Messhall Kitchen in Los Angeles, Calif. Serves up elevated American comfort food alongside inventive cocktails created by Beverage & Media Director Amanda Alvarez. (Note: Alvarez is also a finalist for Bartender of the Year in 2023’s Industry Excellence Awards!)
Recently, Alvarez launched an all-new cocktail menu that pays homage to some of Hollywood’s biggest movies. The menu is called “Film Favorites: A Tale of Cinema through Cocktails,” and it includes 10 film-themed cocktails along with six “Walk of Fame” recipes.
Why a movie-themed menu? Turns out Messhall is steeped in Hollywood lore. “Our building once housed the Old Hollywood haunt, the Brown Derby, owned by filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille,” explains Alvarez. “Present day, Messhall’s neighborhood is affectionately coined as the ‘Showrunner’s District,’ and last November, we hosted the first Annual Messhall Film Festival—a collaboration of eight short films created by regular patrons who work in the film industry and members of our staff, shot entirely within the walls of the restaurant over one night. This menu is a love letter to our community of filmmakers and film fans, with a fun, campy twist.”
inspired by the movie Jaws. (Messhall Kitchen)
When it came to picking which films to feature on the menu, Alvarez says nostalgia was her guiding factor, “Most of the cocktails were reverse engineered, which definitely posed its own set of challenges. I would pick the movie and cocktail name first. I could then visualize how I wanted it to look and the feeling I wanted to evoke, and then I had to match the flavor profiles to that vision.”
The cocktails pay ode to movies like Forrest Gump, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Fargo, Almost Famous, and more. Out of the 10 film-themed cocktails, there are even two non-alcoholic options.
Messhall plans to have the Film Favorites menu run for the majority of the year. “I have worked incredibly hard to incorporate produce that will work sustainably throughout the year and will rework certain cocktails with special seasonal ingredients as they become available,” says Alvarez. “So much time and energy has gone into the conceptualization, artwork, and menu design, we want to give each of these menus time to shine.”
Speaking of the menu’s design, regular Messhall patron, animator, and cartoonist Rob Zylowski was tapped to illustrate the menu. “Rob has been a Messhall bar regular since we opened in 2013,” says Alvarez. “He would sit at seat 31, doodling on his iPad, and incorporating whatever cocktail he was drinking into his artwork. When it came time to start visualizing the menu, I thought his unique style of cartoons and cocktails would make for the perfect collaboration.”
Messhall is no stranger to themed menus, as this is the venue’s second. The first themed menu ran a little over a year during COVID and was called “Wanderlust.” “It brought people's taste buds around the world when we weren't able to travel,” says Messhall Owner/Operator Anthony Ko.
inspired by the movie
Almost Famous. (Messhall Kitchen)
Alvarez believes themed cocktail menus can help to add to the guest experience. “I think unique, thoughtful, and entertaining menu presentations are what keep guests excited about a bar program,” she says. “We have crafted this menu into a foldable playbill style book, which adds another layer of experience. I’ve been sure to add enough presentational flair to the cocktails themselves to keep the ‘wow’ factor intact.”
Ko agrees, “I think that it takes the guest outside of what they would normally drink because of the uniqueness of it. It's definitely a conversation starter.”
So far, guests are loving the new menu. “Our guests have been anxiously awaiting this new menu launch, and the response so far has been incredible,” says Alvarez. “In the words of another longtime regular, Charles Papert, ‘Watching Amanda test out new ideas at the bar (and sometimes being lucky enough to be the guinea pig) is always a treat. Her new cocktail menu is so inventive and whimsical.’”
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