Located off of Union Street in Seattle’s Central District, the Central Cinema offers a unique movie-going experience that is both surreal and comforting. The movie house has a cozy feel; you won’t find benches separated by armrests. Instead, the room is filled with rows of uniform couches that fit about two or three people — four if you’re feeling particularly cuddly. Each couch has a table in front to hold the food. And the food is just as exciting as the décor.

The menu lists few of the standard, overpriced theater options. In its place are delicious salads, appetizers, burgers and, of course, beer and wine. All reasonably priced.

The popcorn comes in five different flavors, and as patrons have said, is reason to come in itself. Daniel Robinson and Janelle Chan, two regulars at the cinema ordered three bowls of popcorn and had eaten them all by the end of the movie.

“Thank god I found this place,” Chan said. She stumbled upon the Central Cinema soon after moving in down the street and enjoys the “nostalgic experience” every time she watches a movie there. Robinson said all of the food he had tried was good and raved especially about the pizza.

This authentic feel extends to the owners. Kevin and Kate Spitzer opened the cinema roughly four years ago and still operate it as a family business. They spent some time visiting with friends in Portland, Ore., and loved the Central Cinema concept. Returning to Seattle, after a weekend away, they “tried to find a place where you can watch a movie and have a beer at the same time,” Kevin Spitzer said. “We began to wonder what Seattle’s problem was, whether it was some sort of a political problem with the liquor laws.”

The licensing process took some time but eventually came through, and soon the cinema aligned with Kevin Spitzer’s vision.

But before the Central Cinema was a cinema, it was a dairy. A beautiful light display on the ceiling — made from milk jugs— is an homage to the theater’s rich history. In the years following, Kevin Spitzer used it as a workspace where he would cut and weld metal sculpture. The many metal sculptors in Seattle are overshadowed by “the sexy-bling of glass blowing,” as he put it. After years of the hard, dirty labor and the fact that his passion turned into something he did more for the money than art, he decided to use the space for the cinema.

On this night they were showing Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, but Kevin Spitzer said there’s no specific movie genre that they show.

“We’re trying not to be a niche market so much, sort of the anti-programming thing,” he said. “We’re not trying to be just an art house or just a repertory classic theater, or just a foreign theater, of anything like that. There are definitely theaters that fill those niches already.”

The Central Cinema usually shows the same movie for about a week. They take movie recommendations from patrons and try not to run the same types of movies in successive weeks.

“It’s not like we’re going to have a string of romantic comedies back to back to back,” he said.

Before the showing of Willy Wonka, there was a showing of a short film called Joe Sweet. The short was an old cartoon film about the evil Joe Sweet and what his sweets do to your teeth. Kevin Spitzer described it as a “warm-up to the feature.”

“You know how you go out to see a band and there’s a warm-up band?,” he said. “It’s part of the whole experience of the evening.”

Just blocks away from the famous Philly’s Cheese Steak lives the Central Cinema. It’s a place that will take you back in time, or reach you outside your comfort zone. It’s a place to take a romantic date or for a couple of friends to hang out. The films are new and old, indie, foreign and classic. They are high and low brow. Take a look at what’s playing, there’s something for everyone.

Reach reporter Natalie Sikavi at features@dailyuw.com.