bio-café, noun

/ˈbaɪəʊˌkæfeɪ/
Origin:
Compound of bio + café.
historical
A cinema-cum-tearoom, offering continuous film-screenings, at which patrons might enjoy light refreshments while seeing a film; cafe-bio; soppies; tearoom bio, tearoom bioscope, see tearoom sense 2. Also attributive. See also bioscope.
[1949 H.C. Bosman Cold Stone Jug (1969) 111And that evening I went into a bioscope café. And I went and sat down next to a girl...I was an ex-con and I was sitting next to her for an hour in a bioscope café, and she dressed all in pink.]
1963 A. Fugard Notebks (1983) 87In Johnnie’s heyday the ‘Pop Bio Café’ was still in existence — the grey flickering screen, sweet smell of green cold-drink, the waitresses.
1977 E. Prov. Herald 22 June 5The Dolphin..was previously run as the Ster 400 and before that as a bio-cafe, the Roxy.
1981 Cape Times 22 Dec. 8On her day off she goes down town to a bio cafe. She has seen The Sound of Music 30 times.
1990 Sunday Times 4 Mar. (Mag. Sect.) 64My grandfather owned one of the first movie houses in Johannesburg — the ‘Palm Court’...It became the ‘Tearoom Bioscope’ or Biocafé as they were known then...Sadly the 70’s saw the last of these biocafés, which became known as ‘fleapits’ at the end.
A cinema-cum-tearoom, offering continuous film-screenings, at which patrons might enjoy light refreshments while seeing a film; cafe-bio; soppies; tearoom bio, tearoom bioscope, see tearoom sense 2. Also attributive.
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19491990

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historical
bio, nounn.bioscope, nounn.
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