Cinema strong in Los Gatos in spite of a new multiplex
By Don Callahan
Multiplexes--A 14-screen theater opens in Saratoga, and UA closes a three-screen theater in the Pruneyard. What about the Los Gatos Cinema? "We are not closing the Los Gatos Cinema," says Jim Zuur, a partner in the Camera Cinemas, which owns our cinema as well as the Camera One, Camera 3 and Towne 3 theaters, all in San Jose. Zuur goes on to say, "Certainly, we were hurt by the opening of Saratoga 14. That's the economies of scale. But we are basically in a special niche, that of showing art and foreign films to an audience that wants that kind of movie.
"There are some films that we show where there is a fine line between an art and a commercial movie. Elizabeth is a good example. And many of our art/foreign films ultimately do show in the commercial market." He adds, "We are strong in Los Gatos and intend to stay that way."
New in town--Meet Christina Harker, president of CLG (Christina of Los Gatos) Enterprises. Harker's town of Los Gatos business license is dated April 9, 1999, and her business is located at 236 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Suite 203. A contracted sales rep for companies with specialty items to market, Harker already represents two Los Gatos clients. The first is California Gourmet, owned by Joe Priapi, which produced and sold his culinary award-winning barbecue sauce and marinade only at art and wine festivals and, according to Harker, has been the No. 1 vendor at our local Strawberry Festival for the last two years. Harker has announced that the sauce and marinade will soon be available in specialty stores in central California, Oregon, Washington and at Lunardi's on the Boulevard. CLG also has contracted with Dominion Premium Cigars, 130 N. Santa Cruz Ave.
Harker was a sales person in the transportation industry, working with customers, mostly in medicine, who required same-day, dedicated, time-sensitive deliveries, such as of blood and emergency medical equipment. Harker, a single parent, says her job change was prompted by her desire to spend more time with her 11-year-old daughter.
Just what the doctor ordered--Bryan Paris and Ray Diel are in the process of completing a full service spa and beauty salon at No.1 Broadway. The 5,500-square-foot space, recently vacated by Summit Bicycles, across from the post office, will offer the latest in spa and beauty salon equipment--including experts in all phases of hair styling and design, laser hair removal, skin and nail care, therapeutic and specialty massages, to name a few. Opening is planned for some time in September.
Missing a copy company?--Vasona Copytech Center has moved from the Vasona Station Shopping Center to 809 University Ave., in the back side of the building occupied by Rich Lang's Los Gatos Tire and Automotive. Fred Tatar, owner of Copytech for the last 10 years, was employed in the aerospace industry for 23 years, until 1989, when federal defense contracts slowed down considerably. Tatar decided at the time that working with computers in the printing business would be a good change in careers. Printing, duplicating, desktop publishing and normal business-report binding for clients, including the town of Los Gatos, has been Tatar's main forte.
Recently, however, he has found a new and exciting extension of his business--specialty hardcover book binding. As the result of a customer needing more than 500 copies of a family genealogical history, Tatar is reproducing the pages of rare hardcover journals--books that are showing the wear and tear of time but still have special meaning to a family or organization--and then binding the copies with hard covers, making as exact a duplication as may be, even to any leaf-foil engraving that appeared on the original cover. To Tatar's knowledge, he is the only one in the valley who produces the special mold for such engraving.
Major expansion--P3M (Paradigm 3 Marketing) has just expanded into and completely renovated the building at 575 N. Santa Cruz Ave. Taking over where Kinko's left off, Roger Sanford, founder and president of P3M, has moved his "Demand Creation Department" into the new facility while still maintaining the company's headquarters and strategic planning department at 513 Monterey Ave. The advertising, marketing and website production company was founded on Los Gatos Boulevard eight years ago. The last two years have been spent in larger quarters on Monterey Avenue.
The Demand Creation Department has produced a patented product called "Entice," which relates to a personalized website P3M produces for its clients. Sanford lists among its many international and global clients companies such as Varian Medical Systems, Gator.com, Syberbills.com and Metrocom Inc., another Los Gatos-based company. According to the Business Journal, P3M is the second-largest marketing/public relations company in Silicon Valley.
New owners--The Fat Cat Café, at 551 N. Santa Cruz Ave., two doors south of P3M, is owned by Dr. Jamal Modir, and is being bought by "Ray and Fay." Although there are regular grill, sandwich and salad items on the menu, the FCC specializes in food prepared Iranian style. All the lamb, chicken and beef kabobs are cooked on thin flat skewers. According to Faye, "This was adopted from ancient Persian delicate cooking. As the skewer heats, it simply cooks the meat from the inside while the fire simultaneously cooks the meat on the outside."
Got a tip for Don Callahan's business column? Contact him at decallahan@home.com or fax him at 354-2741.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
