Alamo Drafthouse Cinema To Open In Baton Rouge in 2016

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is coming to Louisiana. The cinema chain has selected Baton Rouge as the home of its first theater in the Bayou State.

Entertainment Weekly named Austin-based Alamo Drafthouse “the best theater in America.” Unlike other cinemas, it serves food and alcoholic beverages. But Alamo Drafthouse is best known for its strict policy of requiring its audiences to maintain the proper cinema-going etiquette.

According to The Advocate, Alamo Drafthouse will open its Baton Rouge location in the Rouzan mixed-use development, off Perkins Road. Construction is scheduled to start next year and the theater is expected to open in mid-2016.

Baton Rouge’s Alamo Drafthouse will have seven screens and about 900 seats. It will anchor Village Center, the commercial and retail center of the Rouzan development. The Alamo Drafthouse will be part of the mixed-use project’s first phase, which also calls for the construction of a 200-unit apartment complex, a parking garage and other retailers.

Tommy Spinosa, the developer of Rouzan, told The Advocate that getting Alamo Drafthouse is a big win for both his development and the city of Baton Rouge, as there aren’t too many such theaters in existence today. He added that the theater chose Rouzan because of its location. Although the new Alamo Drafthouse will be visible from Perkins road, it won’t face the street. It will be located near the once-proposed Rouzan library branch.

The theater will offer hamburgers, pizza and chicken wings, as well as 32 different craft beers, cocktails and wine. Building it won’t require any zoning changes. According to Tommy Spinosa, Rouzan has been zoned as a traditional neighborhood development and allows for for alcohol sales in a restaurant or theater such as Alamo Drafthouse.