New business brings movies under the stars to SLO County wineries
Let’s all go to the movies — on the lawn of a winery in San Luis Obispo County.
Paso Picture Show is a new outdoor movie night experience that opened this month in SLO County, with its upcoming second showing in less than a month.
The Picture Show is showing the movie “Sideways” at Bianchi Winery at 3380 Branch Road in Paso Robles on Sept. 20.
It will be the second time the winery’s lawn is used for an outdoor movie night. On Aug. 16, the Picture Show premiered with “Tombstone,” with popcorn bags and glasses of wine served in front of a giant inflatable screen.
“It’s so much more fun when you watch a movie you’ve seen a hundred times with a whole community of people, and everyone’s laughing and cheering together,” Paso Picture Show cofounder Wilder Simmons told The Tribune. “It feels like that’s why movies were made.”
Paso Picture Show is celebrating the 21st anniversary of “Sideways,” which was released in October 2004, with wine, popcorn and an enthusiastic crowd to watch — or rewatch — the classic.
“If you want to go watch just a regular old movie, go to the movie theater, but if you want to be outside, under the stars, under a beautiful vineyard, drinking their wine, and then watching the movie, it’s like the movie is a part of the bigger experience and the reason why everyone comes together,” cofounder Bradley Simmons told The Tribune. “It’s really just a great reason to get outside in the vineyards and be around other people and have something fun to do.”
Why start outdoor moving business in SLO County?
The husband-and-wife pair moved from Pasadena to Paso Robles one year ago and have backgrounds in film and television.
They said they wanted to bring nighttime to wineries that historically close early in the evenings.
“How can we get these wineries to stay open later, or have an event that could be fun?” Bradley Simmons said. “The Los Angeles area does a lot of movie nights because of the film industry, and it was something that we loved. We’ve been to hundreds of them, and we thought we could probably bring this to Paso and to North County and SLO County.”
Doors to Bianchi Winery open at 5:30 p.m. for the movie night, and the film will begin to roll a little after dusk.
At 6:30 p.m., film critic Kirk Honeycutt and journalist Mira Advani Honeycutt, authors of “Sideways Uncorked: The Perfect Pairing of Film & Wine,” will engage in a Q&A session with the audience.
Paso Picture Show’s second premiere has four types of tickets — general admission, a deluxe experience, group tickets with a table and VIP seating at a fire pit. Ticket prices range from $22 to $55 per person and all tickets include a signature glass of wine from the winery.
The Simmonses said they are planning to expand Paso Picture Show first to other Paso Robles wineries — stay tuned for details on those in the future — before bringing their outdoor movie experience to SLO, Atascadero and Templeton.
Grub in the form of food trucks and charcuterie boards are also in the works for future showings.
For more information
Paso Picture Show’s showing of “Sideways” at Bianchi Winery at 3380 Branch Road is on Sept. 20 with doors opening at 5:30 p.m.
To purchase tickets, visit its website at pasopictureshow.com.