NEW GALLERY BISTRO AT ST. MICHAEL'S THEATRE
Wednesday March 10 2010
THE FIRST in a series of major upgrading works in St. Michael's Theatre opened on Saturday morning with the official launch of the facility's new bistro.
The Gallery Bistro, which will be the first fully fair-trade eatery in New Ross serving all fair-trade teas, coffee and sugar, will be run in conjunction with the Bakehouse on South Street.
This project has been two months in the pipeline and according to Theatre Director Tomas Kavanagh is just one of a number of initiatives which the theatre hopes to embark on in the coming months.
'This is all part of our general business for the theatre and is part of a number of projects such as the addition of the cinema, the art gallery and the coffee shop and bar,' explained Tomas.
All profits made will be ploughed back into various projects in the theatre, one of which will be upgrading the current cinema to a digital 3D cinema - which will cost around ¤120,000.
All going well the new cinema could be installed by the autumn. 'Every inch of the cinema from start to finish is new technology. It will give us three advantages, we will get films quicker, the quality is better and it gives us the potential to show live events, such as for the first time you can see a 3D live match on the screen,' he said.
'An important aspect for a regional arts centre like ours is a focus on a number of activities, some of them are very expensive to run like the film making school and the rock school while other events are profit making enterprises. It is to get the mix of those together is what keeps a regional arts centre open.. In our business if you dint modernise you won't survive,' he added.
The Gallery Bistro will be open daily from Monday through to Saturday from 9 a.m. until 5.30 p.m.
