Boxoffice-September.1997

—
ftesh salads, appetizers and then this panini
grill [specialized sandwiches grilled on a distinctive
Italian bread].
The Franks opened the cafe, which houses
antique radios along with 1930s and "408 artifacts
and pictures, in 1 995 to great success. Not
only did they win a local food award, but the
Radio Cafe has created an opportunity to expand
their special features. Kathy explains,
"We started up a talk cinema series." Every
third Thursday, a local professor leads discussions
after a movie. "It starts in the auditorium,"
says Jeff, "and then adjourns to the cafe,
where everyone can sit around and have—hope-
Hilly—dessert and coffee and talk about the movies."
A singles group now uses the DrexeU Radio
Cafe and Theatre for a meeting place. "We don't
encourage pieople after the movie to just leave,"
adds Jeff. 'They can hang out here."
started with 'Big Night' and a fabulous Italian
gourmet meal. We've done Tampopo." Next
week we're doing 'Like Water for Chocolate'
the movie and then an incredible Mexican meal:
quail with rose petal sauce—and live musicians."
Jeff says the best thing about running the
DrexeU is the personal aspect of bringing a
movie to a welcoming audience. When his
schedule allows, he still introduces the Friday
and Saturday night films. Jeff compares the
Drexell experience to "going to a fine restaurant
where the owner or maitre d' are there for
you. And you can count on that." For Kathy,
the addition of the Radio Cafe has only increased
the theatre's apjjeal: "The Cafe just
played up the very important social aspect of
going to a movie theatre with your friends."
She adds, "Certainly movies are some of the
most compelling social stories about who we
are and how we react and what the issues are,
and they really need to be talked about. It's
pietty exciting, in the talk cinema series, for
example, to see people talk about them. You just
see all this stuff pwuring out and that's what it's
about—that kind of interaction and sharing."
Jeff adds, "It really would be a shame to lose
the DiExells and the Dobies [see Feb. 19% issue]
and the specialty theatres in this country to these
megaplexes. I thinkthere'sacertain audience out
there where the space they're sitting in—the
kind of theatre it is and the people who run the
theatre and the ambiance—matters as much as
the movie they're watching. There's just some
magic quality where the space matters." The
space, and the food, maybe.
^U
Drexell Theatre
Owners: Jeff & Kathy Frank
2256 1/2 E. Main Street
Columbus, OH 43209
(614) 231-1050
E^arliest Movie Memory
Jeff: Sitting through the triple-feature
Saturday afternoon monster
movies. That was the highlight of
my childhood.
Kathy: 'The Third Man. " (I
Favorite Cafe Item:
Kathy: Double skinny cappuccino,
Jeff: New York cream cheesecake.
Favorite BoxOFFiCE Feature:
Kathy: Independent Showcase. a|
BoxOFnCE is like the Bible.
Jeff:
We use it for the reviews and for
keeping up.
Advice to Other Independents:
Continue to offer what you
do best: an experience that's more
unique—more personal, more
thoughtful—than mass entertainment.
II
RECIPE FOR ENTERTAINMENT: Kathy and
Jeff encourage customers to feast on fine films.
The Franks say the competitive Columbus
metropolitan maiket (with about 1 .4 million people)
is continuously expanding. "There's not just
one or two chains, but five or six chains, with
more coming in. It's a challenge for us," Kathy
says. But the Franks have always been up to
the challenge. "Even when they opened this
big 24-plex with stadium seating, it really has
not affected either movie theatre," says Kathy,
"because the experience that you have here is
just so different from that. Our attendance has
been really steady."
The Radio Cafe inspired a "Brunch with the
Bard" program when they screened "Hamlet."
Jeff explains, "We had a four-hour movie, so
you can get only two shows a day." They
wanted to try three shows on the weekend, but
wondered how to get people into a theatre at
10 am. "Kathy said, 'Let's do a brunch at the
cafe fi-om nine to 10,'" Jeff says. It was a huge
success and they plan on doing more. The
Franks' own another cinema across town—the
equally historical 1926 Drexell Grandview
Theatre which plays host to their
"CinemaFeasts" campaign: the Franks show a
particularly appetizing movie and then, in cooperation
with a caterer or nearby restaurant,
the audience enjoys a matching gourmet meal.
"We showed 'Babette's Feast' and then had a
complete seven course French meal. We
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