Rio finally granted liquor license

Now that the B. C. government has finally granted the Rio Theatre its liquor- primary license, Corinne Lea can breathe a little easier.

“It’s a huge relief,” the Rio’s general manager said. “To be honest, our days were numbered. The license took a lot longer than we had planned. If we had been delayed much longer, I would have feared for the future of the Rio. Financially, it was becoming too difficult to keep it going.”

The East Vancouver film house, which also plays host to live performance events and concerts, was served a cold shower last October when it was told that its application for a municipal liquor license for live events would hobble its capacity to show films, thanks to provincial legislation dating back to the 1920s.

At the time, Councillor Heather Deal called the provincial laws “arcane.”

Now the Rio will be able to do what it wanted to do: Serve alcohol at adultonly live events, and remain able to maintain film screenings at which no alcohol is served.

“We were in transition for such a long time,” Lea said. “Are we a movie theatre? Are we a live venue? Now we have the green light to operate the way we want to. We have a bunch of great live events in February and you don’t make as much money when you’re only serving popcorn. This will basically give new life to the Rio and secure our future as a business.”

Lea said the petition started by the Rio to have the antiquated laws modified is still going strong, and she hopes the government will eventually change its tune about movie theatres being able to serve alcohol or wanting to be multi- disciplinary venues with or without liquor service.

“Our liquor inspector said we are in uncharted territory,” Lea said. “We’re the first movie theatre [ in B. C.] granted a liquor- primary license. But we still want to have all- ages events, and be a community multimedia venue, and have midnight movie screenings. We don’t want to sell booze at those events.”