LET THE FEAST BEGIN AT THE LOFT CINEMA

 

by Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com

All signs point to the Loft Cinema for a taste of the old days...so does Victor's home theater.

For years that perennial evening favorite, dinner and a movie, found us going to the Loft Cinema, sharing pizza and wine at an outdoor table before the show. Or maybe one of those more expansive sandwich selections, with a cold beer.

People-watching at the Loft is always fun, too. Artist sightings are common among a clientele that prizes an independent lifestyle and freedom of expression.

While garden variety television at home will sort of replace going to the movies at any of the mall-type theaters, those multiplex programs don't come close to matching the tapestry of tastes and varieties of viewpoint you find on film in any evening at the Loft.

So when the Loft temporarily closed, along with everybody else, it left an exceptionally difficult hole to fill. Fortunately the Loft's film programs were soon available for streaming at home...on television.

The seating area in Victor's home theater, sometimes called "the mancave."

But for Bernice and I, hoping to add some Loft chow to our streaming Loft movie, there was only popcorn, chocolate and various beverages available to order.

Shucks. While the Loft's popcorn is always fresh, delicious and organic, we were hoping for a little more to eat. Then this doughty cinema added two kinds of vegetarian tamales from the Tucson Tamale company to the theater's snack bar list of food items – that was close enough!

We could add the trimmings for a special night of Loft food, Loft wine and more than enough Loft popcorn to fill in the chinks.

But what would it take to make that happen? The first thing we did was put on our Loft t-shirts, then the ideas began to flow. 

Special plates and special plating make any Loft movie special on a Friday or Saturday night. The wine and tamales felt right at home with the side dishes Bernice prepared.

Those tamales (Green Chile & Cheese, Blue Corn & Veggie) would be the centerpiece, with an accompanying bottle from the theater's menu of the Sand-Reckoner Vinyard's special white blend.

Bernice could add her Mexican salad and her special side dish of rice and beans. All the food would be organic and particularly healthy. Her husband Victor offered his massive TV screen set-up.

Quickly enough, matching paper plates and napkins appeared with a movie motif design to complete the atmosphere for our special night.

Since our favorite seats at the Loft are in the upstairs theater on the couch, Victor's couch nicely filled the bill. This was starting to feel really good.

Then the most difficult part was deciding which movie to pick from the Loft's line-up. To make an experimental dry run before our own special Loft night out, we picked “My Darling Vivian,” a documentary about the shunned first wife of Johnny Cash (yes, before he became famous enough to meet and marry June Carter). Now all the technical aspects were falling into place.

So with confidence we put in our Loft food order of frozen tamales (both kinds), chilled wine and fresh popcorn for curbside pickup, while the salad, rice and beans were ready and waiting, with ice in the wine bucket, and then we selected “Shirley,” an award-winning new release that had lots of heads spinning at the Sundance Film Festival last January.

Soon enough the movie was running, dramatically setting up its confrontations, while we were unwrapping the husks of our freshly steamed tamales that had been wrapped in wet paper towels to run through the micro-wave. Both kinds were equally tender and tasty.

The blue corn ones were a little more robust, but the Green Chile & Cheese was sweeter and had more body. The white wine blend was inviting with a crispy lightness and welcoming golden color.

As we enjoyed our meal, “Shirley” became a true stunner in the Loft Cinema style, both scary and though-provoking all at once. Sure enough, that long bag of popcorn became dessert, joining the rest of the wine to remind us why the Loft will always be a special place.

Bernice Chesi and Chuck Graham toast the Loft Cinema, then settle in to dine on their tamales.