Not Just An Empty Lot That No One Mows

Now I know all the things that I didn't know

I got smokes, but I buy 'em now, I guess I'm old

Drive-in's just an empty lot that no one mows...

"Drive-in Movies"

Ray LaMontagne

If necessity is the mother of invention, then perhaps Patricia Dellaportas of the Bel Aire Diner in Astoria, Queens is its midwife.  

According to its website, the Bel Aire Diner has been a fixture in its Queens neighborhood for more than a half-century.  These days, however, the far-flung impact of COVID-19 and the toll it has exacted on the physical, emotional, mental, and economic health of these United States has been felt equally by longstanding neighborhood legends and new kids on the block alike.  It has been more than sixty days since the lights figuratively and literally went out all across New York City - not just on Broadway.  It could be at least sixty days more before even a reasonable facsimile of normal returns to the City.  

In times like these, pivot or perish may be the mantra du jour.  At the Bel Aire Diner in Astoria, Ms. Dellaportas and her crew opted for the former.  So far, so good.  Since New York City's "shelter-in-place" guidelines prohibit the diner from opening its doors and serving customers in its dining room, the Bel Aire has come up with a really cool idea.  One that certainly seems to support its "retro diner" bona fides while also introducing its customers under a certain age to a great American pastime and a vestige of a time when dinosaurs, such as Yours truly, roamed the earth. 

Wednesday nights, the parking lot at the Bel Aire Diner turns into a drive-in movie theater.  A twenty-five-foot outdoor screen provides the video, a local radio station provides the audio, and for a $20.00 cover (it holds your spot in the Bel Aire's parking lot and is applied to your food order)  This past Wednesday night, there were two showings of Dirty Dancing and the week before it was Grease on the menu.  

Thus far, it is a hit.  The diner reported to the New York Times that its two showings of Dirty Dancing were sold out.  Presumably, if people keep showing up, then the Bel Aire will keep popping up as a drive-in movie theater for the foreseeable future.  

Maybe the drive-in movie theater is poised for a post-pandemic comeback? After all, it is the perfect social distancing entertainment platform.  Even if it is not, for now at least in Astoria, Queens, something old is new again.  

In a time where things that make us smile are in woefully short supply, the Bel Aire Diner's pop-up drive-in does the trick. 

-AK