Good Flix, Good Food, and Good Brews!

Friday night was a treat and my husband and I had the opportunity to go out on the town and try out a new place, Flix Brewhouse.  If you live in the Des Moines area and you have not been there, I urge you to go.  I mean how can you go wrong with a movie, adult beverages, and food.  And by food I don't mean just popcorn and DOTS, yes you can still get those there as well, but you can get pizza, sandwiches, appetizers and even dessert.  Flix Brewhouse is on the top floor of the Merle Hay Mall so if you haven't been to the mall for awhile, you are in for a treat. 

 

I feel like the mall has really stepped up their game, and it was very inviting once we opened the door. 

 

I mean how can this view not be inviting?  This is their brewhouse, think of those as clear beer mugs.  That's a lotta beer! 

 

When we walked up the escalator this is the view you first see.  Wait, are we going to the movie? A restaurant? Or a brewery?  To all those questions, the answer is YES!  What a great concept rolled into one place, and you never have to leave. 

 

We purchased our tickets for "American Sniper," and then went to the bar for a drink before heading into our seats.  The theater encourages you to come 30 minutes before the movie starts because that's when they start seating for the movie.  This allows you to talk with your server, get the run down or how everything works, and get your orders in before the movie starts.  If you are like us, that usually arrive late for a movie, plan ahead.  They don't let you in once the movie starts.  Good thing I read that online before we went!

We sat down in our comfortable rocking chairs and our server greeted us and gave us the all needed info: "your tables move out, the menu is right there, if you need something when the movie starts just write it down and push the button, 45 minutes before the movie ends I will bring the checks around."  Sounds pretty easy right?  All we had to do was look through the menu and figure out what wanted to eat.  We went to the late movie, but hadn't eaten yet so we decided we needed food, and popcorn wasn't going to cut it this time.  Looking through the menu they had all the same movie favorites with popcorn and candy as well as a full menu that you can get 7 days a week.  You don't even need to purchase a movie ticket to eat.

 

 

We agreed on the Mediterranean pizza and a side of french fries and put our order in.  The movie started, we order a couple drinks, and waited for the food.  I will tell you that I was unable to get a picture of the pizza since the movie had started already but it was delicious.  It had artichokes, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, feta cheese and kalamata olives on it and it was the perfect marriage of the sweet marinara sauce paired with the saltiness of the artichokes and olives.  I have always loved olives on my pizza but I think I just found a new favorite.  I would go back to just eat the pizza, it was that good!

I used to love beer and because of my stomach issues I am unable to consume more than an equivalent of a glass of beer without having stomach spasms.  For this reason I am glad I went with my husband because he loves beer and so I get to weigh in on his ordering and tell him the beers I would like to try.  I get to have my taster sip of each one that he ordered and he gets the rest.  Since "American Sniper" is a long movie we got to try a good selection of the beers.  Also I should mention if you are planning on going even though they are a micro brewery they still have wine, liquor, and soda as well.

I was impressed by each beer that I tried.  Flix has 6 core beers and then a slew of special release beers.  Carl first tried the Naughty Squirrel which is an English brown ale, I didn't try this one but Carl said that "it was a creamier brown ale, velvety with a smooth finish."  We then tried the Dupulus Belgian 2x IPA which was a Belgian double IPA.  Even though it was an IPA it started off with a big robust taste but finished very smooth.  The last beer we had was the Cornfed Collar India Red Ale, this is a collaboration that Flix Brewhouse had with 3 other local breweries: Confluence, Peace Tree, and New American.  I will tell you this was our favorite of the night.  It was hoppy with a smooth malt finish.  This beer is worthy of a trip in itself.

And lastly the movie "American Sniper," was a wonderful movie full of emotion.  I would recommend it because it was definitely an eye opener and makes you appreciate everything we have because of the wonderful soldiers that fight for our freedom each day.

Thanks Flix Brewhouse for a wonderful and entertaining night out, and thank you for Merle Hay Mall for having such a great establishment.  We will be back!

-Cool