To eat, perchance to dream

Hollywood classics come to the Regent Street table

Two new "super-scale" themed restaurants are due to open in London after separate announcements yesterday. The Dream Factory, planned for a former cinema in Regent Street, will be a multi-media restaurant and retail centre based on films such as Casablanca and Gone with the Wind.

Meanwhile, Capital Radio is planning a themed "radio restaurant" in Leicester Square that will form part of its new head offices when it moves from the Euston Tower this summer.

The Dream Factory is a pounds 5m joint venture between Greenhills, a restaurant operator, and Turner Home Entertainment, which owns a library of 4,000 classic films such as Jailhouse Rock and The Wizard of Oz. The restaurant, which has yet to receive planning permission, will be based on a movie studio with six or seven "interactive" sets based on Turner fims.

Each set will include original props from the films as well as wax dummies of the central characters provided by Madame Tussauds. Separate areas will sell film memorabilia, music, videos and other merchandise.

Greenhills, which is listed on Aim, will open its first "super themed" restaurant in the Trocadero complex in Piccadilly Circus this spring. Called Thunderdrive, it is based on a rock 'n' roll , drive theme with a bar, dance floor and space for 300 diners.

Capital Radio claims that its new pounds 1.5m diner is Britain's first radio restaurant. It will be located in the basement of the station's new Leicester Square offices, which will provide Capital with more space and a home closer to the heart of London's entertainment district.

The plan is to include a stage on which visiting artists may perform, as well as rock memorabilia and possibly a studio from which radio programmes can be broadcast.