Client: The Payne Mansion
Project: The Haunted Dinner: A Spooktacular Dinner Theatre Experience
Location: San Francisco, California
Event Type: Pop-Up Restaurant and Bar
Attendees: 600+

The Challenge:
Historical San Francisco landmark The Payne Mansion (built in 1881) hired ThemeDream to design, produce and market a themed pop-up restaurant and bar for Halloween.

The Results:
ThemeDream transformed this historical landmark building into a creepy haunted mansion as guests entered the building through an outdoor graveyard with selfie-friendly zombies. Guests then enjoyed pre and post-dinner libations in a vampire-themed, subterranean-dungeon lair called “The Blood Bar” featuring a blood bag cocktail called “The Blood Donor” and the house favorite, bloody syringe shots of vodka. It also featured Halloween-themed ‘witch’-craft cocktails by San Francisco’s award-winning mixologists such as Almost Dead Fashioned’s, Slasheracs and Jason Takes Manhattan’s. Guests were then seated for dinner in frighteningly themed-decorated settings such as a Ghost Room where, yes, hiding spirits jumped out of the walls to scare its unexpecting victims. The evening featured a 4-course Halloween-themed dining experience with wine, beer and cocktail pairing options served by a ‘Living Dead’ staff. Guests feasted their eyes on playful plate presentations with creepy course names such “I left my heart in San Francisco” where guests were served a bloody heart made of red velvet cake, fondant and berry sauce. Other popular dishes were bat wings and black worms, a creepy crawler salad served in a flower pot, and a smoking witch cauldron of glowing-green coconut curry soup. During the dinner service, guests enjoyed a live Spooktacular Show of eerie singers, ghostly dancers, vampire ballet, slasher tango, freaky contortionists, hair-raising acrobats, creepy clown jugglers, black magic magicians, witch seances, roaming zombies and more! Some of the more memorable live acts were “Nightmare in D-Minor” w/ Freddy on violin, “Last Tango at Crystal Lake” where Jason danced, you guessed it, tango with his victim, and “Awkward Positions” with a Ring girl-inspired contortionist. ThemeDream’s digital marketing campaign resulted in 4 sell-out dinner shows.

Services Provided:
Creative Direction ◇ Experiential ◇ Fabrication ◇ Immersive Environments ◇ Set Design ◇ Audio/Visual ◇ Lighting ◇ Culinary Design ◇ Craft Cocktail Design ◇ Catering ◇ Custom Décor ◇ Costume Design ◇ Make-Up Design ◇ Storyline Development ◇ Script Writing ◇ Entertainment ◇ Actor Casting ◇ Choreography ◇ Show Directing ◇ Talent Management ◇ Graphic Design ◇ Photography Services ◇ Videography Services ◇ Digital Marketing