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Cinema Café opened off U.S. Route 1 earlier this month, bringing the underserved northeastern Chesterfield market a dine-in movie show. Picture by Ash Daniel
Amid a world pandemic that shuttered film theaters for a number of months earlier this yr, Cinema Café opened its sixth location per week earlier than Christmas in northeastern Chesterfield County.
At 45,000 sq. ft, with 9 wall-to-wall, digital film screens and 1,400 seats, the brand new Chester dine-in theater on Jefferson Davis Freeway is the most important but for the Virginia Seaside-based firm, which has expanded past the Hampton Roads area for the primary time.
“We all know what we’re up towards with the pandemic, so we’re easing into this opening slowly and safely,” stated John Walker, founder and CEO of Cinema Café, in a press launch.
Cinema Café initially deliberate to make its entry into the Richmond market in late 2019, however bumped into development associated delays. Then COVID-19 hit in mid-March and prompted Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam to shut all “nonessential” companies, together with film theaters, to mitigate group transmission. Theaters statewide have been permitted to reopen at not more than 50% capability in early July, however with lingering uncertainty over the airborne virus, moviegoers have been in no rush to return in giant numbers to enclosed public venues.
Likewise, studios have been reluctant to launch their main movies this yr due to financial, well being and public relations issues; whereas some titles have been distributed on to streaming providers, premiere dates for many of 2020’s summer season blockbusters – corresponding to “High Gun: Maverick” and “Quick 9” – have been pushed again to subsequent yr within the hope that widespread entry to COVID-19 vaccines finally will permit authorities officers to chill out theater capability restrictions.
One of many big-budget exceptions is Warner Brothers Footage’ “Marvel Girl 1984,” which premiered at Cinema Café and different Chesterfield theaters on Christmas Day. “We’re in uncharted territory on so many ranges,” stated Caitlin Walker, director of promoting and promotions for Cinema Café, in an interview final week. “Film choice is a significant driving issue for our trade. Studios are desperately making an attempt to get their content material out to individuals in the best way it was meant to be skilled. Films have been made for the massive display and we need to present them that means.”
At Cinema Café, the movie is simply a part of the expertise. It additionally provides reclining leather-based seats and particular person eating tables, in addition to a bar space with beer, wine and signature cocktails and an intensive menu of meals choices which are accessible through push-button waitstaff service.
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention presently describes indoor, on-site eating as being larger danger than out of doors eating and takeout, and recommends that indoor events be spaced 6 or extra ft aside and that waitstaff and prospects put on face coverings when not consuming.
Cinema Café says their dine-in cinema idea helps with bodily distancing within the theater as a result of there’s extra area inbuilt between every row of seats to accommodate meals service. And even earlier than the pandemic, the corporate’s areas needed to adjust to the state well being division’s sanitization requirements for full-service eating places.
“We’ve all the time had sturdy cleansing protocols, however we’ve enhanced a few of these to make the expertise as protected as potential for our prospects,” Caitlin Walker stated.
The brand new Cinema Café in Chester options reclining leather-based seating and eating tables within the theaters, in addition to a bar space with beer, wine and cocktails. Picture by Ash Daniel
A commerce group, the Nationwide Affiliation of Theater Homeowners, launched a brand new set of well being and security protocols in August primarily based on pointers from the CDC, the World Well being Group and the Occupational Security and Well being Administration.
Cinema Café is one among greater than 300 U.S. theater operators to take part within the CinemaSafe program, which requires compliance with capability restrictions, mandates face coverings for all workers and prospects and establishes HVAC air circulation and filtration requirements.
“On this new pandemic world, moviegoers must know that there’s a constant, science and experience-based set of well being and security protocols in place it doesn’t matter what theater they go to,” stated John Fithian, the affiliation’s president and CEO, in a press release.
In accordance with Caitlin Walker, Cinema Café’s opening weekend ticket gross sales in Chester “went very well” regardless of COVID-19 and the governor’s capability limitations.
“Our company are excited to have a movie show of their space,” she added. “They clearly need us there and we’re completely satisfied to be there.”
It has been a very long time coming. Because the 2006 closure of Chester Cinemas, a six-auditorium Regal theater on the nook of Weir Street and U.S. Route 1, many space residents have seemed ahead to the day they may see a film with out touring to Midlothian or Colonial Heights.
“I feel we’re all a bit of nostalgic about having a theater again in Chester,” stated Elliott Fausz, president of the Chester Enterprise Affiliation. “I’m positive I converse for everybody in saying that it positive is sweet not having to take a 40-minute roundtrip to observe a two-hour film. To say the least, I’m trying ahead to catching my first flick and actually kicking again within the seat with pint or two.” ¦
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