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AMC Theatres makes food a major attractionAMC Theatres makes food a major attraction

Movie destination to serve flatbread, sliders, charcuterie and more

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

April 12, 2017

2 Min Read
Flatbread pizzas
Flatbread pizzas are available in four cheese, pepperoni, barbecue chicken and buffalo chicken varieties.Photos courtesy of AMC Theatres

Movie theater operator AMC Theatres is undertaking the largest menu revamp in its history, with chicken-and-waffle sandwiches, cheeseburger sliders, pizza and charcuterie plates rolling out to more than 400 locations across the country.

The menu revamp, called AMC Feature Fare, will be introduced over the course of the summer, and is expected to be completed in early fall, the Leawood, Kan.-based company said.

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“AMC Feature Fare represents AMC’s first true restaurant-style menu launch in a non-dine-in-theater setting, with a menu selection sure to delight the taste buds,” AMC senior vice president of food and beverage George Patterson said in a press release. 

“By incorporating these new menu items together with new marketing, branding and packaging, AMC Feature Fare will feed our guests’ ever increasing hunger for unique and satisfying menu choices to enjoy at AMC.”

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Among the new Feature Fare items are: 

  • Soft Pretzel Bites: Available salted, with cinnamon sugar, with Parmesan garlic topping or with honey Dijon. The bites are served with a cup of cheese or with icing, for the cinnamon-sugar version.

  • Gourmet Popcorn: 46 ounces of salted caramel or cheese corn. Eighty-five-ounce Variety Buckets also are available with both varieties, or with one of those options and regular popcorn.

  • Spicy Sriracha Dog: A hot dog topped with fried jalapeños and Sriracha mayonnaise. 

  • Chicken & Waffle sandwich: Fried chicken breast sandwiched between sweet vanilla waffles.

  • Flatbread pizzas: Available in four cheese, pepperoni, barbecue chicken and buffalo chicken varieties. 

AMC is also installing Coca-Cola Freestyle machines at many locations. 

Prices for the items have not yet been determined. 

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The new items will also be introduced at dine-in theaters that have concession stands. The pretzel bites, hot dogs, and four-cheese and pepperoni pizzas will be added at AMC’s approximately 200 AMC Classic locations, which are mostly in smaller markets. 

The company also operates 43 full-service dine-in theaters serving sushi rolls, boneless wings, crispy Brussels sprouts, fish and chips, burgers, pizza and more.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]

Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
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Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
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