“Maybe the big guys don’t want to do it, but we’re certainly willing to experiment with it,” says Jeff Benson, who co-founded Movie Tavern in 2001.

Jeff Benson developed a winning concept in 2001 when he took the classic American night out – dinner and a movie – and merged it into a single location. As one of the pioneers of the cinema eatery, Movie Tavern is the first such concept to go nationwide, and Benson says it’s helping people rediscover the thrill of going to the movies.

At Movie Tavern, patrons can order and eat their meals right at their theater seats. Although the majority of Movie Tavern locations are repurposed from existing theaters, Benson, co-founder, president and CEO of the firm, says the company is beginning to build new locations from scratch.

Benson says the key to Movie Tavern’s success has been in its willingness to take risks that nationwide theater chains aren’t willing to. “Maybe the big guys don’t want to do it, but we’re certainly willing to experiment with it,” he says.

The concept enjoyed modest success at first as people became used to the idea, but it took the intervention of a superhero to get the ball rolling for real. “We opened or first one in November of 2001, which was shortly after 9/11,” Benson says. “It was very slow for about six months. ‘Spider-Man’ opened up at about $114.6 million [in July 2002], and all of a sudden, it was like the country woke up out of this funk.”

As with any new venture, Benson says his management style is very hands-on. “I’m involved in everything, from site selection ... to operations. We’re still tweaking the concept – we’re still learning every day. A year or two down the road we’ll really have the concept refined and defined.

 “[The bottom line is], we’re getting people off their couches; they’re at home watching DVDs and they’re maybe disenchanted with the multiplexes.”     

Delivering in the Dark
Like any pioneer in its industry, Movie Tavern continues to make improvements in the way it operates, solving some of the problems inherent in offering full restaurant and bar service in what is essentially a dark room. “The first thing we’ve done is we’re in the process of installing a proprietary call-button system in every theater between every two seats,” Benson says.

The system is similar to the call-button for flight attendants, with the added feature that a manager is alerted if the call goes unanswered for more than four minutes. Benson says the system is more efficient and effective than the ones used by similar cinema eateries.

One of the biggest headaches in combining full-service restaurants with movie theaters is that unlike regular restaurants, cinema eateries don’t experience a steady stream of customers throughout the day. The kitchen and wait staff must be prepared to cook and serve for more than 100 people all at the same time.

To speed up the ordering, Movie Tavern uses Symbol handheld PDAs running POSITouch that instantly transmit orders to the kitchen. “They don’t have to write it down and then run it over to the point of sale and enter it in,” Benson says.