty?

The new Boulevard Theatres in Old Town has added beer, wine and cocktails that, like theater’s soft drinks, moviegoers can serve themselves through old-style soda-jerk handles.

That’s the same self-serve concession model that business partners Tyler Cooper and Ryan Blasdel first started with their Towne West Square theater.

“We wanted to bring that to Old Town,” Cooper said.

However, that took remodeling the front lobby and ticket counter.

“It just didn’t work,” Cooper said of the previous layout. “We wanted to reimagine the lobby so it works with our business model.”

The Old Town theater opened in late December and didn’t initially serve alcohol.

Bill Warren introduced alcohol when he owned the Warren Theatre Old Town, but after Regal Cinemas bought it, the chain eventually stopped serving alcohol before then closing in 2023.

Cooper and Blasdel moved the ticket stand from the east side of the lobby to three stands in the middle where the former theater’s bar had been.

There are red velvet ropes that snake through the lobby, though customers can bypass them during slow times, that lead to grab-and-go items in some QuikTrip-style cases. They’re stocked with food such as pizzas, mozzarella bites and pretzels sticks.

“These are, like, the in-demand items,” Cooper said. “We can just get that filled right away.”

There also is bottled water and White Claw available. Customers then pay for the items along with any fountain drinks or popcorn they want.

The ticket stands are where customers will receive popcorn containers and fountain drink cups, which they’ll fill at a fountain drink station with 16 flavors just to the west of the ticket stands. Frozen drinks will be coming soon, too.

There are Pepsi products along with small-batch craft soda, cream sodas and some highly touted root beer.

The pulls for the flavors are designed to look like old soda-jerk station.

Just around the corner from there is the popcorn-and-butter station “so you can get exactly the right amount of butter,” Cooper said. “You can do it exactly how you want it.”

Just to the north of the popcorn station, and across from some of the theaters, is a station for adult beverages.

For now, there’s a small cart with a limited supply of drinks, which Cooper called an intermediary solution.

Eventually, there will be a 15-tap wall of drinks with beer, wine and premixed cocktails.

“It’ll be a really great experience,” Cooper said.

Guests will receive an automated wristband at the ticket counter that they’ll then scan at the drink station.

They will be able to pay by the ounce.

“It opens up to sample,” Cooper said. “You’re not paying $8 for some beer you don’t like.”

He said it also opens it up to mixing, as he said some beer drinkers like to do.

The state set a limit of $30 per wristband at a time, though if people want to pay for several friends or family members, they can. Each person initially will have a $30 max.

If they want more, they can pop out to an attendant just outside the theaters, not back at the ticket counters.

“You don’t have to get back in the line,” Cooper said.

He said the pours immediately close out so the next person in line can’t get a pour off of someone else’s scan.

“The name of the game in the movie business right now is efficiency,” Cooper said.

Once the new drink station is installed, Cooper said the cart still will be available for special events.

“We can wheel that right into the auditorium.”

Cooper and Blasdel have made a number of aesthetic improvements, including working with local designer Chris Parks on new wallpaper and wainscoting with a red-and-black color scheme.

Phase one of renovations has included the lobby, fixing neglected maintenance and updating the kitchen.

There’s more to come with additional phases.

Another new thing coming: an app that will allow customers to order food from the kitchen ahead of seeing movies. They also can order at the ticket counter or from their seats with the new app.

For now, Cooper and Blasdel are focused on publicizing their drink options, from the return of alcohol and the self-serve aspect of all their drinks.

Cooper said there are a lot of choices, and as Blasdel said, “It’s also just fun.”