Smitty’s Entertainment
Smitty’s Entertainment, an exhibitor with locations in New Hampshire and Maine, has been providing moviegoers with a specialized dine-in theatre experience for over 25 years. Smitty’s opened in 1998 when the founder and current owner Milton Smith opened their first location. Smith’s utilization of creative and forward-thinking ideas, like taking the seats of unsold Lincoln Town Cars from his brothers’ car dealership to repurpose them into the movie theatre seats, helped the circuit succeed in fostering a memorable theatrical experience.
Dine-in service has been central to Smitty’s business model since the beginning, with leadership frequently adjusting food options to best fit audiences’ changing tastes. Smitty’s recent decision to offer Frazil’s slushie products, which include fruit flavored Frazil slushies and Café Tango frozen coffee, has paid off in a major way.
According to Smitty’s Entertainment’s President of Operations Albert Waitt, the key to succeeding in the “humble” communities Smitty’s serves is to offer tasty food and drinks at affordable rates. “We know that we can’t price ourselves like a ballpark, the taste and pricing of our food and drinks have to be competitive with restaurants in the area.” This made Frazil a logical choice for Waitt when deciding on a new slushie product given the inexpensive pricing of both Frazil flavored slushies and Café Tango frozen coffee.
Waitt was introduced to Frazil during the CinemaCon trade show in 2023, where he was struck by the “delicious” taste of both products. He was won over when Frazil representatives outlined the no-cost installation policy for their machines that includes complimentary maintenance and repairs. The installations Frazil’s Flavored Slushie and Café Tango machines were “on time” at all four locations and the compact design of their machines made them easy to install within the concession spaces.
Waitt has found Frazil to be “quite easy” to work with, with their customer service always available to address any maintenance issues or questions from theatre staff.
Frazil’s flavored slushie products have been widely embraced by Smitty’s moviegoers. Waitt has received great feedback from audiences on the perfectly icy texture and delicious fruity flavors of Frazil Slushies along the refreshing taste of Café Tango frozen coffee. The introduction of both products has significantly increased the circuit’s per cap revenue from concessions as both drinks are among Smitty’s higher margin concessions products.
A defining characteristic of Smitty’s food options is the customized menu items. Like the “Flamin’ Torch” burger that was made available during the opening weekend “Fantastic Four” have always been popular. They offer custom cocktails too, with Waitt noting that the “X-Wing” cocktail they created for the 2019 release of “Star Wars: Force Awakens” was so popular that they still offer it to this day.
Smitty’s has begun offering their own variation of an “Irish Coffee” by mixing Jameson Irish whiskey with Frazil’s Café Tango. It has become one of their best-selling cocktails thanks to the delicious taste of Café Tango. This is just one of many examples of why Waitt “loves” working with Frazil and plans to have Smitty’s sell Frazil Slushies and Café Tango at all locations for the foreseeable future.
