InBerkeley

The owners of Berkeley’s Elmwood Rialto Cinema on College Avenue (above) are stepping up to take over the El Cerrito Theater which shuttered last month.

The closure of the El Cerrito movie house came hot on the heals of the demise of the Parkway in Oakland — a cinema that offered beer, wine and squishy sofas as well as an eclectic movie program. Both the El Cerrito and Parkway theaters were operated by Speakeasy.

According to a report in the East Bay Express today, Rialto Theaters, operator of Berkeley’s Elmwood Theater as well as Santa Rosa’s Lakeside, was chosen from among seven firms who submitted proposals to El Cerrito’s Redevelopment Agency and City Council over the last two weeks.

If all goes as planned, Rialto Theaters will take over the Cerrito Theater by early July.

The Elmwood Theater is a well-loved local institution with an exciting art-house program. This month, for instance, it was showing three foreign-language movies at the same time — Lemon Tree, Sin Nombre and Il Divo.

[Photo: www.berkeleyheritage.com]

Tracey Taylor Business