The Old Log Theatre has an attached dining room. Herb Bloomberg, who designed and built the expanded Old Log Theatre near Lake Minnetonka, subsequently constructed and operated the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres. The Chanhassen Dinner Theatres in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota were founded in 1968. The facility uses a thrust stage to provide all 400 seats with an unobstructed view. The Alhambra is the oldest dinner theater still open. It was purchased in 1985 by Tod Booth, who left Chicago's Drury Lane Theatres. The Alhambra Dinner Theatre in Jacksonville, Florida was opened in 1967 by Leon Simon.

The Barn in Greensboro, North Carolina, was founded in 1964 and is the oldest continuously running dinner theater in America and the last of the original Barn Dinner Theatres, though a Barn franchise that opened in Nashville in 1967 (now called Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre) is also still in operation. Mickey Rooney and many other well-known performers acted in roles at The Barn. Actors were selected and cast in New York and resided in living quarters above the theater for the duration of the productions. In its early days, the performance's cast also served as the waiters and waitresses. At the break-up of the franchise, the production facilities were moved to Nashville. During the franchise phase of The Barn, all the productions were staged at a studio in New York City, then sent out to the individual theaters. The whole process took less than a minute. At the end of an act or scene, the stage would disappear into the ceiling, then reappear set for the next scene. Each franchise featured Wolfe's architectural barn designs, farm-themed decorations that included a plow and other tools, and a stage elevator that Wolfe called the 'Magic Stage'.

The chain included 27 theaters in New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia. He began the franchise in 1961 with Conley Jones. Howard Douglass Wolfe, an entrepreneur from Roanoke, Virginia, created the Barn Dinner Theatre franchise and has been called the 'Father of Dinner Theater'. The Candlelight introduced several innovations, including the hydraulic stage, lighting equipment located in the mezzanine, and stage wagons on wheels. Pullinsi returned to his Chicago home and opened the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, first in a building owned by his grandfather, then in a new facility with seating for 550. The venture was successful but it was unable to convert to a year-round operation due to the hotel's convention business. Bill Pullinsi was a theater student in 1959 who conceived and implemented the entertainment concept at the Presidential Arms Hotel during summer breaks. The first facility where dinner and the show were together in one room was the Candlelight Theatre Restaurant in Washington, D.C. It closed after 13 years, in part due to nearby competition from Broadway and Actors' Equity Association (Equity) requirements that the facility follow the rules that applied to Broadway theatres, including pay scales and other restrictions. Meadowbrook Theatre Restaurant Ĭedar Grove, New Jersey, was the location of the Meadowbrook Theatre Restaurant, which opened in 1960 with 700+ seats of table service. The facility uses local performers and shows are limited to musicals. Drury Lane Oak Brook Terrace opened in 1984. Drury Lane North began operations in 1976 and was sold to the Marriott Lincolnshire Resort, becoming the Marriott Theatre. It was the first of six dinner theaters he started and a local entertainment fixture for 45 years before closing in 2003. The enterprise was successful, prompting him to build his first theater, Drury Lane Evergreen Park in 1958. Tony DeSantis opened the Martinique Restaurant in Evergreen Park, Illinois and began producing plays in 1949 in a tent adjacent to the restaurant to attract customers. After the theatre was established, an adjoining room in the theatre was changed to accommodate a buffet dinner for groups attending the performance, eventually becoming available to all patrons. Notable venues in the United States Barksdale Theatre īarksdale Theatre in Richmond, Virginia, founded in 1953 by David and Nancy Kilgore at the Hanover Tavern, was the first formal dinner theater in the United States. Some early dinner theaters, known as 'theatre restaurants', served dinner in one room and staged the play in another. The Madrigal dinners in the Renaissance were early forms of dinner theater.

1.1 Notable venues in the United States.

Candlelight theater