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Green Light Cinema expands with lounge and kitchen
Mike Hazlett was on to something good. He knew it right away.
Following a soft opening in December, Hazlett’s Green Light Lounge & Kitchen officially debuted Jan. 3 with a performance by the Jazz Librarians. The place was packed.
So Hazlett is creating a rich event list of music, comedy, trivia and other performances that pair well with a meal and a beverage. And hanging out a figurative “use this space for YOUR event” sign.
Jan. 3 inside the new evgent space. Photos provided.
Green Light Lounge & Kitchen, 225 2nd Avenue N., is next door to Green Light Cinema, the 80-seat big-screen theater for small and independent films Hazlett and his wife Sue opened in 2021.
That’s not a coincidence.
“I would get calls and requests all the time for people who wanted to do a premiere, and then have a party,” Hazlett said. “The Grand Prix called me last year; they wanted to put in the Netflix series F1, then do a big party/reception thing. And I’m like ‘I don’t have the space.’ I get a ton of that.”
When the 3,500 square-foot former location of Hops and Props opened up, he pounced. And had some serious remodeling done.
Although the lounge and kitchen operates as a separate entity, Hazlett’s ideal is that they will “feed off” one another.
“The real question is, Will this help sell movie tickets? We’ll see. I’m trying to catch before and after. Dinner and a movie? Movie night or whatever? It’s one-stop shopping now. You come in and have a drink, go see the movie, come in after for a meal … we’re hoping to find that symbiosis between the two.”
By counter-programming against the corporate multiplex theater chains, indie houses like Green Light attract audiences interested in smaller films, the critical favorites that frequently slip under the radar of the masses (i.e. they’re not big-budget superhero movies).
Even that hard-and-fast rule is being tested these days, as streaming takes a bite out of the medium-to-small film market).
All of which means Hazlett needs to pay close attention to trends in the movie distribution industry, and book aggressively to stay in the black.
Adding a lounge and kitchen, he said, “gives us a bigger canvas.”
Green Light Cinema is one of the few small, independent Florida movie houses to survive recent trends in the business. “I just got to the point,” said Hazlett, “where ‘I can make this viable. I can make it break even. But I’m not making any money.’ We’re kind of an outlier; we do better than most theaters, percentage-wise, but I just couldn’t get there.”
Enter Green Light Lounge & Kitchen. “It’s a simple menu. The chef is actually the mom of one of our acting-class instructors; she’s from Argentina, so we have an Argentinian flair to it. I’m not looking to get a Michelin star here. We’re just trying for good food, for folks to hang out.”
He’s got big plans for his new venture. “I really think we’re doing it wrong in the movie business. What we really should be saying is, it’s so much cheaper to go to the movies than it is to do anything else. Go see a concert. Go to a professional sports game. Then you’re talking serious money.”
Photo by Bill DeYoung.
