Cinema Paradiso
When a Movie Theater Meets a Bar

Your eye for talent is well documented.

You knew Scarlett would be big after Ghost World, you loved Natalie in The Professional, and Lohan's turn in The Parent Trap was almost too much for words.

Here to assist you in the noble goal of spotting the next Johansson is indieScreen, a new restaurant/bar/house of independent cinema, opening Thursday across from the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg.

To understand indieScreen, think of your neighborhood megaplex, then remove 15 screens, bar any Michael Bay sightings, eighty-six the nacho-cheez dispensers and—this part is key—add a fully stocked bar and restaurant.

Built as a new thinking-man's date spot by the guy who curates the Brooklyn Film Festival, it will have one screen playing a rotating slate of classics (The Godfather, lots of Kubrick, Garfield: The Movie...) and new indie films.

So you'll want to arrive at indieScreen for a Friday night flick, arm yourself with some of the restaurant's picnic basket-style international treats (sushi, panini) and head into the theater confident that if the day's art film has a bit too much art and a bit too little film, you and your date can always duck back into the bar to sip mojitos in the company of robot sculptures under futuristic steel chandeliers.

While booze is only allowed into the theater on special occasions (think midnight screenings of A Clockwork Orange), we can offer this as a consolation: each seat in the theater is a college-style personal fold-out desk for ease of eating.

Also good for mojito smuggling and note passing.