A Night at the Metrograph

Metrograph opened in 2016 on Ludlow Street as a two-screen cinema built around rare archival screenings, on 35mm and digital, plus premieres and filmmaker Q&As. It was designed as a full night out: a bookshop, a candy counter and an upstairs restaurant and bar called the Commissary, all done in the dark wood and brass of an old movie palace scaled down. The programming leans toward international auteurs, rediscovered classics and themed series.

Buy tickets on the website, where members get earlier access and lower prices; Q&A screenings sell out quickly. Arrive early enough for a drink upstairs, which is part of the point, and book the restaurant separately if you want dinner. Check whether a screening is on film if that matters to you; the listings say. The cinema sits where the Lower East Side meets Chinatown, so a late noodle stop afterward is easy.