Scoop: Cinema 21 Looks to Expand

1. TRUNKS 1, DRUNKS 0: The Oregon Zoo’s annual beer festival, Zoo Brew, has been trampled by elephants. Scoop has learned the zoo will discontinue the annual beer fest because the space where it was staged is being given to Packy’s gang. “Unfortunately, while support was strong for this beloved community event, upcoming construction of Elephant Lands will significantly limit the space,” the zoo told us. (“Reduced financial return” was given as another reason.) Zoo spokespeople, possibly still smarting from public outrage that erupted after it was revealed a traveling elephant show owned its new baby elephant, Lily, declined to answer further questions.

1. SHOT AND A CIDER: In happier booze news, it looks like Portland will be making its own brand of tequila’s country cousin, mezcal. Sofia Acosta Rascon has applied for a license to begin distilling the Oaxacan-style maguey (blue agave) spirit under the name Meteca—Spanish for “foreigner.” Rascon recently hosted an artisanal mezcal tasting at Southeast eatery Xico. >> In related news, Hopworks Urban Brewery applied for a winery license at its location on 2944 SE Powell Blvd. According to Bruce Kehe, marketing director at Hopworks, the brewery needs the winery license so it can make fruit beers that are fermented from more than 50 percent fruit juice. “It gives us a bit more flexibility,” says Kehe, “and it also leaves us open to make ciders in the future.... But we’re not going to make wine. You won’t see us saying, ‘This is our new Cabernet.’”

1. CINEMAS 22 AND 23: Cinema 21 could soon be a three-screen movie house. Owner-operator Tom Ranieri tells Scoop that he’s just submitted an application to the city to build two new, smaller auditoriums in the vacant building to its north. Exclusively digital, these auditoriums would seat 50 to 80. Ranieri says films could move from the main 500-seat theater down to the smaller rooms for longer runs. “It’s going to allow us to compete more vigorously because of the flexibility we’ll have,” he says. “We’re going to be more aggressive in going after the films that we want.” Ranieri says construction would take up to 10 weeks.

1. CURTAIN UP: A month after learning that Theater! Theatre! would close this summer, Profile Theatre has found a new home. Artistic director Adriana Baer announced last weekend that her company plans to move into Artists Repertory Theatre’s downtown building. This means two of the theater scene’s newest and youngest artistic directors—Baer is in her first year at Profile, and Southern California transplant Damaso Rodriguez will helm ART next season—will work in the same space and share the auditoriums. “For us to be in a building that is an active theater center is just so thrilling,” Baer says. “It’s great to think about going into the lobby and having an interesting creative conversation with somebody on a whim.”

WWeek 2015