Name: Dinner and a movie? Oakland bar, The Avenue, rigs up DIY outdoor theater with patio dining
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Dinner and a movie? Oakland bar, The Avenue, rigs up DIY outdoor theater with patio dining

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateAround this time of year, Curtis and Tana Howard would have begun planning for the painstakingly elaborate Halloween display inside the Avenue, the and the last dive bar of its kind left on Telegraph Ave.Today, however, the Oakland couple faces a series of real-life horrors: the pandemic, for one, as well as a reduced clientele and the challenges that come with adhering to constantly shifting public health protocols.Still, the Howards are doing their best to adapt, creatively repurposing some of their decor to maintain a spooky, yet socially distanced ambiance while serving a rotating menu from local restaurants forced to shutter due to the pandemic. Using a projector and a large outdoor canvas screen, the Avenue has rigged up a DIY movie theater of sorts, allowing guests to watch a film on the front patio while they enjoy a meal.“I tested it out on Monday with ‘Spirited Away’ and people loved it,” Curtis told SFGATE over the phone on Wednesday morning. “A couple of guys I’ve never seen before just happened to be walking by, saw the movie we were playing and decided to sit down. They ordered hot dogs and a couple of drinks and stayed there until I had to take things down.”RELATED:&nbsp;On Wednesday, the bar kicked off its movie nights with the fittingly post-apocalyptic thriller “Mad Max,” also dishing out $4 tacos from , a Southern-influenced Mexican eatery run by the former proprietors of Bar 41.The Avenue will screen the classic Miyazaki anime “Spirited Away” again on Friday, accompanied by vegan sushi from , a pop-up restaurant that opened late last year. They hope to round out the roster with “Star Wars” in addition to more horror movies as Halloween nears.“We’re trying to survive within the parameters we seem to understand,” said Curtis, adding that the bar is operating at about 10% of their typical capacity. “Until we can get people inside again, we’re trying to keep our heads above water. It’s more like we have one nostril underwater while we’re barely breathing through the other with a straw. This is all we have.”Though the bar recently received an SBA loan, Curtis said he will have to go back to bartending full-time to pay off the business’ accumulating debt. In the meantime, he’s implemented a chain of safety precautions throughout the outdoor patio area while preserving a bit of the Avenue’s signature charm.A chalkboard sign adjacent to the entryway reminds guests to “assume EVERYONE has the cooties,” while a nearby zombie mannequin named Bob brandishes a list of additional health guidelines. A hand sanitizer bottle is placed on each table as well as the counter where customers order their food and drinks. Masks must be worn upon entering the bar, while ordering food and drinks as well as using the bathroom, and guests’ temperatures are taken with a touchless thermometer before they sit down. Only one “representative” from each table may order drinks at a time, and people aren’t allowed to move from table to table.“I’m doing everything I can to keep customers safe, but I also want them to have fun,” said Curtis.He described the joy he felt on Monday night as he watched complete strangers begin to chat amongst themselves while the movie played. “For the first time in a while, it felt like a real bar scene again.”ALSO:&nbsp;Last weekend, Tana outfitted the back patio with skeletons, monster masks, jack-o-lanterns and a full-scale graveyard. She hopes they can set up an additional screening area there for adults to enjoy horror movies, with the street-facing front patio serving as a space for more kid-friendly fare like “Paranorman” and “Coraline.”“The day we spent pulling the graveyard scenes out of our storage space and working together on that project, it was like a tonic for Curt and I,” she said. “Even though it was a small thing, it put us back in touch with our feelings about the bar. We’re all just trying to have these little moments of fun and forget about how bizarre and hard this year has been so far.”The couple says they’re grateful for the local restaurants that have reached out to work with them so far, and that they hope to partner with other recently-shuttered eateries as the pandemic lingers on.“The silver lining in this is that all of us have met and come together,” said Tana. “I’m getting a little sniffly here, but we’re trying as a community to help each other during these uncertain times. It’s an example of the service industry coming together to keep everyone afloat in a proactive, positive way.”The Avenue is located on 4822 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland and serves outdoor dining every day from 4-11 p.m. Friday's screening of "Spirited Away" will begin at 8:45 p.m.&nbsp;Amanda Bartlett is an SFGATE culture reporter. Email: amanda.bartlett@sfgate.com | Twitter: @byabartlett

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateAround this time of year, Curtis and Tana Howard would have begun planning for the painstakingly elaborate Halloween display inside the Avenue, the and the last dive bar of its kind left on Telegraph Ave.Today, however, the Oakland couple faces a series of real-life horrors: the pandemic, for one, as well as a reduced clientele and the challenges that come with adhering to constantly shifting public health protocols.Still, the Howards are doing their best to adapt, creatively repurposing some of their decor to maintain a spooky,...

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Amanda Bartlett

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Dinner and a movie? Oakland bar, The Avenue, rigs up DIY outdoor theater with patio dining

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