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Author Topic: Cinema Grill Closes After 5 Weeks Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 05-18-2004 07:45 PM                     quote: Mark Lensenmayer Plans call for moving the kitchen and a full-service bar to the front of the building, with fast-casual service. Gardner said that moviegoers will be able to purchase food and drinks in the bar and restaurant area and carry it with them into the theaters. There will be no servers inside the theaters. This is part of their plan for an overhaul? Sounds like a bad idea to me: customers trying to carry orders of food into a darkened auditorium. Overall, it sounds like the revamp concept has a "fast food" thing going on. I think you need the professional restaurant crew and servers crew on as well. For one thing, customer tips will bring about better earnings for the employees and allow the theater to have better quality employees on staff. Good luck on keeping things dependable if everyone makes minimum wage! I get the feeling the Cinema Grill guys didn't do very much research on doing what works. Or more likely, they thought they could cut lots of corners, charge the same amount of money and get rich. The limited menu reminds me of the failed Barry's Chicken Ranch restaurant chain here in Oklahoma. Former Oklahoma University (and Dallas Cowboys) football coach, Barry Switzer lent his name to this enterprise. I guess the people involved thought Barry's name would be enough. The menu was puny! The food was bland. I could get better fried chicken at the Taco Bell/KFC near my work! Brad is right about what works and doesn't work for movie dinner grilles. You need BOTH an experienced restaurant staff and an experienced booth staff. You have to do BOTH things right. It just sounds like the Cinema Grill watered itself down and didn't do either right. quote: Jeff Stuckey They will open [completely destroy anything left of the good theatre that was there] at the Eton Square 6 and Woodland Hills locations. Which sucks bad because the Woodland is the only theater left here in Oklahoma with the old GCC 'C I N E M A' lettering over it. Maybe I should write to them and ask if I can have it, since they will trash it anyway. How far are they along on the remodeling project? You might try calling around at a few Tulsa-based sign companies to see who is doing the old sign removal and new sign installation. It is very likely they would take the old GCC C I N E M A channel letters to their "boneyard" and perhaps destroy them, either immediately or at a later date. As expensive as aluminum and steel is getting, the letters may have some decent recycling value. On rare occaisions our sign company has given away old dismantled sign products ordinary citizens. Goodyear had us take down an old blue flex face sign. An ordinary citizen called us up and took the faces to put in his car garage. I guess that's better than carting them to the dump. We did have to run it by some folks at Goodyear to get their OK. Very often though, we have to destroy old signs and send photos of the destruction back to the company. Most companies require to ensure the dismantled signs cannot be reused for any commercial purpose. In the case of General Cinema, they've been gone from Oklahoma for years. So you might have a chance on snagging those letters --at least unless the Cinema Grill people have designs on trying to reuse them some how.  |  IP: Logged Carl Martin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1424 From: Oakland, CA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 05-18-2004 08:01 PM                        that would be funny. all they need is an "i" and an "l". i haven't changed the marquee for a couple years, but i've still got the skills. carl  |  IP: Logged Jeff Stuckey Film Handler Posts: 62 From: Oklahoma City, OK, USA Registered: May 2003 posted 05-20-2004 02:03 PM                     Thanks for the advice Bobby. I will send them a letter and see what can be done. The only bad part would be hauling them off, but it would be worth it. I am such a General Cinema geek. I even bought an old GCC polo shirt on Ebay. Of course, I am the only one that really gets a kick out of it. My wife thinks I am nuts.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 05-20-2004 02:49 PM                     Instead of sending letters, I would try giving them a phone call (both the movie theater company and sign companies). If business is hopping in Tulsa the way it is here, I'm sure most sign companies up there are very busy and may "drop the ball" when it comes to responding to letters. They might read the letter then say to themselves, "I'll write back later," and then wind up forgetting about it.  |  IP: Logged Jason Burroughs Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 654 From: Allen, TX Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-20-2004 03:11 PM                     Jeff, If it is infact a Cinema Grill, (as in associated with Restaurant Entertainmeng Group)then you can count on them leaving the old GCC signage in place. If you want to see their operations after a year of being open, come visit the former Cinema Grill Cafe in Carrollton, TX. If you want know how they operated, talk to their landlords, talk to the vendors that worked with them. I'm almost sure you'll get a clear picture of what type of company that they run.  |  IP: Logged

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