2009 BEST OF SILICON VALLEY Reader Survey Winner - Third Place

best Art House Movie Theater

On your first date, you took him or her to see that ersatz indie, the one about the shoegazer guy whose life goal is to visit the birthplace of every U.S. president. It's because his parents got divorced when they were taking a cross-country trip trying to achieve this goal, and they only made it as a family as far as Chester Arthur's birthplace in Fairfield, Vt. And the money you spent on just one ticket for William Howard Taft would have bought you two tickets at the Stanford Theatre, and the first date would have been in a good neighborhood, and it would have cost about half as much, and you could have been up in the balcony, which the theater showing William Howard Taft did not have, and the nibbles and sodas would have cost like half of what you'd spend elsewhere. And you could have gotten a reputation of a connoisseur of classic films, and you could have seen a Hitchcock or a Hawks or a Sturges on a big, big screen from an era when men and women weren't vaguely afraid of each other, and they did things like fight in World War II, or solved mysteries or ride horses around and get into sword fights. But you didn't. (RvB)


2009 BEST OF SILICON VALLEY Reader Survey Winner - First Place

Best Place to Impress a First Date


2008 BEST OF SILICON VALLEY Reader Survey Winner - Third Place

Best Arthouse Movie Theater

With its movie-palace grandeur, tasty popcorn and historically astute programming, the Stanford Theatre is a magnet for people who fervently believe that they don’t make movies like they used to. The prints are pristine; silent movies with organ accompaniment are frequently showcased; and owner David Packard is a major national force for film preservation.

-- Metro, Silicon Valley's Weekly Newspaper, September 24, 2008