Brooklyn’s Nitehawk Cinema puts its film-themed recipes, cocktails into new cookbook

NEW YORK » More than a decade ago, Matthew Viragh was a Texan with a dream. He wanted to serve moviegoers booze and prepared food as they sat in their seats. In Brooklyn. But he had a state Prohibition-era liquor ban to contend with first.

Viragh, who left advertising for the theater business, hired an Albany lobbyist. The lobbyist rounded up some friendly lawmakers, and Nitehawk Cinema got its wish in 2011, becoming New York State’s first legal dine-in theater. Then, Viragh began creating cocktail and food selections themed to the movies he was offering.

“It was a long shot,” he told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I didn’t quite expect it to happen, so we were prepared to operate how we initially set it up, where we would have a restaurant and bar in the front area. It certainly has created opportunities for other theaters, too, in the city.”

With two Brooklyn locations now and a loyal following, Viragh has extended his dream to a cookbook, “Nitehawk Cinema Presents,” offering fan-favorite recipes and cocktails adapted for home. He and his team of cinephiles, chefs and mixologists throw in bits of film history, too.

There’s “The Dude Abides,” a coffee-infused, vodka-and-egg-white concoction with stout, ancho chile, walnut and salted honey syrup, in homage to the White Russians that Jeff Bridges’ character downed like Kool-Aid (“Jesus, you mix a hell of a Caucasian, Jackie”).

“Try the Veal, It’s the Best in the City” contains veal, new potatoes, olives and sliced blood orange in honor of “The Godfather.” In the classic film trilogy, oranges can be seen in scenes involving deeply meaningful death. The name is a line uttered by police Capt. Mark McCluskey, a mob fixer, to Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone as the reluctant mafioso retrieves a gun to avenge the death of his father.

The glossy cookbook is part schtick, like the cocktail “Red Rum,” a mix of rum and hibiscus syrup for “The Shining” (for the uninitiated, “redrum” is murder spelled backward), and part literal movie reference, like the “Cup O’ Pizza” from “The Jerk.”

Viragh was inspired by Alamo Drafthouse, a dinein theater chain with liquor and beer service and an increasing presence now in New York. It was founded in Austin, Texas, where the Fort Worth native went to college.

“After school, I moved up to New York to pursue some other things and always missed that sort of experience,” he said. “There wasn’t anything like that up here and I thought it would be a wonderful addition to the New York film and culinary scene.”