In the heart of Cleveland, nestled within the historic S.S. Kresge Building, stands the iconic Pickwick & Frolic Restaurant & Club — a highly popular dining and entertainment destination downtown. The 27,000-square-foot gem is a fusion of charm and sophistication, comprising five unique spaces, including the Pickwick & Frolic Restaurant (with 185-seats), Hilarities 4th St. Theatre (a 400 seat built-for-comedy venue complete with skybox loge seating), Kevin’s Martini Bar & Tap Room, the Frolic Cabaret, and Northeast Ohio’s only Champagne Bar.
The venue’s success is heavily dependent on its audio-visual system, as its entertainers are only as good as the audience’s ability to see and hear them. To ensure this success, Pickwick management has made superior sight and sound for its patrons a high priority, and recently brought in Harrington Electric Co.’s experts to update the facility’s audio-visual system.
Under the leadership of John Costella, a Harrington estimator and project manager, the team embarked on a mission to enhance the guest experience at Pickwick & Frolic. The project, initiated in the fourth quarter of 2023, was focused on upgrading the audio-visual infrastructure throughout the complex, including the main showroom, cabaret, and martini bar areas, where outdated systems were affecting the quality of performances.
The work involved navigating several challenges inherent in retrofitting a century-old building, with its thick, bunker-like walls, sandstone and shale rock foundation and cavernous spaces.
“We were limited to working Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays so as not to interrupt the normal entertainment schedule at the facility,” said Costella. “We also had to keep the existing system in tact, and run it concurrently with the updated system we were installing.”
The Harrington team worked to pull cable, install video monitors and projectors, mount a large number of speakers, and install and paint the connected conduit piping to make it blend in with the walls.
“It was interesting because the smallest speakers each weighed 45-50 pounds, and the larger sub-woofers weighed up to 130 pounds, requiring a couple of guys on ladders to install,” Costella explained. “Then, after mounting, we had to be extremely precise in where to point the speakers to achieve the best sound in the various rooms. The job really involved a bit of acoustic science and expertise to get it exactly where we and the owners were happy.”
With a completion date slated for May 2024, the Harrington team will switch off the old sound system and power up an enhanced audio-visual experience that pays homage to Pickwick & Frolic’s storied past while embracing the demands of the modern entertainment landscape.