Center Stage Theater is now more than a home for productions with its latest addition – King’s Café.
“Before we were just selling chips, concession kind of items that you would find at a regular theater,” said Megan Hill, the operations manager of King’s Café. “But now we’ve expanded that menu into hot, cold, pastries, breakfast items, lunch items, things of that sort.”
That new menu came after a year of planning and partnering with Dark Horse Pastries’ Terrell Cole.
“I just wanted to do things light, things that we could execute quickly, things that didn’t take long,” said Cole. “Because when you have 75 to 100 kids coming in all at once, you kind of have to be ready for that. Everything that we have on the menu is able to turn and burn.”
And there’s beer and wine for the grown-ups.
It all plays a part in making Center Stage home away from home for every visitor.
“We have many different guests in. We have NCTV in, we have Naperville Jaycees in actually this month, and we have Linden Oaks in at the beginning of May. So we’re kind of a community center here and we want to continue to get the community in so we know that if having this service for our guests would get the community in more then we’re happy to do that,” explained Hill.
“We have a lot of people come to see shows, and instead of maybe going to race off to another place to eat they can celebrate here and still make this part of the event,” added Kandi Hernandez, the executive director of Center Stage Theater.
Kandi’s father, Kingston Bowen, is the namesake of King’s Café, which makes the addition that much more meaningful.
“My father was instrumental in making you feel special,” she said. “So from the minute you walk into this theater that’s the feeling that we want people to get.”
King’s Café will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will be open during all performances.
And starting April 19, every Thursday evening Center Stage Theater will host live entertainment in its lobby right next to King’s Café.
Serving up a show and a sweet bite all in one spot.
Naperville News 17’s Christine Lena reports.
