Byline: MICHAEL LOPEZ Staff writer
Joe O'Hara asks you to go with him on this one, as he gazes outwardly, at a sea of blacktop, and inwardly, at unpainted sheetrock and a cement floor dug and redug for new plumbing.
O'Hara is standing outside the former Grand Union supermarket in Congress Plaza, off Broadway in Saratoga Springs. What he envisions, inside, is two theaters, full of people, sipping Chardonnay and eating a sandwich, while a Bogart film plays.
Next door, depending on the season, a basketball or baseball game plays out on a sports bar's 8-foot screen. Outside, in summer weather, volleyball players are serving on sand imported to turn pavement to temporary beach.
Best known as the owner of the now-defunct Patroons and two arena football teams, O'Hara is turning his interest from sports to a sports bar and bringing cinema back to downtown Saratoga.
A banner strung across the brick facade of the ex-grocery store announces the planned June opening of Broadway Joe's, the sports pub, and The Off-Broadway Theatre & Grille, to be housed side-by-side in a cavernous, 17,000-square-foot space.
O'Hara believes he's responding to the main ingredient to commercial success: market demand.
``There's been a lot of interest for many years in getting movies back to downtown Saratoga.''
Eating a meal and watching a movie simultaneously may not seem compatible, but O'Hara says the idea is not a new one. First, ``It's the equivalent of watching a movie in your house,'' with the lights dimmed and a snack. Also, he's seen combination restaurant-cinemas in Minneapolis, Atlanta and Florida. His verdict: they work.
O'Hara is using capital from his other businesses -- he runs a financial consulting firm and housing rehabilitation company -- to support the nearly $1 million renovation. He expects the sports bar and movie grille to generate 100 new jobs. The project is being done by O'Hara and his wife, Denise Polit-O'Hara.
In the theater, expect ``quiet food,'' like pizza and sandwiches, to keep tinkering of silverware to a minimum. Diners will sit in tiers of tables, then tables and booths as the floor's angle increases. The venue will include second-run and foreign films and classics, he said. Admission should be about $3.
In a neighboring sports bar, patrons will be able to watch a game projected on a mammoth screen, or on 30 individual televisions placed throughout the pub. Patrons will be able to talk sports trivia, via computer, with people sipping a cold one in Seattle or San Francisco. Come August, the bar will host handicapping clinics for patrons of Saratoga Race Course.
Among those awaiting the theater's opening are Nick Carter, a founder and board member of the non-profit Saratoga Film Forum.
The Forum began three years ago to bring cinema to downtown, lacking a theater for at least 18 years. It now hosts film series in the third-floor auditorium of City Hall, where film-goers have seen the likes of ``Il Postino'' and ``Devil in a Blue Dress.'' The group also offers special events; recently, the Forum showed Chaplin's ``The General'' at the grand Adelphi Hotel, where a pianist played a score for the silent film.
Carter said the Forum has agreed to sponsor film events at the new Theatre & Grille two times weekly. For the Forum, it means replacing 16mm with 35mm film, a clearer film with better sound, and showing films in a ready-made restaurant.
``For some people, the food and beverages will be an enhancement and for some people it might not. . . . But, overall, from all the discussions we've had, it's very much looked at as a benefit and people are looking forward to it,'' Carter said.
Film Forum also is working with the Saratoga Arts Council as the council plans a new arts center in the former library on Broadway. He expects downtown can support both theaters, given different venues at the locations.
O'Hara had been intent in developing a project in Saratoga for a while -- then, the ex-Grand Union, with its ample space and parking, became available.
``I'm very much a believer in Saratoga,'' he said.
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Times Union/Luanne M. Ferris
