From a corner seat at a long pinewood table lined with volunteers and curious creatives inside Entrepreneurship Headquarters at Perkins Rowe, Manuel Valencia is talking roller skates.
As the driver behind the wheel of 300seats, a new independent movie theater and creative performance space that could move from concept to reality next year, Valencia methodically talks the group through his latest project outline and a slideshow of research done on pop-up restaurants. These alternative-venue and limited-engagement feastings are trendy in the kind of metropolitan centers where food trucks, all the rage here now, bloomed a decade ago or more.
The serial entrepreneur and independent movie producer estimates 300seats could take roughly $5 million in start-up costs alone, but before he can get funding, he needs interest. Before interest, Valencia needs ideas—like building table-running wine carriers out of roller skates, or suspending aerial acrobats to twirl and float above diners, or maybe displaying local artist-crafted centerpieces or even live centerpieces in the form of tabletop nude sushi. That would make passing the salt a lot easier. Brainstorming is the core of today’s meeting, and for Valencia’s proposed pop-up restaurant event, no suggestions are off the table.
Before running a theater, the native of Lodi, N.J.—home to HBO’s The Sopranos—just may become one of the more interesting party and event organizers in the city as he raises awareness of 300seats.
“I don’t like the round tables,” Valencia says on this humid July morning as he points to an image of a recent, overly institutional pop-up in London. “I don’t know if any of you guys have ever been to banquets, but you’re sitting so far from the people across from you that you can’t talk. A square six- or eight-top, to me, is much better.”
Valencia wants the pop-up restaurant to closely mirror his concept for 300seats, a modular creative space he envisions as a hub of activity, film and performing arts, but also a simple flexible space comfortable enough to attract those who want to simply relax, network or meet like-minded people.
“It will be about connecting,” he says.
Before earning his MBA from the University of Michigan and working in the telecommunications and business consulting industries, Valencia spent a few years as a party motivator in Manhattan. He navigated the world of high-priced Bar Mitzvahs and eventually co-produced Glow Ropes, an eye-opening documentary about the phenomenon, with his filmmaker cousin George Valencia.
The cousins were regulars at Sunshine Cinema, hailed by The Village Voice as the hippest theater in the city “by a mile.” At Sunshine it was about more than arriving at the theater just in time to dodge the commercials and crash into a seat for two hours before bolting home. It was creative, and it was communal. Valencia was hooked.
After he and his wife Jacqueline, the new senior vice president of marketing for Amedysis, relocated to Baton Rouge in 2010, the withdrawal symptoms began.
The Motorcycle Diaries. “A beautiful movie about the pre-revolutionary Che Guevara. Gael García Bernal is an incredible actor, and you can spend two weeks watching his filmography and be blown away by his range and talent.”
The Warriors. “A 1970s street gang cult classic. My cousin and our friends used to pretend we were the Warriors back in New Jersey—vests included!”
Victory. “This is a little-known prisoner-of-war gem that includes Michael Caine and Pele, and is one of the best soccer movies ever made.”
Raising Victor Vargas. “An urban love story shot in our old neighborhood—Alphabet City and the Lower East Side—I made this a date movie when I was courting my wife.”
Gun Hill Road. “We screened this Sundance Festival selection at our 300seats launch event, and you’ll be hearing a lot more about this movie—guaranteed!”
“I realized how much I had taken New York for granted,” Valencia says. “But I’m very much the kind of person that believes if there’s something you want and it doesn’t exist, make it.”
Valencia is committed to locating 300seats downtown despite what would appear to be competition from Manship Theatre and its newly minted focus on film.
“Manship’s programming is great,” he says to the group as they discuss the date of the pop-up restaurant coinciding with a hip-hop festival at Manship. “The thing is, in New York, there are dozens of things to do every night. There are more and more spaces, destinations and attractions downtown now than there were even five years ago, and we want to be one of them.”
The 300seats concept took second place at LSU’s StartUp Weekend last spring. Placing in the 54-hour competition earned Valencia workspace here at Entrepreneurship Headquarters and a lot of interest from a circle of volunteers and collaborators.
“There are lots of great people all moving toward the same goal of building a film community in Baton Rouge,” says Chesley Heymsfield, a veteran filmmaker and visual effects producer. “300seats can provide an opportunity for everyone to meet in one place—a forum for casual collaboration. Who knows how many other good ideas will be born from 300seats gatherings?” 300seats.com
