Mike Wolanin | The Republic An exterior view of Yes Cinema in downtown Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, July 10, 2024.
There’s not much better than good food and a good movie. Audiences from the first Lunch with the Classics event, held Nov. 12 with the movie “North by Northwest,” will tell you that.
“… they applauded at the end of the movie which was really nice,” Lincoln-Central Family Neighborhood Center executive director Randy Allman said. “Everyone who was asked said they loved the food, they loved the movie, the picture, the sound quality, everything was great.”
The Lunch with the Classics series will continue on Wednesday with “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” sponsored by St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. The event starts at noon at the Kalsi Conference Center beside YES Cinema. Tickets cost $15.
Lunch, courtesy of YES Cinema Cafe, will also be served. The menu includes ham or chicken bites, green beans, mashed potatoes, lemon pie or chocolate pie.
Allman believes there is a population of movie goers that enjoy older movies more than newer films that are coming out, and this series serves as an opportunity to come in, have a nice meal, watch a movie and relax in the middle of the day. They chose the Kalsi Conference Center because it represents more the opportunity to have a dine-in experience rather than traditional movie theaters, he said.
“This is kind of you get the opportunity to sit and eat right before you have the movie, you can even eat during the movie if you choose to do so, but we just thought that would be a nice way to try to present these movies,” Allman said.
Though Allman said they wanted to iron out all of the details at their first Lunch with the Classics event, he believes they didn’t encounter too many issues. He does wish more people attended, but he attributes that to “North by Northwest” being a longer movie.
“The rest of them are not nearly as long and should go much quicker, the timing for the rest of them are in the 90 to 97 minute kind of thing,” Allman said.
The next film, “Mamma Mia,” will be shown on Jan. 7 and sponsored by Burt’s Termite & Pest Control. The menu consists of pizza and salad with mini eclairs. Then on Feb. 4, “The Goodbye Girl” will be shown, sponsored by Centra Credit Union, with a lunch of chicken salad croissants with salad and chocolate-dipped strawberries.
The last Lunch with the Classics will then be held on March 4 with a showing of “Hoosiers,” sponsored by Centra Credit Union. The menu for this film includes classic ballpark food and snacks.
In where he would like to see the series go from here, Allman believes the audience will tell them. If attendance is good, he said they will periodically continue and also try to make it more like a book club with trivia about the movies. He hopes they attract younger audiences as well and continue to grow each time.
“I’m sure a lot of them have been seen over and over but it’s nice to revisit these movies,” Allman said. “Each one of them has a lot to say, some of them have not been seen for a long time, so I’m just hoping that folks will like them. There’s a little bit for everybody there.”
