Metro Private Cinema

Metro Private Cinema puts you and your group in a private screening room in Chelsea — blockbusters on opening weekend, dinner served before the film, drinks during it, and a staff that disappears the moment the lights go down. As Founding Designer, I shaped the product from scratch: brand, interface, and the ongoing design work that keeps it evolving.

What was designed and built

• Full public-facing site on SvelteKit with Tailwind and Radix Colors: home, about, movies, menus, bar, private events, pricing, FAQ
• “Now Playing” movie grid pulling current titles with per-film Reserve CTAs
• Seasonal menus with individual detail pages (Spring Menu, Afternoon Tea, etc.)
• Transparent pricing page with itemized example events at three party sizes
• “Gather Your Friends” flow — invitation handling, split billing, dietary restriction collection
• About page structured to walk first-timers through every unfamiliar detail without losing the atmosphere

The rooms are the moodboard

• Deep burgundy, forest green, and dark navy pulled directly from the suites’ own candlelit aesthetic
• Food and venue photography carries the visual weight; type frames without competing
• Film poster art in the movie grid treated as first-class content, not product thumbnails
• The same copy principle runs site-wide: concrete specifics (“ninja service during the movie — invisible when you don’t need us”) over category marketing (“an elevated experience”)

Making the unfamiliar feel obvious

Private cinema is a category most people haven’t tried. The site’s structural job is to close that gap before anyone abandons the reservation flow.

• “How It Works” reduces the experience to four concrete steps
• Pricing is broken out by line item — suite, food, drinks, gratuity — rather than presented as a single opaque package price
• The About page names every service detail, including the ones that feel implicit: split billing is automatic, dietary restrictions are collected upfront, the server leaves during the film
• Alternative use cases (meetings, sports, birthday parties, filmmaker screenings) are surfaced without disrupting the primary movie-night narrative

Movie-themed menus are a core differentiator — each one crafted around the film you’re watching and presented as a named, card-based object with its own photography and per-person price rather than a generic food-and-drink list.

The Bar with No Name is Metro’s standalone cocktail bar — designed as a pre- and post-movie destination in its own right, not just an amenity. Photography and copy treat it as a named place with its own identity, separate from the screening room experience.

Metro’s 20-suite facility also operates as a private events venue. The Events page organizes use cases into four named categories — boardroom, brand showcase, filmmaker screenings, and celebrations — giving corporate and personal bookers a clear taxonomy without listing every possible scenario.

Ongoing

The site runs on a custom in-house e-commerce solution built alongside the product. Design work is continuous — new features, seasonal menu launches, and iterative improvements to the reservation experience as the business grows.