Alamo Drafthouse Is Experimenting With a 'Bloody' Vegetarian Burger

Alamo Drafthouse is experimenting with upgrading its vegetarian burger by offering the vegan-friendly, meatless, meat-like patties from Beyond Burger. It’s made up of peas for protein and beet juice extract for the bloody look, which doesn't matter when diners are eating in the dark anyway.

“Based off of the initial tasting of the Beyond Meat product,” explained Jeff Mann, Alamo Drafthouse’s vice president of food and beverage, “we felt this would be a good item to be able to offer our guests that are looking for a vegan burger.” The theater will collect feedback to decide whether it will permanently add the patty or not.

The movie theater chain replaced its old veggie burger patty with Beyond Burger’s one quietly in mid-June, but the company’s name isn’t listed on the menus. The new patties are being tested at all Austin Alamo Drafthouses (South Lamar, Ritz, Village, Slaughter, Lakeline, and Mueller), as well as one theater in Denver (the Sloans Lake one) and Springfield, Missouri.

The plant-based product is from Beyond Meat, which offers meatless takes on meat, like chicken strips, meatballs, and meals. Its products are sold in the frozen meat sections of grocery stores, including Whole Foods. The company is backed by tech billionaire Bill Gates.

This isn’t Austin’s only trendy vegan burger patty. All Texas locations of Hopdoddy Burger Bar added the similar Impossible Burger to the menu in June as well. It’s been selling out consistently.

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