Unique Arts Cafe Comes to Trolley Arts Complex

Randy Barton, a Utah entrepreneur and founder of the Sconecutter restaurant chain, plans to open a cafe, pub, and performing-arts center in the former Trolley Theatres movie theater complex at Trolley Square.

Named the Wooden Dog, after a wooden statue of a German shepherd that Barton will display in the lobby, the new establishment will host dance, video, live music and theater events.  A cafe in the lobby will serve sandwiches, soups, coffee and beer.

Barton has spent about $150,000 of his savings into the project and is renting the space from Trolley Square on a month-to-month basis.

TheatreWorks West, which has resided at Westminster College since 1984, will move to a more intimate 150-seat theater at the Wooden Dog.  The theater company will inaugurate its new stage in May with the play "Prelude to a Kiss."

Cineplex Odeon abandoned the Trolley Theatres in 1992 after it opened a new multiplex inside the Trolley Square mall.  Cineplex Odeon's lease on the new theater prohibits another theater distributor from screening movies at the old theater.  Barton is asking the theater chain to make an exception so the Wooden Dog can show rare or classic movies.

The former Trolley Theatres occupies an old brick trolley barn between the shopping mall to the south and the Flick movie theater to the north. Murals of W. C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable and other movie legends line its outdoor walls.