Though purple paint is still wet on the walls of the Tin Theater, the outside window already sports a classic poster for "The African Queen," soon to be the first movie screened in a Burien theater in 40 years.

Dan House, owner of the Tin Room Bar and Grill, described his entry into the movie business with a kind of civic zeal.
"The city was screaming for something new," he said. "Burien needs a movie theater." Whenever he wishes to see a movie in a theater, he noted, he must drive into downtown Seattle or Southcenter.

Other residents of Burien have the same problem. "I didn't start with a business plan in mind; I just thought people wanted it."
House said that the idea of building a movie theater next to his restaurant has been in the back of his mind ever since he moved into the building, formerly home to the Hi-Line Tin Shop, in 2004.
The longest running business in Burien at the time, the tin shop featured a metal storage area that House thought would be "a great space for a theater."

Audiences will be able to purchase alcoholic beverages in addition to more traditional movie fare, limiting attendance to patrons 21 and older. House hopes to combine normally separate entertainment experiences, filling an underexploited theater niche.
Operating on a two-week schedule, the theater will screen an eclectic mix of "foreign films, cult favorites, classics, and films recently released on DVD." The theater may be reserved for private events, and a television will allow visitors to enjoy everything from the Super Bowl to the Oscars on the big screen.

When it opens on June 19th, the theater will seat 42 patrons and screen movies twice a day. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" will head the lineup, as House wanted to inaugurate his theater's tenure with a classic film. It will be followed by "The Big Lebowski," "because people just love that movie," and wine comedy "Sideways," which will likely involve a merlot special.

Next, the 2008 documentary "Man on Wire" will play. For this piece, House offered the kind of testimony that has caused countless moviegoers to descend on theaters over the course of cinematic history: "It's just a great movie." At the front of the Tin Theater, the painted-on purple curtains have already been drawn back.

Tin Theater proprietor Dan House, left, and crime-thriller writer Robert Dugoni stand under the sign for the theater in Olde Burien.