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Sony Centre F&B program sets the stage for theatrical eats
June 16, 2011
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Executive Chef Stephen Lee can tailor menus to complement the stage show at the Sony Centre

By Jennifer Bill

The Sony Centre for the Performing Arts has raised the curtain after a $40-million renovation, offering a charming, modern space to host corporate meetings and events, with a unique food and beverage program. The Centre boasts it’s the only theatre in Canada that offers a hot meal from concessions to theatre-goers before the show – and there are no hum-drum concession snacks here.

After being closed for two years, the facility re-opened on its 50th anniversary in October, featuring a food and drink menu that goes hand in hand with the evening’s featured stage show.
 
Sony Centre’s new Executive Chef Stephen Lee has conceived a multi-meal menu which he will customize for any type of occasion. A meeting, meal or reception can be coupled with the show, offering companies the chance to give their employees an unrivalled experience at one of Toronto’s longtime theatres.

“The facility is amazing in its versatility,” says Scott North, corporate sales manager, Sony Centre for the Performing Arts.

“We have three different levels that you can have anything from a theatre-style town-hall meeting to a sit-down dinner for 500.”

The Sony Centre hosts everything from a cocktail reception to a sit-down plated dinner, to everything in between in several different spaces. Corporations can use the evening’s show as the featured entertainment after a meeting, and can continue with a post-show reception in a private area.

“It’s a different space – the history in this place is unbelievable. It’s fascinating to know that Baryshnikov danced here. Harry Belafonte was here, Liz Taylor. You don’t get that in a hotel ballroom.”
 

  

The Sony Centre has two segments of business – the theatre crowd, for 175 shows a year, and corporate, which North says is a huge focus for the facility. The idea to tailor the menu offerings to the evening’s entertainment came about when management brainstormed with Chef Lee on the crucial question: How can they be different?

“Everything complements each other and works hand in hand,” says North. “It’s a constantly changing menu. For corporate clients coming in, we will send out a basic menu they can look at to get ideas and we work with the clients to customize. The chef will make it unique and gear it to the theme. The sky’s the limit in what we can do.”

With menus typically corresponding with the culture of the show on stage, companies seeing Moulin Rouge, for example, had a reception with a dessert station of crepes and French pastries. Russian borscht served before the Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet’s production of Swan Lake seems deliciously fitting.
“You need to sit and talk to the client and try to get an understanding of what they want,” said Lee, who is employed by Sodexo. “People like to think that they’re getting something customized. People want to see something tailored just for them.”

At the Sony Centre’s bustling re-opening party featuring Cirque éloize, there were stations throughout the venue featuring food from five countries performing there in the next few months.

“We are going to have so much diversity come through the building. For rock shows, we’re not going to serve a beef wellington,” says Lee, adding that they tried out an herbed brownie on the menu for a ’70s rock crowd.

Formerly the executive chef for the Toronto Airport Marriot and Blue Mountain Ski Resort in Collingwood, Ont., Lee is no stranger to heading up events for large groups of people – he cooked at the British Open in Scotland, and was in charge of feeding all of the athletes at the Whistler villages during the Vancouver Winter Olympics. That translated to the creation of 350,000 meals in nine weeks, which resulted in him having only four days off in 70. “That’s what we live for, those challenges.”

Lee is currently working with the Stephen Lewis Foundation on the menu for its 600-person AIDS fundraiser on May 3, where songstress Alicia Keys headlines with a slew of performers. Lee will put together a 300-person VIP dinner beforehand, and a VIP reception following the show. As the evening will raise funds for AIDS prevention in Africa, the menu will be themed around North African food.

North says corporate groups are attracted to the facility because it is a new player within the event venue market, so there is no “been there, done that” consideration when corporations are choosing venues.

North says the corporations that have held events there range from large multinational companies to small companies in the neighbourhood, including : Sony Canada, Sony Global, Shaw Communications, Interac, Rolex, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Marsh & McLennan, Stikeman Elliott LLP, and construction company Vanbots. TD Financial organized an event for 1,000 people for lunch, use of the theatre for a presentation, and then a reception in the evening. The Centre will also hold the George Brown College convocation, hosting 14,000 people in four days.

Lee hopes to one day present an event with a massive sit-down dinner on the beautiful and majestic stage, which can hold 250-300 people. 

“The one thing I would love to do … is dinner on the stage. We don’t even have to do anything to the décor. That would be a very neat thing, to say we are having dinner on the Sony Centre. Not many places have the space to do that.” 

Filed under: Unique Venues

 

  
 
 
 
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