Feb. 15: Capitol 6 Drive-In, San Jose CA

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It’s Day 46 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey, and my first in the San Francisco Bay area. It took over two hours to drive from little Madera to the Capitol 6 Drive-In in San Jose CA

The Capitol was one of the last in the primary wave of drive-in theater construction. When it opened in May 1971, there were already six other drive-ins in San Jose. A decade later, it was one of three survivors along with the El Rancho and the San Jose. Now it’s the only one left.

Have you ever heard of Brazilian cheese rolls? I hadn’t until I got a cup of pao do queijo at the concession stand. Not sweet, but very cheesy! They also had hot Cheetos mixed with popcorn, but I’ve got to draw the line somewhere.

With six screens to choose from, at least I got a break from The Lego Batman Movie, which was on only two of them. Several movies I would have preferred were on later, but the only early film I hadn’t seen was Fifty Shades Darker. How was it? As reviewer Amy Nicholson put it, the Fifty Shades movies “aren’t so bad they’re good. They’re so brilliantly bad they’re genius.”

Miles Today / Total:  124 / 5405 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Fifty Shades Darker / 34

Nearby Restaurant: Sometimes, you just take whatever’s across the street. In this case, that’s Tony Di Maggio’s Pizza, home of the world’s best stromboli. Not only was the food great (as in wonderful taste and as in huge), I could look out the window across Monterey Road to see the Capitol’s screens.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Every hotel close by was either undesirable or excessively priced. That’s what I told myself as I ponied up a few more twenties to stay at the historic Hayes Mansion three miles away from the Capitol. It may be the first hotel I’ve visited this trip that has its own Wikipedia page, not to mention a pamphlet with a self-guided walking tour. I could get used to this!

Only in San Jose: According to the San Jose Mercury News, one day in May 2009 the San Jose Fire Department’s hazmat team was summoned to an AT&T call center to rescue workers who had been overcome while trying to clean out the office mini-fridge. Over 300 employees were evacuated, including seven treated at area hospitals. A total of 50 firefighters and 18 emergency vehicles responded to the two-alarm incident.

Next Stop: Solano Theater, Concord CA.