A New Place to Drink?
Cineplex Odeon, the large chain of cinema's, are considering a pilot project that would have two of their establishments selling beer to movie-goer's. Two theatres have been chosen to take part, both in Oakville. Pat Marshall, spokesperson for Cineplex Entertainment, told the Toronto Star earlier this week that she is delighted with the recent amendment to the Liquor Licence Act that would allow in theatre drinking. As quoted in the Star: "We are obviously delighted. This is something that our guests have been asking us for years." We'll have to wait and see, the company is currently waiting for liquor board approval. I can only imagine what the cost would be for a bottle or pint, and it will probably be a Molson or Labatt product to boot, and the young stupid kids that will get a buzz and wreck the entire movie going experience. I'm not a fan of the idea.
OCB on the Beer Store
Josh Rubin's bi-weekly beer column featured a piece on the Ontario Craft Brewers Discovery Pack #2 this past Wednesday and it featured an interesting quote from Lisa Dunbar, manager of Marketing and Promotions. Dunbar stated that the Beer Store just doesn't do as good of job selling craft beer as the LCBO. She went on to say that the LCBO is just a stronger partner for the OCB. This was in relation to being asked where individuals could purchase the new and upgraded second Discovery Pack.
Rubin also reviews each beer contained in the six pack and gives a brief introduction to the history behind the OCB's first discovery pack.
Harry's Hops
Harry Hodge is Sun 24 Hrs answer to the Star's Rubin. The free daily Toronto newspaper features a column written by Hodge every Wednesday about his take on the Ontario brewing industry. This week, Harry's Hops featured a story about the Etobicoke three, as I like to call them. Hodge ventured out to the Great Lakes brewery for a tour with John Bowden before heading across the bridge to the Cool Beer brewery. He met up with brew master Michael Duggan to talk shop and then proceeded to Horner Avenue to take a glimpse at the creation of Black Oak's new facility. Hopefully his piece will provoke some weekend drives out of the city to visit one of these breweries.
A Good Beer Blog
Alan (A Good Beer Blog) and Jeff (Stonch's Beer Blog) have released a link to all the photographs that have been submitted for their annual 'Beer Photo Challenge.' The pictures are fantastic, the prizes are plentiful and Alan is in good cheer. Head over and take a look, comment, and submit your own for your chance to win some beery merchandise.
Sleeman Suing Craft Brewery
As mentioned here last Saturday, Sleeman Breweries is suing a small BC craft brewery for using clear bottles with an etching of a dead frog. Dead Frog Brewery started using the clear bottles in June and have since been served by the Japanese owned Sleeman for infringing on trademark rights. The National Post picked up on the story and asks the question, "Should Sleeman claim the right to clear, embossed beer bottles in Canada, or is the brewery just being a bit jumpy?"
5 comments:
Most people sneak in beer into cinemas and of course the management can't search everyone's bag. People exaggerate the problem so they can justify killing off the entire cinema industry. Bad haviour can happen everywhere. I bet one point you or your readers may sneak in beer into the theatres.
Serious Cat - In all seriousness, the only time I have ever snuck beer into a theatre was when I was in high school. As a grown up (at least I think I am) I wouldn't even think of it. I think many of the readers of this blog would agree with me, and I doubt many of them would sneak beer into the theatre, that's just hardcore.
The sale of booze in cinema's would/will attract the younger crowd who can't handle it. Thus causing disturbances not fit for a movie going experience. Readers of this blog may decide to purchase A beer, and that's as far as it would probably go.
I'm not against the idea of selling alcohol in movie theaters but knowing the way liquor is regulated in our province it most likely will be a disaster. Cheap and tasteless beers (as mentioned by Troy) will be offered at ridiculous prices in plastic cups. Now, why would I be interested at paying over 5 dollars for a bottle of Labatt in a plastic cup? In short, we'll have a model currently in effect at our sport arenas. If you want to sip beer watching the Leafs (and it's hard to watch them sober nowadays), you are forced to drink watery product and pay a lot for the privilege to do so. I'm not sure if the alcohol will attract a younger crowd looking to get drunk - the sale will probably be limited to two beers and everyone under 40 will be IDed. The price will also be a barrier to many people. Now, what I would be interested in, and again I'm dreaming in technicolor
here, is a small movie theatre with comfortable chairs, tables and excellent beer selection served in proper glasses. More like a cozy restaurant with a screen. I would be willing to pay extra for that!
A couple of thoughts on the beer in theatres thing:
1) It's been a while since I've been there, but the bar in the lobby of the Paramount or Scotiabank or whatever the hell it's called now down near Queen & John had Steam Whistle on tap the last time I was there. Not amazing, but still, better than Molson or Labatt.
2) The plan is to limit the sales of beer to certain cinemas within each theatre, and only allowing 19+ into those cinemas and the surrounding lobby area. That should stop "the younger crowd" from drinking (assuming you mean under 19 as "the younger crowd").
3) To be honest, I rarely go to movies any more because the entire experience is annoying as hell. It's too expensive, and even without beer in the theatres, they still end up full of assholes. So even if they started selling good beer, I'd still just wait for the DVD and watch it at home, drinking something even better.
Sleeman is taking a page out of the Lars Ulrich "I am a douchebag, I own anything I create including my farts I will sue you for uttering the word metal without my consent" approach.
Also
i used to get drunk before movies when i knew they were going to be horrible. i was obnoxious for about 10 minutes before passing out and only remembering the credits. so it's a shitty idea, because popcorn is already overpriced, god knows what theatres will charge for beer.
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