Meriden Mall to get dinner theater
Meriden Mall will soon be home to a dinner theater, where a local troupe will present musical plays and other entertainers will perform while diners enjoy a meal.
Daniel Grant, co-founder of The 78 Dinner Theater, said the 13,500-square-foot facility is going into the adjoining vacancies once occupied by Ann Taylor Loft, Enzo’s Clothiers and Parade of Sports Novelties.
“We are hoping to have original productions, anything from sort of burlesque to maybe a steampunk version of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and shows that tap into pop culture with dance and special effects. We also hope to have comedians, speakers, symposiums, Sunday drag queen brunches,” Grant said. “On afternoons and some evenings, some children’s troupes may be performing there.”
Renovation construction will begin soon on the space. Grant, who lives in Plymouth, said he hopes to present shows by Christmastime, but that will depend on his ability to hire staff and recruit performers.
He said the facility, which he plans to give a marquee entrance outside the mall, will be split into thirds: one-third the dinner theater, one-third a restaurant-lounge and one-third a dance studio. The dance studio currently operates in a temporary space inside the mall.
“The restaurant will have a small stage where an acoustic act can perform or a trivia night,” he said. “We want it to be an overall entertainment place where people can come and hang out with their friends.”
Marc Dube, of Bristol, will be the executive chef at the dinner theater. Dube got his start in the restaurant industry at Lena’s in South Windsor and has worked as a chef at Three Figs in Suffield, Plan Bs in Glastonbury and Simsbury, Tunxis Grill in Windsor and Joe Pizza in Simsbury.
“In the bar area, there will be some higher-end tavern food with locally sourced ingredients from some of the local farms,” Dube said. “The dinner theater will be more higher-end and in-depth, more formal meals. I want to make some dishes geared toward the shows, with food to match the story.”
Grant said some of the local companies that will provide ingredients and beverages are Yankee
Cider Company of East Haddam and Karabin Farms of Southington.
The mall, like many in the country, has struggled in the last few years, even before the coronavirus pandemic made shoppers leery of crowded indoor spaces. In recent years, Meriden Mall lost its Jcpenney, Sears and Macy’s anchors, although another department store, Boscov’s, moved in in 2015.
The 180,000-square-feet former Macy’s location will soon be the home of Medcraft Healthcare. The new dinner theater will be situated between Medcraft and Best Buy.
Joseph Feest, the economic development director for the city of Meriden, said the 50-year-old mall at 470 Lewis Ave. is “like a lot of malls, going through some transitions.”
“The pandemic has put a crunch on all the major national chains. Slowly either they are closing up or consolidating in regional areas instead of being present in all malls,” Feest said.
He said putting businesses that are not retail stores in a traditionally retail setting is “a more modern
way of looking at things.”