From left: Water of Life, the Activator and Negative Space at the Varsity Cinema. (Photo: Miranda Tanner)
By Hailey Evans
Every year during the Academy Awards ceremony, all the movie stars, producers and other Hollywood bigwigs gather in the City of Angels to celebrate their talents, while the rest of us watch from home and post our thoughtful reactions and well-informed critiques on social media.
Thankfully, the Varsity Cinema’s annual watch party promises something a bit more exciting. Starting at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, the ceremony will be broadcast in both theaters with hosted commentary, interactive games during commercial breaks, and a voting for the best-dressed guests. Dough Co. Pizza will provide pizza, naturally, and a few other curated bites.
But the real stars of the show might be the themed cocktails, handcrafted by house manager Miranda Tanner. This year, her drink menu includes three drinks based on Best Picture nominees.
Water of Life: gin, creme de violette, lemon juice, simple syrup and Blue Curacao, garnished with dried pineapple. Inspired by “Dune: Part Two,” Tanner mixed a gin cocktail with a Blue Curacao float that gives the drink a slight gradient, like the way water looks in a pool. The dried pineapple slices look a little like sandworms coming up from your glass.
The Activator: Midori, lemon juice and triple sec. This drink riffs on a classic cocktail called “the Japanese Slipper,” which makes use of Midori, the bright green melon liqueur. Tanner’s inspiration was the mysterious green drug Demi Moore uses in “The Substance” to make herself look younger.
Negative Space: reposado tequila, Averna, lemon juice and ginger simple syrup, garnished with candied ginger. Averna is Tanner’s favorite amaro, so she paired its rich orange and licorice notes with a ginger simple syrup. She used blocks of candied ginger to replicate architecture in “The Brutalist.”
Tanner has been ramping up the Varsity’s regular cocktail menu for nearly a year to offer patrons a little something extra. “I’ve been doing a lot of research and reading books on cocktails because I want to make drinks that taste good but are also layered and complex,” she said. “They’re a fun accent to the movies.”
She said it’s a challenge to concoct new cocktails for unreleased movies, when she sees only the trailers. She gathers whatever clues she can find in advance, so the new drinks are ready to be poured on opening night. “It can be hard with movies with really vague promo,” she said, “but it’s really fun.”
Tickets are still available for Sunday’s watch party at varsitydesmoines.com.
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