One hundred years after it was established in 1912 as Northampton’s first purpose-built cinema, the Picturedrome came under the management of Chris D’alessio. In its latest guise as a live music and food venue, Chris sensed its potential to play an equally crucial role in the 21st century entertainment scene. Enamoured of the Manchester nightlife with Deansgate Locks’ irresistible fusion of food, drink and live DJs, Chris could see an opportunity to recreate the same kind of electric atmosphere in Northampton. So he set up KDR Events and completed a management buyout of the business in 2018. The restaurant, which seats between 70 and 80, is situated in the front room of the building, while the back room houses a music venue, with capacity for about 400 people. It’s no surprise that Friday and Saturday nights are busiest, but business is a far cry from the heady pre-pandemic days. “Before Covid, we’d just sell out every event we'd put on, I miss that feeling,” mourns Chris. “You get about three months [leading up] to an event so there can be a lot of stress trying to sell tickets. You have to work so hard for it.”

However, he claims that music and entertainment are the reasons the business is still here. “People will likely always want to listen to music,” he says. “That's probably been the saviour for us where a lot of people have struggled since coming out of Covid where things have changed a lot.” Chris has adapted his offer to meet changing demand. “Maybe six or seven years ago, we used to do a split where it was 30% DJs, 30% tributes, 30% originals and then we'd keep 10% free for private hires,” he says. “But we found originals were harder and harder to sell, whereas you could put a tribute on and it would sell out fast, so we moved over to doing 60% tributes, which we found improved the business. I think the days of just putting a resident DJ on weekly are over now.” Themed evenings are another dancefloor filler with the venue hosting garage nights, RnB nights, 80s nights and even daytime discos. “A lot of the time, we’re a venue that has four women to one guy, so if we target our events around women, we are more likely to succeed in selling the tickets,” Chris explains. “When we had our recent Girls Just Want To Have Fun daytime event, we sold 400 tickets – 398 to women and two to men!”

He prides himself on creating a safe space. “A lot of people come to us more than anything because they feel safe in the venue. I think it's quite a big deal for people to come out these days, especially to come out drinking, so we always say that we'll always make sure that we're a safe space before anything else. I'd like to think that as a venue, we provide that better than others.” The Picturedrome also stands out from its competitors because of its sensational food, with about 80% of the restaurant’s dishes cooked from scratch. This is largely left to the five chefs working the kitchen, although Chris does jump in during particularly busy periods if there’s a man down. The menu includes succulent Slow Roasted Pork, Pot Pie of the Day and 28-day-aged Rump Steak, but there’s no doubt that burgers rule the roost. “Burgers make up 70% of our turnover on food. “It drives the chefs crazy, they make all these menus and then people just want burgers most of the time!” grins Chris.

“We make a lot of our dishes suitable for vegetarians,” adds Chris. “With the last menu we had about 40% vegetarian options, which is very high. About 60-70% of our menu is gluten free as well, or things can be switched out to make it gluten free. Demand for that has really increased over the last couple of years. People just want to be better with food.” Stocking about 80% of the venue’s food from Booker means quality is never an issue.

But having a reliable point of contact is equally as important to him. “There's got to be a good account manager, somebody who really shows that they want the business, but in turn we're really loyal.” He found exactly what he was looking for with Booker’s Ben Reid. “I met Ben last year and he's always been really helpful,” he says. The restaurant gets Booker deliveries twice a week. “They always let us know when they’re half an hour away. I don't really remember a time where they've been late, to be honest with you.” Chris sometimes rings Ben if a product is unavailable to ask when it’s due to be back in stock. “He’ll say, ‘It’s coming in this afternoon – I’ll chuck it in my car and bring it to you on my way home’,” says Chris. “He’ll always make sure you’re okay. It’s little touches like that that make the difference.” The venue’s food offer also helps to attract business in the daytime, even when there isn’t any entertainment on. “We have a breakfast menu on Saturday and Sunday, which is 9am to 12 noon. “People arrive after they’ve done park runs at about half-nine for coffee and pastries or full English breakfasts. They leave at about 10:15 and then we get another rush again at around half-ten.” The extensive breakfast menu also includes Eggs Benedict with Sriracha served on toast or a croissant; Eggs Florentine; Chorizo Hash; Open Muffins; Sweet Potato Rosti; and Pancakes. And for those lucky enough to visit on Sundays, there’s a full roast dinner available with all the trimmings and indulgent puddings too.

Chris has been busy renovating the venue in recent months to ensure that no opportunity for business growth is overlooked. The music room has undergone a revamp. “I've painted the whole of the backroom, which took a month, and we’ve changed all the acoustic panels. We’ve refreshed all the artwork – the posters in the backroom have been replaced with TVs.” The lighting has also been upgraded. “It's something we continuously change,” says Chris. “It’s quite annoying because they're so bloomin’ expensive, but every couple of years we try and buy additional kit.” He has invested in lights with better moving heads, improved profile spotlights and more lighting around the DJ area, which is separate to the stage where the bulk of the lighting is focused. “We used to put an event on and hope people would come and have a nice time,” he says. “We've tried to change that approach over the last couple of years. It's more that they're going on a journey, not just to hear the music, but the whole package of the venue instead. So therefore I try to think that lighting is just as important as the music and build it around an experience.” He has also repurposed the mezzanine, almost doubling the restaurant’s seating for busy periods. “We've tarted it up a little bit and it’s full of tables when we need it,” he says. “We did it in time for Christmas; we've just had the busiest on record, pretty much every Friday and Saturday through December we had about 80 people up there. In previous years we would probably get half of that as it was never really considered as a space for food, so we really maximised that.”

Nothing makes Chris happier than a venue at maximum capacity. “In December, we could have 160 sitting down eating whilst 350 people were still dancing in the bottom area! “My favourite part of my job is Christmas time when it's at its absolute busiest, with food, drink and an event going on all at the same time!” he beams. “Where a lot of staff get overwhelmed by it, I just live for that, that's what I love about the whole thing. I could do Christmas every day of every year for the rest of my life. It'd be hard work, but I'd love it.” While spring isn’t as crazy busy as the festive season, there’s still plenty going on at the Picturedrome. Amidst regular tea dances, quiz nights and salsa sessions, there are performances from The Kaiser Monkey Killers, Not Radiohead, The Hot Red Chili Peppers and Noasis to name but a few. With the best food and entertainment in town, The Picturedrome is certainly a tough act to follow.