New Oceanfront theater presents ... dinner and a movie

VIRGINIA BEACH

Although Don Pollard spent his 20-year real estate career putting together movie theater deals, the most important one he's putting the finishing touches on these days is his own.

Pollard opens Beach Movie Bistro, a new dinner-and-a-movie cinema on Laskin Road near the Oceanfront, with a midnight screening tonight.

For the past several months, the Cox High School graduate has breathed new life into the former Surf-N-Sand cinema on Laskin Road. The Oceanfront theater closed in 2008 and remained vacant until Pollard - and his brother John and two other business partners - decided to lease the space.

Since then, the group has gutted the interior and renovated the concession stand and seven remaining theaters.

The Surf-N-Sand had eight screens, Pollard said, but one of the theaters was transformed into a kitchen where Bistro staff can prepare menu offerings like fries, sliders and flat-bread pizzas.

The menu isn't the only new addition to the old theater. The cinema has a new take on concession stands, Pollard said.

Bistro patrons can choose refreshments from a full-service bar stocked with more than 20 microbrews and an assortment of wines and cocktails.

It's just one of the unique aspects of the movie theater, Pollard said.

"We wanted an alternative to the standard megaplex, and of course the location is spectacular - we're bringing a theater back to the Oceanfront."

The property is also a bit of a family legacy. The site once housed the Surf 'n' Sand Motel, a property run by Don and John Pollards' parents in the early 1960s.

"They owned it for about five years," Pollard said. "It's come full circle. Of all the places that a business opportunity presented itself, it was a piece of property that our parents owned many decades ago."

George Baker, a Virginia Beach resident and owner of Baker's Jewelers across the street from the Laskin Road cinema, has been anticipating the return of a theater to the Oceanfront.

"Everyone coming in here is commenting on it," Baker said. "The whole Beach is excited because we've been without a movie theater."

Although Strawbridge, Columbus and Lynnhaven movie theaters were options, some locals think re-opening a cinema along the new Laskin Road Corridor will benefit area businesses.

"This corridor is becoming the best-looking corridor heading to the beach," Baker said, referring to the redevelopment construction taking place farther east on Laskin just off Pacific Avenue.

"In the retail world, action breeds action," Pollard said. "We look at this as a positive addition to the city's gateway project."

Rita Frankenberry, 222-5102, rita.frankenberry@pilotonline.com