More Than Music, Theater Now on Menu at OCPAC

Can catsup be next?

It hasn’t been ruled out, but none of the items now being served at the Orange County Performing Arts Center call for it. That’s right, the $73-million cultural cabana, which for 10 of its 12 years denied patrons coffee for fear of carpet stains, is serving food.

“Turkey,” said center President Jerry E. Mandel, citing his sandwich preference recently among the cold offerings at Segerstrom Hall’s new second-floor lobby Plaza Cafe. “The veggie pasta is also very good.”

Jerry’s Famous Deli, a stone’s throw from the center, caters the operation, opening an hour before every show and during intermissions. It is quartered behind red velvet ropes within a carpet-free, 600-square-foot patch of pebbled terrazzo.

The space accommodates a cherrywood counter (where six kinds of sandwiches and two pasta salads--$7.50 each--may be ordered), matching tables and chairs for about 30 diners, and a big red Jerry’s Famous Deli sign.

“We’ll be adding some tasteful decorations,” said Mandel, who established the food service because most performing arts centers do it, patrons asked for it, and he attends performances most nights and wanted a convenient bite himself.

“The center,” he said, “is not a shrine.”

Actually, it took the institution far longer to furnish roast beef than to stage rock ‘n’ roll (still a rarity). But the cafe idea sailed past many of the same conservative trustees who vetoed coffee until two years ago, Mandel said.

“A couple of them said, ‘What took so long?’ ” he said recently at the center.

Most of the county’s smaller theaters, including South Coast Repertory and Irvine Barclay Theatre, have sold coffee and sweets for years. Some even serve white and red wine, the latter still forbidden at the center. And major performing arts venues across the country provide even more.

Patrons at the Terrace Theatre in Long Beach may nosh on sandwiches or fresh fruit, the Music Center of Los Angeles County serves hot meals (such as roast beef) before its pre-concert lectures, and patrons at New York’s Metropolitan Opera house make reservations to down a hot dinner before the opera or during intermission at the theater’s Grand Tier restaurant.

So far, the center’s new venture, which turned a profit during its debut a few weeks ago, seems a success. Mandel plans to extend the cafe area outdoors to the second-floor patio this summer, and the menu may expand slightly.

“I’ve asked my food and beverage people to explore sushi, maybe pizza,” he said.

Close observers might have anticipated the new food service. Mandel, who took office last fall hoping to make the institution “more accessible to more people,” soon after instituted desserts.

“I hope in my career here, I get known for something more than just a cafe,” he said, stressing nonetheless that the new amenity, in an era when competition for entertainment dollars is unparalleled, can only help. “It’s just to make the experience a good one, and that’s what you need in the theater.”

As for catsup, if it’s called for, it’s not outside the realm of possibility, Mandel said, even providing for the possibility that some of the red stuff may splash beyond the cordoned-off cafe. “If somebody spills something, we clean it,” he said.

A new era has dawned. Dig in.