Archive for the ‘It’s a Drive But Worth It’ Category

  • Clova Theatre

    Date: 2011.01.30 | Category: Food and Drink Dates, Indoor Dates, Inexpensive dates, It's a Drive But Worth It, Night Dates, theatre | Response: 0

    We are thrilled to have our first guest post from our good friend Ken Hamer.  Ken was telling us about his great cheap date night find and we insisted he write it up!  He highly recommends a visit to the Clova Theatre and here’s why:

     I highly recommend the Clova Cinema in Cloverdale ( 5732 176th St, Surrey. ) It’s a bit of a drive from Vancouver, but worth every kilometre.

    Clova Theatre on CinemaTour.ca

    Tribute.ca Movie Listings for the Clova Theatre

    It’s an old-fashioned stand-alone single screen cinema, built in 1947. It looks like it, but it has been well kept, and is clean and comfortable. It lacks the art deco architecture of the Hollywood (on W Broadway) but more than makes up for it in a bunch o’ ways.

    First, most nights they have a double feature — 2 movies for less than the price of 1. Second is the admission price — adults are $5 on Tuesdays and 8$ the rest of the week. Better still, that’s only for the first person in the group; the remainder are all $1 less.

    Next is the concession. Not only are the prices less than you’d pay at a 7-11, they are less than you’d pay at Safeway. And they have a good selection beyond the usual stuff. Things like juice and bottled pop if that’s your preference, incuding Diet 7-Up. Recently they’ve added hot dogs.

    Best thing about the concessions though is that if you bring your own containers you get super discounts on both popcorn (real butter) and fountain drinks. The only rule is that the containers cannot be larger than the cinema’s own “large” sizes, but experience suggests the rule isn’t rigidly enforced.

    Second best thing is that if you are going for both movies, you can order a pizza before the first show to be delivered for intermission. Prices are about $6-$8 depending on the type of pizza, for an 8″ personal size pizza.

    Finally, the very best thing about the cinema — Doris the proprietor, and her little dog Cupcake. Most evenings, they introduce the shows, make announcements about what’s coming up and recycling your beverage containers, and so on. The introduction is always ended with a joke, just “dirty” enough to confuse the kids, embarrass the teenagers, and make the adults laugh.

    Tuesdays are the best night not just for the lower admission, but also because the larger crowd adds a real community feeling. Everyone is friendly.

    If you act now, while one of the projectors is out of service, you actually get 3 intermissions for the price of one. A 15 minute regular intermission between the movies, and a 5 minute mini-intermission about half way through each movie, while they change the reels on the single working projector. They are waiting on a part to arrive. Once it does, they’ll be back to the usual single intermission.

    Lots of parking in the lot behind the cinema, and there’s a short cut through to 176 St. If you can find a spot, you can park on 176 St, but the side streets only allow 2 hour parking, not long enough for the double feature. Worse, Surrey seems to consider it an easy money grab, and the 2 hour limit is brutally enforced, particularly during the hours movies are shown.

Recent Posts

Blogroll

Categories