Today, we announced that we are opening a second Flix Brewhouse location...and it will be the the entertainment anchor at Merle Hay Mall! We are an independent and small Austin Texas based restaurant company owned by local Austinites. Flix Brewhouse is the world's only first run theater to house a brewery. Our concept is super cool as well, full service dining throughout the feature! We are totally beer people who love movies! Here's a fancy excerpt from our official press release: [Des Moines, IA, May 13, 2013] Flix Brewhouse™, the world’s only combination first-run cinema and dine-in microbrewery, has been signed as the new entertainment anchor of Merle Hay Mall with a scheduled summer 2014 opening, mall CEO Elizabeth Holland announced today. “We set out to bring something new and different to Des Moines and are thrilled with the addition of Flix Brewhouse to Merle Hay Mall. Flix Brewhouse is both cutting-edge and family-friendly, and will be a destination at our mall whether one is going to the movies or not,” Holland added. The Flix Brewhouse concept was born in Austin, Texas with a goal to be best in class among popular-priced cinema-eatery concepts. The Des Moines Flix Brewhouse will feature eight auditoriums equipped with parabolic screens, state-of-the-industry digital projection, extra wide plush seating, and the newest immersive 3D sound experience. Viewers will experience some of the best available cinema technology while enjoying unobtrusive in-theater service from a complete cooked-to-order menu and a broad selection of soft drinks and adult beverages, including nearly a dozen signature beers brewed on-premises. Des Moines will be the group’s first foray out of Texas and additional Midwest locations are planned. In addition to showing the latest Hollywood blockbusters, Flix Brewhouse has a wide variety of special programs, including a Pro-Am homebrew competition for charity, on-site Beer 101 brewing and tasting seminars and special themed classic film series such as LMAO Dinner Theater, Chicks Flix (ladies night), Macho Mondays and Pancake Pajama Party on Saturday mornings. Food and craft beer pairings and special releases are celebrated by Flix with a range of dining and tasting events, featuring beers from other noted craft breweries as well as from the Brewhouse.
Will be interesting to see how they will convert the entire 2nd level of Merle Hay Mall into this theater/brewery. Always look forward to new local brewery options and this concept sounds unique.
Everything that Abbell Associates is planning to do in the mall is a very HUGE spend on their part. This location is going to be 36,000 sq. ft. or so with 8 auditoriums somewhere in the 900+ seat capacity. We're really excited to be there and I'm personally really happy to make the drive to Iowa City so I can finally be inside John's Grocery (since I have ordered from them for almost a decade)!
I'm excited to have you guys come to Des Moines. Bigger question....how are the beers? Will it be brewed on site? What styles will you have? Year round and/or seasonal/limited releases.
Our location in Round Rock has 48 handles: 8-10 of our own beers and the rest are guest taps. We are beer and wine only. For Des Moines, we are going with a much larger brewhouse and plan 10-12 of our own and an unknown number of guest taps (I'm thinking we'll have a total of around 20-24 handles). We currently have 5 beers in our year round lineup. The balance of our beers are seasonals, our rolling Pro-Am competition beers, our Funkhouse (wild yeast series), and anything else our brewer decides to do. So short answer: TONS of styles (our head brewer and I gravitate towards Belgian styles, at least what we love to drink), year round, seasonal, and limited release for sure. Our list of beers we've made is accurate on Ratebeer (I am an admin over there and have been on the site for over a decade), but I can't add or do anything on here because I have never rated here. Although, I know that I have missed a few really small release one offs though. We are beer people and restaurant people for sure. We love the movies too. Obviously. https://www.beeradvocate.com/ratebeer/?path=/brewers/flix-brewhouse/13001/
I'll definitely have to drive over sometime...live in Cedar Rapids area now, but I'm a UT grad and miss the hell out of Austin.
So apparently Walt, the guy who started this thread and the owner of Flix Brewhouse, recently died at the age of 33. I didn't know the guy, but this is still a huge bummer to me. Way too young. I was listening to the most recent episode of The Beerists podcast, which is a bunch of beer nerds from Austin, TX (some of who also post on BA) and they were all very good friends with Walt and it sounds like they all learned to be Beer Advocates and lovers of craft beer, all because of him. I guess he was a huge contributor and an Admin over at RateBeer.com as well. http://www.austin360.com/weblogs/liquid/2013/jun/05/walt-powell-flix-brewhouse-homefield-grill-dies/
