Blogfinger

First nighters. Photos by Mary Walton

By Charles Layton

The new Showroom Cinema opened for business on Friday night — excellent news for movie lovers in Ocean Grove and all points nearby.

We’ve been waiting for many months while the owners of the original Showroom, at 708 Cookman in Asbury Park, built a new, larger theater directly across the street, with three screens instead of just one.

“This is the first movie built from the ground up in Monmouth County in quite a while,” co-owner Mike Sodano said as he watched some of the very first customers come through the doors.

Since opening the original Showroom in 2009, Sodano and his partner, Nancy Sabino, have provided the kind of arthouse movie fare that you really can’t find anywhere else nearby. The Clearview in Red Bank is the only place that comes close. Having such a moviehouse on Cookman really completes that little business district, which already has a collection of good restaurants and bars, the coffeehouse America’s Cup and a couple of dessert places. The district now has everything one needs for a satisfying night out.

Sodano and Sabino celebrated their “soft opening” by offering all tickets for $7. And the city of Asbury Park helped out by providing three hours of free parking to visitors throughout the city.

But Ocean Grovers needn’t worry about parking. We can just stroll across the Wesley Lake footbridge and we’re there.

The new building boasts three theaters: a main room on the ground floor that seats 75, a second theater that seats 25, and a 12-seat space upstairs suitable for special screenings and parties. (The old place had a single 50-seat theater.)

This weekend’s features are “A Late Quartet” starring Philip Seymour Hoffmann, Catherine Keener and Christopher Walken; the documentary “Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel,” and  “A Royal Affair,” a Danish historical drama. Mary and I went to the 5:30 showing of “A Late Quartet,” where we ran into former Ocean Grove merchant Vicki LaBella, who seemed as pleased as we were that the new place has finally opened. “It’s nice that they’re right here in our backyard,” she said, adding that she intends to “come again, over and over.”

Although the new building has more space, it retains the intimate feeling of the old one. As has been her custom, Nancy Sabino stepped on the stage and gave a personal greeting just before the movie began. She thanked us for coming and said the owners had only gotten their final inspection and certificate of occupancy at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. “It’s so great to see everybody sitting in the seats,” she said.

The crowd, which seemed to be mainly old and loyal customers, gave her a round of applause.