Lately I've been lucky uncovering theaters and venues that play old movies; there's Bryant Park during the summer, Film Forum, Sunshine Cinema, Museum of Modern Art, IFC Theater, and thanks to a recent ad in the Time Out New York magazine, I read that The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) also screens classic movies. The movie I saw advertised that would be worth seeing on the big screen versus just a television set, was the 1971 Academy Award Best Film "The French Connection". In addition to being the first R-rated film to win the award, it also won and Academy Award for Best Actor and made a household name out of Gene Hackman.
Since a key part of the movie, the car chase segment with the subway was filmed on location in Brooklyn, it was only fitting to see this movie in that borough. I went into work that day and only had to walk a few blocks afterwards to Union Square to catch the 4 train. The station platform was packed and the humidity of summer wasn't helping much. My train came rather quickly, and after a few delays due to train traffic, I was out on the street from the Nevins St. station in a matter of a few stops. The actual area in which BAM is located is called Fort Greene, it's not that far away from Junior's. The past times I was there I would always see an Ethiopian restaurant and tell myself I'll come back to eat there. Being there a little less than an hour before the movie was scheduled to start, I had time to finally cash in that Ethiopian rain check and give the restaurant a try. I tried Ethiopian food a little more than a year ago on the west side of Manhattan and enjoyed it very much, so it didn't take much for me to have some more. What separates Ethiopian cuisine from most others is that there are no utensils provided. A large slab of flat bread is provided and what you do is rip off a piece of the thin bread and use it to pick up the food. In addition to to the bread-utensil, the dish itself is typically served on another giant slab of flat bread, so there's more available if that first piece gets used up.
The name of this particular Ethiopian restaurant is Bati, or Bati Kitchen. The inside had rugged hardwood tables and some Ethiopian art pieces along the walls. The servers looked very Ethiopian as well (worth mentioning because three weeks ago I went into an Italian restaurant and had a Chinese waiter). I noticed this restaurant followed suit of all other Ethiopian places and had no folk or knives on the table. Trying to keep things as close to the homeland as possible, I ordered a glass of tej, which is an Ethiopian honey wine, much like a thicker white wine. It took me a while to select my dish of choice since I really had my eye on some lamb, but keeping the homeland theme going, I went with the Doro Wett, an Ethiopian signature chicken stew that comes with a hardboiled egg. Knowing I was going to have to eat with my hands, I made a trip to the bathroom to give them a wash after the subway ride. The inside of the bathroom also had that African rugged outdoors feel to it, with a tiny window that had bars on it. Not too long after I had sat back down the food came out, and along with my large piece of flat eating bread was the dish served on another large piece of flat bread. The stew was one chicken leg, the hardboiled egg, and what looked like some lentils on the side. The food was mildly spicy, and rushing to eat in order to be on time for the movie was causing the spices to be more intense. It was certainly a good thing I had that glass of water on the table.
When the check came out the total for the meal and the glass of wine, with tip, came out to roughly thirty bucks. I hurried over three blocks away to where the BAM was and got my movie ticket, which was twelve dollars. For a 1971 movie, I was hoping that maybe they would charge 1971 prices, but that wasn't the case. I always thought of the BAM as a music or play venue, not for showing movies, but actually the inside has a number of small theater rooms. In addition, there's a concession stand for popcorn and soda like any other movie theater, but what other theaters don't have that this one does is a beer stand. Naturally, the featured beer of choice is Brooklyn Lager. I was more than satisfied with my tej from Bati, so I didn't have any beer, just popcorn and soda. The building is over a hundred years old and has many traits of the old movie palaces of the early twentieth century such as chandeliers hanging down from the ceiling, thick decorative columns, and hard stone floors. I climbed the steps to the theater room the movie was playing in and found it at near capacity. The movie was only showing on that day at 4:30pm, 6:50pm, and 9:15pm. This was the 6:50pm one and just about every seat in the room was taken. Although the room wasn't very large, maybe 100-150 seats, I was quite surprised to see that many people for a film that came out over forty years ago. Mostly everyone was into film and laughing or making other reactions the whole way through.
When I periodically snacked on some popcorn, I had to make use of my hands since there were no folk and knives provided...
Since a key part of the movie, the car chase segment with the subway was filmed on location in Brooklyn, it was only fitting to see this movie in that borough. I went into work that day and only had to walk a few blocks afterwards to Union Square to catch the 4 train. The station platform was packed and the humidity of summer wasn't helping much. My train came rather quickly, and after a few delays due to train traffic, I was out on the street from the Nevins St. station in a matter of a few stops. The actual area in which BAM is located is called Fort Greene, it's not that far away from Junior's. The past times I was there I would always see an Ethiopian restaurant and tell myself I'll come back to eat there. Being there a little less than an hour before the movie was scheduled to start, I had time to finally cash in that Ethiopian rain check and give the restaurant a try. I tried Ethiopian food a little more than a year ago on the west side of Manhattan and enjoyed it very much, so it didn't take much for me to have some more. What separates Ethiopian cuisine from most others is that there are no utensils provided. A large slab of flat bread is provided and what you do is rip off a piece of the thin bread and use it to pick up the food. In addition to to the bread-utensil, the dish itself is typically served on another giant slab of flat bread, so there's more available if that first piece gets used up.
The name of this particular Ethiopian restaurant is Bati, or Bati Kitchen. The inside had rugged hardwood tables and some Ethiopian art pieces along the walls. The servers looked very Ethiopian as well (worth mentioning because three weeks ago I went into an Italian restaurant and had a Chinese waiter). I noticed this restaurant followed suit of all other Ethiopian places and had no folk or knives on the table. Trying to keep things as close to the homeland as possible, I ordered a glass of tej, which is an Ethiopian honey wine, much like a thicker white wine. It took me a while to select my dish of choice since I really had my eye on some lamb, but keeping the homeland theme going, I went with the Doro Wett, an Ethiopian signature chicken stew that comes with a hardboiled egg. Knowing I was going to have to eat with my hands, I made a trip to the bathroom to give them a wash after the subway ride. The inside of the bathroom also had that African rugged outdoors feel to it, with a tiny window that had bars on it. Not too long after I had sat back down the food came out, and along with my large piece of flat eating bread was the dish served on another large piece of flat bread. The stew was one chicken leg, the hardboiled egg, and what looked like some lentils on the side. The food was mildly spicy, and rushing to eat in order to be on time for the movie was causing the spices to be more intense. It was certainly a good thing I had that glass of water on the table.
When the check came out the total for the meal and the glass of wine, with tip, came out to roughly thirty bucks. I hurried over three blocks away to where the BAM was and got my movie ticket, which was twelve dollars. For a 1971 movie, I was hoping that maybe they would charge 1971 prices, but that wasn't the case. I always thought of the BAM as a music or play venue, not for showing movies, but actually the inside has a number of small theater rooms. In addition, there's a concession stand for popcorn and soda like any other movie theater, but what other theaters don't have that this one does is a beer stand. Naturally, the featured beer of choice is Brooklyn Lager. I was more than satisfied with my tej from Bati, so I didn't have any beer, just popcorn and soda. The building is over a hundred years old and has many traits of the old movie palaces of the early twentieth century such as chandeliers hanging down from the ceiling, thick decorative columns, and hard stone floors. I climbed the steps to the theater room the movie was playing in and found it at near capacity. The movie was only showing on that day at 4:30pm, 6:50pm, and 9:15pm. This was the 6:50pm one and just about every seat in the room was taken. Although the room wasn't very large, maybe 100-150 seats, I was quite surprised to see that many people for a film that came out over forty years ago. Mostly everyone was into film and laughing or making other reactions the whole way through.
When I periodically snacked on some popcorn, I had to make use of my hands since there were no folk and knives provided...
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