Eating Vegan at Alamo Drafthouse
In my first piece of hard-hitting investigative blogging journalism, I bring you the answer to a question that’s been on everyone’s mind – Is the popcorn at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema vegan? The short answer is: yes (if you order it without butter, obviously).
In a series of emails back and forth with Alamo Drafthouse management (thanks Brian!), I received a response that the popcorn is indeed vegan. A little while later, it was brought to my attention that someone at Alamo (not Brian) had said that the popcorn is not vegan. This conflict in information led me to dig deeper. I started by contacting Alamo again to determine exactly what was going into the popcorn and got this response: “Procedure is: turn on the popper, put in a scoop of oil, when it gets hot dump a cup of popping corn and a little scoop of Flavacol brand popcorn seasoning in and voila, popcorn.” I quickly realized that the root of the conflicting information was probably the Flavacol butter flavored salt. 
Flavacol only lists artificial flavors on its packaging, and many online sources listed it as a vegan product, but I wanted to go one step further to solidify my investigative reporter status. I wrote to Gold Medal, the makers of Flavacol, and received this response: “The Flavacol popcorn seasoning salt is Vegan friendly – containing no animal and/or derivatives of animal products. However, we are not Vegan certified.” Whatever the heck ‘Vegan certified’ means, I don’t know, but I am fairly confident now that the popcorn at Alamo Drafthouse is indeed vegan.
And since man cannot live on popcorn alone (though one can certainly try), I also asked for a list of foods that are vegan/can be modified to be made vegan. This list was put together by an Alamo Drafthouse Village cook and a vegan staff member:
- black bean burger – no butter on bun; no aioli [UPDATE: Bun is no longer vegan, sub with a lettuce wrap]
- Asian salad – no wontons; no chicken
- Greek salad – no feta
- house salad/side salad – no parmesan cheese
- hummus
- vegetable plate – no tomato (it has non-vegan stuffing)
- spaghetti squash
- popcorn
- chips and salsa and/or guacamole
- Asian wrap – sub tofu, no wontons
- turkey wrap – sub tofu
- Greek wrap – sub tofu; no feta
- Mexico wrap – no cotija; no wontons; sub tofu
- BLT – sub tofu for bacon; no chipotle mayo
- mushroom pizza – no cheese
- wild at artichoke heart pizza – no cheese
- Greek pizza – no cheese
- the spicy peanut dressing, and all vinaigrette dressings are good to go
I was super stoked to learn about all of these options and I hope you are too! I was also told that the vegan staff member suggested they add Daiya as an option for their pizzas – which I wholeheartedly agree with! I did have a couple follow up questions, including if there was butter on the bread that came with the spaghetti squash (they said it was only oil), and if the reason the fries didn’t make the list was because they didn’t have a dedicated veg fryer (turns out they don’t, but they are looking into it). This list is specific to the Alamo Drafthouse Village location, but all Alamo Drafthouse locations maintain a set menu, so while you should always double check to make sure that another kitchen doesn’t do things a little differently, this list is a great starting point.
Thanks for the investigation! Now let’s bombard them with Daiya requests.
THANK YOU! This has forever been a question of mine and I’m glad to finally get to the bottom of what is/isn’t vegan.
Fantastic news! Thanks so much for looking into this Marie
Thank you for getting to the bottom of all this, Marie! I am definitely going to order one of those wraps next time I go.
Thanks for sharing! My husband and I have been wanting to go to an Alamo Drafthouse, but we didn’t know what the vegan options were.
Thank you for this. I have always wondered why the Alamo’s food choices aren’t more vegan friendly, at least by being labeled on the menu. I would think they would be at the forefront of this! Anyway, this is really helpful.
This is great. So many choices.
We have been told by more than 2 waiters at Alamo that the black bean burger was not vegan. I’m still not convinced it is. We’ve had way too many conflicting stories from waiters there. Too risky.
Unfortunately, information that we get from staff at the various Alamo Drafthouse locations is often inconsistent. The management and chefs have consistently reported that the burger is vegan without the aioli when asked. There have been a couple of occasions that Drafthouse staff have told use the burger isn’t vegan. Every time this has happened, we asked the server to double-check, because we had been told in the past that the burger is vegan. They always came back after double-checking with the kitchen to tell us that the burger is vegan, and apologized for the confusion.
It would be great if Alamo Drafthouse could clearly mark vegan options on their menus and make sure all staff are specifically trained on what is vegan and what is not. Here’s a recent thread from the Vegans Rock Austin forums where the Alamo Drafthouse (Lake Creek) chef confirmed that the black bean burger patty and bun are vegan: http://veganaustin.org/topic.php?id=4820
Thank you so much for this post! Couple of quick questions: (1) Is the spicy peanut dressing on the Asian salad vegan? I’ve heard conflicting reports. And why wouldn’t the Asian wrap (sub tofu) be vegan if the salad is? (2) I’ve been told by Drafthouse staff that the baked pretzel is vegan if you get it only with the horseradish mustard. Is that right?
Thanks again! Great work!
Hey Zack! Thanks for bringing this up. I received word back that the spicy peanut dressing is vegan, and the Asian wrap would be vegan with the same subs. They aren’t sure about the pretzel, as it’s one of the few things they don’t make.
It’s funny how they just listed “spaghetti squash” when their menu reads, Spaghetti Sauce and Pomodoro Sauce. The description is “Spaghetti squash roasted to al dente, topped with a classic pomodoro sauce with sliced portobellos and fresh basil. Served with garlic bread. Afraid of being a vegan? Add Chicken or Parmesan for an extra charge”. It is MY FAVORITE VEGAN MEAL in this town, so far. We sometimes just order it just for take-out (no movie). I don’t know if the garlic bread is vegan, though.
Thanks for posting this! I always get conflicting information from the Alamo staff. Glad to hear I can eat the black bean burger safely again.
Fantastic. Thanks so much for inquiring. When I’m out with other people I’m often a bit shy about asking lots of menu questions and often just stick to things that are obviously vegan, so this is such a great help to me.
Awesome post! We are going to tonite and were just debating if they had soy cheese or not. Any updates?
No vegan cheeze as of yet – but be sure to let them know that you want it. They actually read those customer feedback forms, and fairly frequently even respond to them. If we all ask for more vegan options, maybe they’ll actually offer them
I just went today to the Alamo at S Lamar. I asked about vegan options and they actually gave me a small printed vegan menu!
That’s amazing news!!! I can’t wait to head down to the S. Lamar location and check it out for myself. Thanks for letting us know!
So you mention that it’s vegan if you avoid the butter. So you did check to verify that the butter they use is not vegan? I know that AMC and others use a blend of tropical oils that, while will likely kill you, are vegan.
The Alamo Drafthouse menu says “topped with real melted butter by request” – so I have to assume that they mean actual dairy butter. I have seen “buttery topping” at theaters before, which could quite possibly be accidentally vegan… but I’ve never cared enough to check.