It's never good news when a diner and his entree disappear from a restaurant. Nor is it acceptable when customers start to levitate out of their chairs. And it's certainly not considered top-notch service when waiters pull objects out of patrons' ears. Unless, of course, those strange phenomena occur at a magic-theme restaurant.

Hocus-pocus is being conducted at restaurants across the country for a very practical reason: Today's consumers expect entertainment as well as good food when they go out to eat. Skeptics may dismiss magic as a bag of old tricks, but this newest twist on theme restaurants could take the eatertainment segment one step further. In traditional eatertainment/theme dining, patrons may enjoy a fantasy-type ambience, but in magic-theme restaurants, customers themselves provide part of the action — whether they participate in a simple card trick or volunteer to be levitated on stage.

"Restaurants really have to provide an exceptional dining experience, because more and more people are taking their food home with them" instead of dining in the restaurant, says John Scroggins, director of public relations for Noble & Associates in Chicago. "It's not just about serving food anymore. It's about the whole experience, from the time a customer walks in through the door. Magic and dining makes sense because there's a lot of showmanship involved in both. It's a fun experience — and it entices you to spend a little more money and stay a little longer."

Nothing up their sleeves

Magic-theme restaurants entertain customers with everything from tableside tricks to full-scale stage productions. Tableside magic generally consists of sleight-of-hand tricks such as card tricks or making a drink disappear. Stage performances usually take place after dinner and feature such advanced illusions as sawing customers in half and making diners disappear.

Tableside magic is more common than stage magic, because it is less expensive and does not pose the logistical challenges of a bigger production. For example, Caesars Magical Empire in Las Vegas was a multimillion-dollar project that included a performing area and specialized dining rooms for guests. "When you construct a facility like ours, you have to incur some extraordinary construction costs," says General Manager Tim Herman.

Many operators of magic-theme restaurants say that tableside tricks are often more enjoyable because guests get a more intimate show. Schulien's in Chicago has known for nearly 80 years that tableside magic mesmerizes diners. Besides employing several house magicians, owner Charles Schulien and his son Bob perform tricks invented by Charles' father, Matt Schulien.

"When he started working for his dad, Joseph Schulien, he started dabbling in magic as a hobby," says Bob Schulien, who manages the restaurant. "Then some customers started asking him to perform."

One of Matt Schulien's most popular tricks involved asking a diner to pick a card and place it back in the card deck. Then he'd throw the deck against the wall or ceiling. The card that stuck was inevitably the card chosen by the diner.

Diners were astounded; they were amazed. But more important, they were entertained and they told other Chicagoans to go to Schulien's. And the magic is still there — Schulien's typically entertains and feeds about 500 guests during the course of a weekend.

At The Amazing Randolph's at Casino Magic in Biloxi, Mississippi, the illusions are not staff originals, but the tricks are spellbinding nonetheless. Diners usually experience their first taste of magic at Randolph's when their waiter or waitress brings an extra drink to the table — only to make it disappear. When Randolph's opened at the site of another restaurant in February 1997, it had quite the opposite effect on business — more customers started to appear. "We're close to tripling the covers that we had under our previous banner," says Tony Cruz, designer of The Amazing Randolph's. "Magic gives your establishment such a strong identity. It makes people say 'Wow!' — and it's one of the few 'wows' left in the world."

Fantastic feats

As competition in the eatertainment segment continues to increase, some magic-theme restaurants are doing more than pulling a rabbit out of a hat to please demanding patrons.

David Copperfield, who is perhaps the world's most famous living magician, is tossing his top hat into the eatertainment ring and his restaurant promises to be a hard act to follow. Copperfield's Magic Underground is scheduled to open in the Times Square district of New York City in June of this year. Illusions will be performed outside the 30,000-square-foot restaurant as well as inside it. Once inside, diners will be entertained by Copperfield via special video monitors. "The magic will happen in and around the guests," says Bill Welter, vice president of brand management for LateNite Magic, Inc., which manages the restaurant.

The total cost for the wizardry behind Magic Underground is steep: $20 million. But Welter believes diners will choose Magic Underground over the many other theme restaurants in Times Square because they'll enjoy fine entertainment as well as fine dining. "Think of dining as a 90-minute vacation," he says. "When people go on a vacation, they want to be entertained. They want some fun, and they want some good food. And when they go home they'll say, 'You've got to go to the Magic Underground. It's a must-see kind of experience.'"

Meanwhile, at Caesars Magical Empire, patrons dine in a separate eating area and then move back and forth between two theaters. The 72-seat Secret Pagoda is the scene of more sophisticated sleight-of-hand tricks and close-up magic that is too cumbersome for the dinner table, while the larger Sultan's Palace offers stage magic such as levitation.

Sorcerer's apprentices

Training waitstaff at magic-theme restaurants presents a special challenge. Finding high-quality employees is a problem for all restaurant owners, but add "ability to perform magic" to the job description and it becomes even more of a hat trick.

According to Cruz, Randolph's spends a week to 10 days training new employees to wait on customers and two weeks teaching them how to perform magic. Employees spend a week in a classroom with a staff magician for two to three hours a day and a second week in the restaurant with the magician observing them. Cruz estimates that Randolph's spent an additional $25,000 to train 15 servers, not including future training for new hires. Even so, some of the staff members did flub tricks during the restaurant's first days. "Interestingly enough, we've had very little criticism from our guests," reports Cruz. "They've been very supportive of the waiters.

"The biggest issue we face is getting the waitstaff to fall into line," he adds. "They've learned the illusions, but remembering to do them after they've got three or four stations to take care of and getting the food and not getting customers angry is hard."

Cruz says servers soon figure out that performing magic will please customers and increase their tips. But, he adds that in the end the quality of the staff is "highly dependent on line management saying, 'You've got to do this. This is as important to us and to them [customers] as clearing tables and making sure they have water.'"

Other restaurants, like Magic Underground and Caesars Magical Empire, prefer to leave the magic to the veteran magic-makers. Schulien's has several in-house magicians who work the floor during meals. Welter also reports that there will be no tableside magic at Magic Underground. "The magic will be David's magic, and it will be performed by him," he says. However, Welter did add that waitstaff will receive special training "involving knowledge and exposure to what guests will be exposed to and what they will experience."

Magic is served

Combining magic and meals requires delicate timing. Operators of the concepts say that customers want to see magic — but not while they're eating. In general, the restaurateurs limit magic to the bar and to the time before the meal is ordered, in between courses and after patrons are finished eating.

Once customers at Caesars Magical Empire have been seated, Octavius, their host and magician, performs magic before the meal arrives. Cruz tells waitstaff at The Amazing Randolph's to perform at least three illusions for each table turn. "Then it's left up to the waiter and to the table," he says. "If they want more, that's great."

Having customers wait at the bar before being seated gives bartenders and roving magicians time to weave their spells. Charles and Bob Schulien dazzle patrons at the bar at their restaurant, and The Amazing Randolph himself appears in a mirror behind the bar at his namesake restaurant and performs tricks.

At this point, timing the tricks and judging the mood of the table is crucial. "If we have a long wait at the bar, I'll tell our magicians to cut their acts a little shorter," says Bob Schulien. "But it's hard when the magician is working the floor and a person hands him $50 and says, 'Take care of us.' Then you get heat from the hostess. It gets a little hairy at times."

More than smoke and mirrors

Diners at magic-theme restaurants want to be entertained and dazzled, but they also want the food to be amazing.

To keep customers coming back for the food as well as the fantasy, Schulien's offers an extensive list of fine German and American foods, including Wiener Schnitzel and filet mignon. The creators of Copperfield's Magical Underground hope that restaurant consultant and industry legend Joseph Baum will perform a little magic for their operation's menu.

As The Amazing Randolph's Cruz says, "The theme will get people to your restaurant, but the food will get them to come back."

Back to top