"When the current incarnation of the bar and the theater first opened in 2018, Metro's legendary film scribe Richard von Busack wrote of the theater's "satisfying new-car smell." At the time, Pruneyard was approaching the half-century mark and the shuttered Camera 7 was long gone. Pruneyard Cinemas arrived with "with half the seats and twice the appeal," wrote von Busack. Pruneyard Cinemas then became one of the first theaters in Silicon Valley allowing moviegoers to order cocktails directly from their seats in the theater. It became a trend."
"'Even an Akiva Goldsman script would sound plausible after an Elijah Craig Small Batch chased with a Berryessa Double Tap IPA,' wrote von Busack, waxing even more poetic about the top-shelf mezcals, vodkas and whiskeys, plus the wine list and 22 taps, about 10 of them rotating for local brews. Of course, before Camera 7, the theater was just a regular old theater. It wasn't special, but it worked. Generations of bored suburban youth went there just to loiter amid the rustic trimmings of the mall. With these memories in mind, I slithered into the Cedar Room last week in order to soften the abandonment trauma. The place was jammed with people celebrating the final few weeks of a fantastic establishment. It was hopping."
The Pruneyard Cinemas and the Cedar Room avoided imminent closure after last-minute negotiations and remain open. The venue reopened in its current form in 2018, replacing the shuttered Camera 7 with fewer seats and increased appeal, and pioneered seatside cocktail service that became a local trend. The Cedar Room offers top-shelf mezcals, vodkas, whiskeys, a wine list and 22 taps, with about 10 rotating local brews. The site previously housed a standard mall theater and earlier a fern bar called Boswell's with cover bands. Patrons recently packed the Cedar Room to celebrate the venue amid strong nostalgia.
Read at Metro Silicon Valley | Silicon Valley's Leading Weekly
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