FOXBOROUGH, Mass., Sept. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CBS and The Kraft Group today opened the CBS Scene Restaurant & Bar, a three-story, 15,000 square foot one-of-a-kind entertainment and dining destination in Foxborough, Mass. Located adjacent to the New England Patriots' Gillette Stadium in the 1.3 million square foot Patriot Place lifestyle destination, the venue's spectacular views, upscale casual dining, and state-of-the-art technology -- including over 135 SONY Plasma, LCD and graphic projector displays showcasing current and classic content from across the CBS Corporation -- converge to create the next generation in media and entertainment.
"In this interactive age, people want to experience their entertainment and leisure time to the fullest, and this extraordinary new place gives them a totally unique multi-sensory taste of CBS past, present and future," said Leslie Moonves, President and CEO of the CBS Corporation. "With the feel of a TV studio, a broadcast control room and fine dining all in one unique environment, visitors to the CBS Scene will be blown away by a full entertainment experience that they can't find anywhere else. We're thrilled to partner with The Kraft Group to bring this innovative restaurant and bar to life in one of New England's hottest locations."
"CBS Scene occupies the most prominent location in Patriot Place and deserves it," said Robert Kraft, Chairman and CEO of The Kraft Group. "From concept to completion, CBS Scene has been one of the most impressive projects undertaken by The Kraft Group. We are proud to partner with CBS, one of the few premier entertainment and sports programming brands in the country, to deliver such an exciting and cutting-edge dining and entertainment experience to the public. It is certainly one of the most unique restaurants in New England, and I believe it will be one of the most popular."
"Watching TV and eating have been great partners for years, but never before like this," said George Schweitzer, President of the CBS Marketing Group, whose creative team developed all of the content for the CBS Scene. "From the moment they walk in, visitors are transported into a world of entertainment filled with cool, high-tech and impressive displays, branding for CBS and its programs and an amazing array of choices -- both in what to watch and what to eat. The CBS Scene is an incredible new way for viewers and users to engage with our content."
"With so much CBS history and programming to deliver across different mediums, and with so many CBS television and radio partners now having another broadcast location, people will be surprised by how much will be going on at CBS Scene day to day," said Jonathan Kraft, President and Chief Operating Officer of the Kraft Group. "The activity combined with the technology in play creates an exciting atmosphere."
The CBS Scene includes a restaurant, two bars, private meeting space, a retail outlet selling CBS merchandise and an unprecedented arrangement of technology, content and graphic art. In addition, the CBS Scene has broadcasting facilities for the CBS Network, CBS Sports and the company's local Boston TV and radio properties, including WBZ-TV, TV38 (WSBK-TV), WBZ-AM 1030, WBCN-FM (the flagship station of the New England Patriots), WBMX-FM, WODS-FM and WZLX-FM.
Dining
The restaurant offers a distinctively local dining experience, providing an abundance of upscale American cuisine dishes prepared by Executive Chef Brian Corbley. A Massachusetts native, Corbley uses fresh local seafood, cheeses, fruits and vegetables and prepares everything from scratch. New England touches to the menu items include cod fish, jumbo sea scallops from Massachusetts' George's Bank, calamari from Point Judith, R.I., baby spinach salad mixed with local pears and bleu cheese from Marion, Mass. and wood fire hearth oven cooked pizzas topped with sauce made from local tomatoes. Daily specials are comprised of fresh market fish, and carnivores and herbivores can enjoy entrees such as filet mignon, sirloin and hangar steaks and American Kobe beef hamburgers -- and an array of entree salads.
Corbley, formerly the executive chef at the Boston-area Sherborn Inn, has cooked at the exclusive James Beard House as part of the "Best Hotel Chefs in America" series and is as enthusiastic about the CBS Scene venue as he is about the menu. Says Corbley, "The open kitchen area fits with the interactive nature of the restaurant and the CBS entertainment theme ... we're sort of on stage. The kitchen is part of the action. It creates an energy and excitement for the patrons as well as the cooks."
Visit http://www.cbsscene.com/ to view full menus. In addition, a downloadable recipe and photo for Corbley's signature dessert, Chocolate Bread Pudding, is available on http://www.cbspressexpress.com/. The CBS Scene is open year-round for lunch and dinner, and it has a bar menu as well. For private functions, the restaurant can serve about 125 seated people -- or 200 for a reception style event.
Content and Technology
Media is central to the restaurant, yet is designed to provide a fun, elegant atmosphere that allows visitors to enjoy as much or as little as they desire. Each booth is equipped with a 19-inch SONY LCD screen and a controller that allows diners to choose from over 20 channels, including WBZ-TV and TV38 (WSBK-TV), and channels dedicated to CBS Radio, CBS College Sports, The New England Patriots, "Late Show with David Letterman," "The Brady Bunch," "The Honeymooners," "I Love Lucy," "The Twilight Zone," "Star Trek" and "60 Minutes." Hanging speakers provide directional sound, eliminating sound overlap and maintaining a quiet ambiance at each table.
Traversing all three levels from floor to ceiling on the restaurant's north wall is a CBS heritage-themed collage composed of over 3,200 square feet of printed imagery. The images are drawn from CBS's classic collection of photography, art and archival film footage, much of which has never before been seen and is exclusive to the CBS Scene. The collages highlight some of the most revered and well known shows in CBS history, including "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "M*A*S*H" and "All in the Family." Accompanying video displays offer trivia questions about great moments in CBS history.
The third-floor sports bar contains a 36-foot wrap-around high definition panoramic screen which is reserved to show the biggest local and national sporting events of the day. The sports bar will also run an exclusive video offering a behind-the-scenes look inside the CBS Sports control room during the 2007 AFC Championship Game when the New England Patriots defeated the San Diego Chargers.
In addition, the venue contains four 50-inch SONY Plasma screens, 42 40-inch SONY LCD screens with HD streaming media cards, 18 SONY Video/Graphic projectors beaming regularly-updated television programming, day and night, as well as half a dozen screens on the third floor showing content from over 20 premier CBS-owned web Sites including cbs.com, cnet.com, cbssports.com, cbsnews.com, last.fm, ncaa.com, and gamespot.com.
At the pinnacle of the CBS Scene is a 36-by-17-foot digital outdoor sign that is visible from the venue's third-floor terrace as well as the stadium. The CBS Scene hosts fully-operational, state-of-the-art broadcast facilities for CBS and its New England television and radio stations to telecast game coverage, pre-game reports, local newscasts and live programming. In addition, two point-of-view cameras outside the restaurant give the local stations access to exceptional beauty shots of the stadium and field.
Design
Designed by Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc., an internationally acclaimed architecture and exhibit design firm based in Massachusetts, the CBS Scene was selected to be the anchor site in the new Patriot Place retail and entertainment complex. Composed of modern steel and glass, the three-story structure can accommodate up to 900 visitors. It features state-of-the-art LED lighting, a highly efficient and versatile audio system, and multi-layered video projections allowing for a changeable environment that can be rapidly adjusted to accommodate special events, including championship sports games, television show screenings, theme nights, private parties and corporate events.
"CBS and the Patriots are two organizations with unbelievable creativity and spirit, and we were trying to instill that energy into the environment," said Peter Sollogub, Associate Principal, Cambridge Seven. "Our one directive in designing the CBS Scene was to be bold, and I believe we delivered that and then some. The quality, quantity and arrangement of technology, art and media creates a true on-set, on-stage, changeable experience that doesn't exist anywhere else."
The structure consists of three levels: Floor 3 contains a large bar with a 36-foot wraparound high definition screen, as well as a dining space and an outdoor terrace offering breathtaking views of the Gillette Stadium field; Floor 2, the main dining floor, includes a bar, an open kitchen and another large outdoor terrace with amazing views; Floor 1 features a private function and meeting space with optional private terrace and a 900 square foot retail store selling CBS merchandise. Connecting all three levels at the center of the venue is a 60-foot spiral staircase structure in the shape of CBS's trademark eye, outfitted with screens showcasing CBS video and graphic treatments.
For more information, visit http://www.cbsscene.com/. About CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is a mass media company with constituent parts that reach back to the beginnings of the broadcast industry, as well as newer businesses that operate on the leading edge of the media industry. The Company, through its many and varied operations, combines broad reach with well-positioned local businesses, all of which provide it with an extensive distribution network by which it serves audiences and advertisers in all 50 states and key international markets. It has operations in virtually every field of media and entertainment, including broadcast television (CBS and The CW -- a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment), cable television (Showtime Networks and CBS College Sports Network), local television (CBS Television Stations), television production and syndication (CBS Paramount Network Television and CBS Television Distribution), radio (CBS Radio), advertising on out-of-home media (CBS Outdoor), publishing (Simon & Schuster), interactive media (CBS Interactive), music (CBS Records), licensing and merchandising (CBS Consumer Products), video/DVD (CBS Home Entertainment), in-store media (CBS Outernet) and motion pictures (CBS Films). For more information, log on to http://www.cbscorporation.com/.
About The Kraft Group
The Kraft Group is the holding company for the Kraft family's various businesses, with concentrated interests in five specific areas: the distribution of forest products, paper and packaging manufacturing, sports and entertainment, real estate development and private equity investing. Together, the Rand-Whitney Group and International Forest Products conduct business in more than 80 countries annually and form one of the largest privately-owned paper packaging and distribution companies in the world. The Kraft Group's sports and entertainment division features Gillette Stadium, New England's premier concert and entertainment venue and home to the National Football League's three-time Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots and Major League Soccer's New England Revolution. The Kraft Group's real estate development team oversaw the construction of Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place, a 1.3 million square foot lifestyle and entertainment center adjacent to Gillette Stadium. For more information, please visit http://www.thekraftgroup.com/.
About Patriot Place
Patriot Place is the premiere lifestyle destination in New England. Located adjacent to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., Patriot Place features 1.3 million square feet of shopping dining and entertainment. In addition to large and boutique retailers, restaurants and other nightlife venues, Patriot Place is anchored by New England's first Bass Pro Shops, a state-of-the-art Cinema de Lux movie theatre, The Hall at Patriot Place presented by Raytheon, and CBS Scene Restaurant & Bar. For more information, please visit http://www.patriot-place.com/.
