DINNER & A MOVIE

Vetted Well elevates theater favorites

IT’S NOT EVERY DAY you find a restaurant that has everything from movie theater popcorn to buffalo cauliflower.

At Vetted Well in Lake Highlands you are able to enjoy all of your goto movie snacks and favorite drinks inside of Alamo Drafthouse.

“Everything in our well has been vetted,” says Jordan Michael, president of Alamo Drafthouse North Texas. “Any drinks that we’re mixing or food we’re cooking has been vetted well, and they’re gonna taste just great.”

Since Vetted Well restaurants are attached to Alamo Drafthouse theaters, the restaurant is allowed to be more creative with menu items and have a wider selection.

“Who’s coming in that restaurant depends on the movie,” Michael says. “We get such diverse crowds of people, and depending on the title of the film, you need to offer some real diversity in the menu.”

Depending on what movie is coming to theaters, Vetted Well likes to make special menu items themed for the films. For the recent movie

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Vetted Well introduced a bar game based on the special 20-sided dice used in Dungeons & Dragons games. Customers would roll die that decided the price they would pay for the drink and what drink they would receive. The drinks that one could get from the die ranged from a shot of Fireball to Fernet-Branca to a signature cocktail made just for the movie.

With the movies in mind, Vetted Well created elevated versions of your movie theater concession favorites called “Snacks.” Some of those favorites include bottomless popcorn made with clarified butter, baked pretzels with honey mustard, and hatch green chile queso, fried dill pickles, wings, and loaded fries.

One Snack that is not a traditional movie concession item is the buffalo cauliflower. The cauliflower is served with vegan ranch dressing and celery.

When the pandemic hit and movie theaters had to close, Alamo moviegoers wanted to know what would happen to the popcorn and the buffalo cauliflower. So much so the Alamo Drafthouse posted the recipe for its fried cauliflower online for people to enjoy during the lockdown.

“People wanted their fried buffalo cauliflower. So we said ‘Here’s a make-it-at-home version of our buffalo cauliflower,’” Michael says. “Because it’s so good. It’s healthy junk food.”

Along with Snacks Vetted Wells offers select candies and other favorites like Angus beef hot dogs, fresh baked cookies, pizza and a variety of sandwiches and shakes. The pizza dough is made from scratch daily using a large Hobart mixer.

“Again, it’s that whole idea of being vetted well,” Michael says. “We’ve gone through so many dough recipes to get it just right. If we have bad dough, it gets tossed.”

With all of the new movie releases coming in the next few months, Vetted Well is already anticipating the summer. Vetted Well is making menu preparations to pair with the upcoming films and finding ways to utilize the bar space for familyfriendly films.

“It’s gonna be a crazy summer,” Michael says. “We are going to really utilize this bar space to have some good family parties and some activations of that nature in this bar space, and big things are happening with our menus in the next few months. There is a big focus on creativity and summer fun.”