Complex staffers take urban exploration very seriously. My Spot takes you inside some of our favorite destinations, both in the 'hood and around the globe.
Nitehawk Cinema
Neighborhood: Williamsburg
136 Metropolitan Ave.
nitehawkcinema.com
(718) 443-1271
@nitehawkcinema
This month Complex associate editor Tara Aquino takes us to Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn.
THE RUNDOWN: You know when you're watching a three-hour epic like Blue Is the Warmest Color and the main character has an obsession with spaghetti bolognese and you find yourself thinking "Shit, I'm so hungry"? Well, Nitehawk is perfect for those moments.
Not only is it an independent theater that plays everything from Mars Attacks! to Oscar-nominated shorts, it's also an eatery that serves quality meals and booze. Fancy beef jerky, delicious fish tacos, and special movie-themed meals (among other items) are always on deck. All you have to do is write down your order on a piece of paper, prop it upright for the waitress to notice, and wait 'til you too can have some of Adele's spaghetti.
PERFECT FOR: Taking someone on a date whom you're too ashamed to eat in front of.
WHAT TO BRING: An open mind. The theater plays everything from Saturday morning cartoons to sexploitation flicks. Hell, Nitehawk even scheduled it's own porno series.
ONLY REGULARS KNOW: Where to line up for a specific screening. There's a distinct kind of heartbreak you feel at the sight of a mother and daughter on what's clearly a bonding date looking around, asking where the line for Dom Hemingway is. It starts against the benches by the window, you tell them, and it snakes around the ropes toward the bar. But there's only one line, so you've got to wait until the weirdos there for Nymphomaniac Vol. 2 are let into their theater first.
THE UNSPOKEN RULES: Don't eat like it's the last meal you'll ever have nor attempt to salvage every last drop of your (excellent) Bloody Mary. As casual as this theater is, people are still there to watch a movie. It's kind of difficult to appreciate, say, the raw emotion of 12 Years A Slave, when the person next to you is sucking sauce off their fingers.
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