This stalwart independent theater located across the street from the Drake University campus used to represent nearly the only choice in town for anything approaching arthouse cinema in a pre-"Pulp Fiction," pre-BluRay world. Owner and longtime Des Moines theater businessman Bev Mahon maintains the Varsity as a sublimely simple option for your next foreign flick with subtitles: The single, large screen and gently sloping theater floor - no stadium seating or video game room here - come complete with reasonably priced popcorn and concessions and familiar faces on the other side of the box office window. Stop for dinner at Drake Diner down the street before
a show.