WICKER PARK — Way back, when wild woolly mammoths roamed North Avenue and it was nonetheless doable to hire a Bucktown two-bedroom for mid-to-high three figures, precise video shops thrived round Wicker Park and West City.
There have been mom-and-pops plastered with sun-bleached film posters. Indie leases with opinionated clerks and deep catalogs of cult films. And, after all, the massive nationwide chains, with their lengthy cabinets stocked with infinite copies of “Meet the Dad and mom.”
Again 2 The Video Retailer, 1365 N. Milwaukee Ave. — a brand new pop-up speakeasy simply half a block from the onetime location of the North Aspect’s final Blockbuster retailer — is able to recreate that have.
The arrival of streaming companies ultimately led to the demise of the basic video retailer. The realm’s final indie video rental, Odd Obsession, closed for good within the early months of the COVID pandemic. However whereas the video rental could also be useless as a enterprise mannequin, it lives on as a strong object of nostalgia in Again 2 The Video Retailer.
Open 6-11 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, the pop-up gives an Instagrammable, anachronistic mishmash of ‘80s, ‘90s and early 2000s muddle and kitsch meant to evoke “the video retailer period.”
Credit score: Bucket Listers
It’s the most recent native enterprise from Bucket Listers, the event-promotion enterprise behind latest themed pop-ups impressed by The Golden Women, Saved by the Bell and Malibu Barbie. (Not coincidentally, Bucket Listers additionally partnered on a extra elaborate Blockbuster-themed pop-up in Los Angeles final 12 months.)
At Again 2 The Video Retailer’s latest preview opening, visitors have been greeted by film posters, a few arcade machines, a mock bed room with an “X-Recordsdata” poster and a Yahtzee field, an previous laptop monitor sitting in a nook and an entire lot of rainbow Slinkys. “2 Legit 2 Give up” blared over the audio system, whereas the TVs performed “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III ”— the one the place they journey again in time to 17th-century Japan.
Credit score: Bucket Listers
The centerpiece and principal gimmick of Again 2 The Video Retailer is the wall of huge, white, new-release-style cabinets that serves because the drink menu. Each $20 ticket to the pop-up comes with a 90-minute reservation and a membership card, which may be redeemed with a chunky Blockbuster-style VHS case from the shelf. Every case represents one among a number of movie-themed cocktails.
The Large Lebowski cocktail is, naturally, a fancified White Russian. Toy Story is a concoction of mint vodka, watermelon syrup and lime. The Jaws is tequila and blue curacao served in a fishbowl glass with a few gummy sharks. There’s additionally a menu of equally pop-culture-themed grub: Royale with Cheese Burger, Truffle Shuffle Fries, Mighty Geese Mozz Sticks.
In line with Bucket Listers, all the cocktails will also be ordered as mocktails — although one of many pop-up bar’s pleasant bartenders (or “videotenders,” because the press launch calls them) informed Block Membership the Large Lebowski and Comfortable Gilmore cocktails most likely comprise too many boozy components to be value ordering in non-alcoholic type.
Credit score: Bucket Listers
There’s additionally a Throwback Film Membership on the Wicker Park rooftop screening film hits from the period, with ’80s-appropriate neon couches for seating.
Again 2 The Video Retailer is open via Sept. 30. Tickets can be found on-line. Normal admission begins at $20, which incorporates one movie-themed drink.
The Throwback Film Membership begins at $25 per individual, together with popcorn and a welcome drink. Doorways open at 7:30 p.m. and showings begin at 8 p.m., with the next ’80s and ’90s-themed schedule:
- Friday: “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”
- Saturday: “Keep in mind The Titans”
- Sept. 15: “Good Burger”
- Sept. 16: “Step Brothers”
- Sept. 22: “The Sizzling Chick”
- Sept. 23: “Clueless”
- Sept. 29: “Ghost”
- Sept. 30: “Bizarre Science”
Again 2 The Video Retailer is open to visitors 21 and over.
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