Restaurants bite into 'Twilight' crazeRestaurants bite into 'Twilight' craze

Ron Ruggless

Even foodservice is getting caught in the “Twilight” zone.

With the opening Friday of the movie “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” based on the wildly successful “Twilight” teen vampire love story series, a number of restaurant companies are tapping into the pop culture phenomenon.

Burger King is doling out freebies and marketing themed items; Movie Tavern Grill is offering special showings and a blood drive: and entrepreneurs in Washington state are still planning to open a vampire-theme restaurant in Forks, Wash., the real-life town that serves as the setting for the fictional love story.

Jamba Juice was handing out surprise free tickets to "New Moon" fans Thursday and Friday at stores in the California cities of Oakland, San Diego and Los Angeles.

And in Seattle, near the setting of the "Twilight" series, the Hotel Monaco was conducting a look-alike contest Thursday night to draw patrons to its Sazerac Restaurant. Meanwhile, the Sorrento Hotel's Hunt Club bar was featuring a "Bella Edward: A Cullen Family Cocktail" that the hotel said combined "sweet-sour ingredients to represent the forces of good and evil, light and dark, and the passion and restraint of the romance between the two lead characters."

Burger King this week began offering fan packs featuring coupons to other retailers for die-hard fans who buy a six-pack BK Burger Shots value meal. The chain also is selling a collectible series of BK Crown Cards featuring the Bella, Edward and Jacob characters from the movie. The reloadable cards, which have a $5 minimum, come in a "Twilight"-theme paper crown.

Burger King customers also can go online to www.bknewmoon.com to purchase eco-friendly, aluminum water bottles with “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” designs.

“Our ‘New Moon’ Crowns have already earned a cult-like status among ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ fans,” said Cindy Syracuse, senior director of cultural marketing at Burger King Corp.

Dallas-based Movie Tavern Grill planned midnight showings of the “New Moon” movie at theaters in Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio and Virginia. Several of the theaters had already sold out the shows by midweek, the theater-restaurant chain said.

In addition, on Nov. 22, the theater chain will team with Carter Bloodcare of Fort Worth, Texas, to host a blood drive in front of one of the theaters. The first 30 donors will get movie passes, and others will get discount cards for nearby retailers.

And in Forks, Wash., entrepreneurs Tim and Annette Root say they still plan to open a “Twilight”-themed restaurant to serve the 67,000 tourists who are now visiting the northwest logging town of about 3,200 people.

The Roots, who own the Dazzled by Twilight store in the town, had planned to open a family restaurant to be called Volterra, an Italian town mentioned in the books. However, Volterra Restaurant in Seattle has warned them that the restaurant's proposed name may violate their trademark, which was registered in 2006.

“That was a working name,” said Annette Root, adding that they still plan to open some sort of restaurant to serve the growing number of “Twilight” tourists.

Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected].