Venue to host music and comedy shows for dinner guests
Published in the Dec. 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Photo by Marty Cheek: Nick Espinosa fills champagne flutes prior to Community Solutions’s Dec. 10 fundraiser.
More than 300 local residents discovered what lay behind the entrance doors of the newly remodeled Granada Theater Saturday Dec. 10 as they arrived for the Black, White & Bling Gala fundraiser for Community Solutions.
As they entered, guests were handed flutes of champagne and wandered the Granada bar and banquet room. Many gasped as they saw how what for decades served as a movie theater in downtown Morgan Hill had been transformed into something entirely unique. Where many guests had years ago watched movies, they stepped into an elegant dinner theater featuring sparkling halo-shaped chandeliers hanging from a vaulted wood ceiling. At the far wall where the screen once stood, they saw a stage for performers.
The journey to that night was one full of as many twists and turns as the Hollywood films that once showed on the Granada’s screens. The theater opened in 1952 and for several generations served as the entertainment centerpiece of downtown Morgan Hill. In the early 1980s, a dividing wall was built to turn it into a duplex of two smaller cinemas. With audiences increasingly going to the more modern CineLux Theatres across town, the iconic Granada was closed in 2003. A majority of the City Council argued to tear the Granada down and replace it with retail and residential lofts, so a group of citizens formed the Save the Granada organization and put together a business model to continue operating it as a nonprofit.
With increasing support from the community to preserve the iconic building, the Morgan Hill Redevelopment Successor Agency decided last year to sell the theater to developer Frank Léal for $294,476. In October 2015, he began a 14-month overhaul of the building into a dinner theater. With experience in the hospitality industry as the owner of Léal Vineyards and The Grove restaurant in Hollister and Willow Heights Mansion in Morgan Hill, Léal had the ability to turn the Granada into an entertainment and special event venue with food and beverage service. He also purchased the former Downtown Mall site adjacent to the Granada. Two months ago, he tore the structure down to begin construction of a four-story boutique Granada Hotel.
Photo Robert Airoldi: Fencing in front was recently removed, allowing a view of the front.
“The community has been so excited about the Granada Theater opening, and Frank Léal does things very well so we knew it was going to be a fabulous place,” said Lisa DeSilva, chief development officer for Community Solutions, a nonprofit service organization for South Valley families. She was in the bar making final preparations for the gala shortly before doors opened for guests. “Frank Léal is an extremely generous supporter of our clients over the years, so it means a lot to us that he’s having us be the first event here. We know people are going to be very excited to be here. And hopefully that excitement will translate into more support for our clients and services.”
She sees the re-opening of the Granada as a metaphor for what Community Solutions does, rebuilding people’s lives to make something special.
“It’s new beginnings and new opportunities, and that’s a great thing,” she said.
The day before the gala, Léal walked around the banquet room in his overalls, working with his crew putting on the finishing touches. He explained why, when he took his first tour a few years ago, he decided to take on the challenge of transforming a derelict movie house into a dinner theater.
Lisa DeSilva and Erin O’Brien with Community Solutions in the lobby of the new theater prior to the Black, White & Bling Gala fundraiser for the nonprofit Dec. 10. A grand opening was held Dec. 17. Photo by Marty Cheek
“I walked in and I saw it right away. I can see things done. And what I saw was these old photos,” he said. “I’m an old soul. I should have probably been born in the ’40s. But I saw photos of the Rat Pack at the Sands or those clubs in Miami — you know what I mean. That’s kind of the look I wanted — I got that Frank Sinatra feeling.”
The challenge of saving the Granada as a nostalgic part of Morgan Hill’s past was important to Léal. Many residents had spent countless hours there, and he wanted to honor those memories.
“To save a building like this is expensive, but you can’t buy history. So taking a building that has history and remodeling it and bringing it back to life and making it sustainable — that’s the trick now-a-days,” he said.
He waved his hand at the banquet room, pointing out the gem-like chandeliers and wall sconces that conveyed an elegant and timeless look. Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, martinis in hand, might in any second step into the room from the black-and-white themed bar.
“I really want to bring that old feeling of back where you worked a hard day, go home and put on a nice suit and go out and really have an experience — not just go out to dinner,” he said. “The days of everyone on their cell phones, kid on iPads, baseball caps and T-shirts — this is not that. That’s why the lighting, the music, everything is going to be dialed in.”
In all his business endeavors, Léal said what he really wants to achieve is to “sell an experience” to his customers and have them stop a few hours and enjoy what’s around them with their friends and family — to enjoy good food and good times, he said. Once his guests walk under the marquee and through the Granada doors, he wants to take them to a place where they’re not checking their smart phones and not worried about life stuff.
“Just give me four hours of your life — give me 6 to 10 p.m. and let me blow your mind. That’s what I want,” he said. “I want people to say, ‘Oh, remember that event at the Granada.’ ‘I saw so-and-so at the Granada.’ Or ‘We had our anniversary at the Granada.’” he said. “That’s the memories we want to create.”
Above: The marquee at the newly renovated Granada Theater is lit up. Photo by Robert Airoldi
As a dinner theater, the Granada’s doors will open at 6 p.m., allowing guests to come in to enjoy a cocktail at the bar, which is in the former location of the Morgan Hill Wine Shop & Cigar Company. The guests will sit down at 7 p.m. and enjoy three to five courses depending on the theme of the dinner. About 8:30 p.m., the entertainment will begin with performers stepping on the 22-by-15-foot stage. A variety of high caliber music acts will come through the Granada to perform for dinner guests, Léal promises. Among the first will be the Italian opera tenor Pasquale Esposito who was given a preview tour of the Granada by Léal recently and said he was impressed by the venue. The Granada will also offer performances of stand-up comics.
“I’m going to do comedy shows to seven-course wine maker dinners,” Léal said. “I really want to hit every demographic. So a comedy show with a band might costs $65 per head, but you’ll get a full meal, and see a show.”
The theater will also be available to show films when a 12 by 19 foot LED TV is soon installed at the back wall of the stage. It will be used when the South Valley’s Poppy Jasper Film Festival returns to the Granada at a yet-to-be-announced date in 2019. As part of the deal with the city, Léal is required to make the Granada available for five or six community-based events a year including the local film festival.
The Granada will also attract tourists from throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and south from the Monterey Peninsula. Many will no doubt stay at the next door Granada Hotel, expected to be finish by December 2018, Léal said. The hotel and theater combo will offer visitors an enhanced hospitality experience, he said.
“We’ll give people a taste of what we have here in the South Valley — our farms, our wines, our vistas and views,” he said. “Now if they have a reason to come for a show, we can get them here and get them walking downtown and driving our back roads and exploring the area, that’s how we’re going to get them into our hotel. It’s going to be day-trippers and over-nighters. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
