Hayley Benton

hbenton@citizen-times.com

Steve White and Davida Horwitz have been busy for the last several months, wiring and placing projectors, hanging Sputnik-like light fixtures and putting the final touches on Asheville's newest alternative movie theater.

Much bigger than it seems from outside — especially knowing the space on South French Broad is shared with multiple tenants — Grail Moviehouse's glass storefront opens up to a long hallway, which leads to a small corner box office boasting tickets for mostly independent, art or classic titles. Around the bend, guests are ushered to a small concession stand by the smell of freshly popped popcorn, with local snacking (and drinking) options on the menu as well.

Keeping with the all-local theme, large, movie-themed pop-realism portraits hang along the hall, painted by local artist Gus Cutty (of West Asheville's "The Dude" mural fame). A vintage, repurposed Lance snacks vending machine will sell small, local artwork, like small hand-painted magnets, as well. The machine will be rechristened as "Lance-a-lart."

At Tuesday's impromptu theater visit, cleaning equipment, tools and plans lay scattered across surfaces throughout lobby, but, for White and Horwitz, it's crunch time: Grail Moviehouse is slated to open, testing the waters, on May 19, hosting the Asheville Film Society's recurring Thursday Horror Picture Show at 7:30 p.m.

If everything goes as planned, and White said he expects that it will, the three-theater establishment on the south end of downtown will continue its soft-opening with weeklong showings of three cinematic classics: "Cinema Paradiso," "Sunset Boulevard" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

"We're hoping that everything will run smoothly and the soft opening can roll into the grand opening," White said.

"You know, it's been a lot of lifting and a lot of sweeping," he said of the preparations that have gone into the theater's debut. "The technical work, of course, was time-consuming, but this has become a huge project. Originally it was a much more modest vision."

Horwitz, however, was missing from the theater Tuesday afternoon, doing her pre-opening prep work from the road. Prepared to stand in line for hours, having left town at 3:30 a.m., she was, at that moment, on her way back from Raleigh with the theater's beer and wine license in hand — a necessity for any Beer City entertainment venue. Applying for a license through the mail can take weeks, while driving to Raleigh is quicker, White explained.

At maximum capacity, the 4,500-square-foot space can seat a little more than 250, and the accommodations are more than your typical rickety, fold-down butter-soaked seats. The largest space, which seats 122, is home to some quirky, upcycled purple cinema seats, freshly flown in from "the last independently owned theater in Brooklyn," White said. Across the headrest of each seat, the word "Pavilion" is embroidered in gold. The next largest room, which seats around 80, has rows of red plush theater seats in the back, with sofas and easy chairs lined end-by-end up front.

The smallest of the three, seating 40-49, is filled with comfortable cushioned couches.

Local concessions like Scott's Knots (pretzels), Munki (trailmix snack-packs) and the funky flavors of Poppy Handcrafted Popcorn will be available alongside more traditional air-pop and sweets.

Specialty drinks, aside from the local brews on tap, will be nonalcoholic concoctions, hand-mixed with flavors from Blue Blaze Soda Company.

"It was a very big deal to get our beer and wine license," White explained. "We'll have cider on tap and beer in cans and as much local variety as we can get."

Opening night at the Grail Moviehouse is free, with tickets regularly priced at $9 for adults and $7 for matinee, seniors and children.

"We get to have a little more freedom" than other theaters, said White, whose background is in film and video. "We get to book movies that maybe would not otherwise come here. I think every theater in town has its own pluses. If you want to see a blockbuster and you want to see it in a grand way, you end up at the Biltmore Grande. If you want to see the latest big art film, you end up at Fine Arts. And I think, here, it's going to be about all these other things that make film great."