CAPE GIRARDEAU (AP) - A restaurant has opened in a Cape Girardeau building that was featured in the movie "Gone Girl."
The Bar is a former catering business that was transformed for the film production. In the adaptation of Gillian Flynn's best-selling novel, Ben Affleck stars as a husband under the suspicious glare of the media and the scrutiny of police when his wife goes missing.
Originally, The Bar was set to open in October to coincide with the film's release, said Laura Jones, marketing director for Old Town Cape Dining LLC. But because of needed renovations to the corner building, the grand opening was delayed until last Friday - an event that followed a soft opening.
"When we went into the place, we decided to make it the best it could be, and to be the best it could be, it needed to be renovated in such a way that it had ... pretty much everything's new," Jones said. "We had to make a choice - should we try to meet someone else's deadline? Or should we make this what it should be?"
With a capacity of 75 people, Jones said The Bar is a "lovely, historic, but small space."
Jones said although The Bar has no official affiliation with "Gone Girl" or 20th Century Fox Film Corp., she hopes it will be a place for residents to come together and share their photos, memories and personal experiences about the filming of the movie. She also hopes it will be a draw for people from outside the region to experience.
"We actually kept some of the set dressings and the outside wall logo because we saw the talk in Cape Girardeau about how really good it was for Cape to have tourists and people to be able to come and visit all the areas there had been filming," Jones said. "... We want to support anything that helps the community to bring in business and bring in more people to the area."