Next year, Disney fans will be able to visit the world of Monstropolis when they go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. As announced at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, a visit to Monstropolis will include iconic sights and locations from Monsters,Inc. This includes Harryhausen’s! This is just the beginning, however. This week, Disney has revealed a culinary preview of what guests can expect when they get hungry at Monstropolis.
There will be two places to dine when guests visit Monstropolis: Harryhausen’s and Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza. Ahead of the opening, the Disney culinary and beverage experts had the challenge of creating food that feels authentic to the monsters in this world while also being delicious for the human guests who visit. As they tackle this challenge, they are bringing memorable food moments from the films to life by taking characters, locations, and other details from the films and creating experiences that guests can see, smell, and taste!
Chef Brian Piasecki, Director of Culinary and Concept Development, and Evan Rosenthal, Beverage Director, are two of the creative minds that are developing the menus for the Monstropolis dining locations. They shared what guests have to look forward to when they visit Monstropolis.
Throughout Monstropolis, there will be no shortage of monster-sized personality. This will carry over to the dining experiences.
While coming up with the menus fit for monsters that would still be appetizing to humans, a series of questions began to be asked by the culinary team that they’d never explored before: Do they slurp? Do they chew? Is this too many eyeballs?
“There were so many moments where we asked, ‘Is this too much?’” said Evan. “And sometimes we’d hear back, ‘No. Can we take it further? Can we make it brighter, bolder, and more interesting?’ Those are the moments of true collaboration.”
“Monstropolis is full of fun, adventure, zaniness, and craziness,” Brian explained. “We’re taking familiar dishes and adding unexpected twists that feel authentic to this world.”
The culinary team affectionately calls the result “grossly fun” food. These are familiar flavors that are reimagined with some playful monster-inspired twists.
The two restaurants in Monstropolis will allow humans to experience Monstropolis like never before! Disney shared more details about each of these restaurants.
Harryhausen’s is being built by Imagineers to create what was seen in the film. This includes the head sushi chef! He will be a new Audio-Animatronic figure that will be using his eight talented tentacles to prep food in the center of the dining space. This will be a table-service restaurant that feels like it is straight out of the movie. It will also serve more than just sushi.
The culinary teams have plenty of room to invent new menu items and experiences. However, every decision starts with staying true to what has been seen on the screen.
“In a place like Harryhausen’s, it’s the swanky place that you go for a night out, but we want it to be fun for guests of all ages,” said Evan. “Making sure that the menu appeals to younger guests, to older guests, and then challenging ourselves and taking things that we love and saying, is there something we can add that gets people talking about it and gets them to come back because it’s delicious and entertaining.”
When guests visit Harryhausen’s, they will find ramen bowls that are inspired by traditional Japanese flavors on the menu. Of course, they will also have some monster-sized personality thrown in. Dishes will feature familiar, classic ingredients like rich tonkotsu broth and alkaline ramen noodles that are coupled with some playful, monster-y twists. This includes fishcake sliced to look like eyeballs and green eggs.
At Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza, guests will get to experience a completely different side of Monstropolis. This location is inspired by Monsters University. It is a quick-service restaurant that feels like a favorite pizza hangout spot where generations of monster college students have spent time with friends when not in class.
“When ideating the menu, we kept those thoughts of nostalgia in the front of our minds, remembering what we loved from our neighborhood pizza shops as kids, and finding a way to add those elements of fun unexpectedness,” said Evan. “At its core, it still feels like the pizza shop that you want to go back to time after time.”
A staple from Pixar’s Monsters University will be available in the real world: Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza. Visitors will also be able to experience Blort for the first time. Blort is one of the most popular soft drinks in Monstropolis that hasn’t been seen or tasted by humans before. This created an opportunity to dream big for the Disney beverage teams.
The result has been teased by Disney. It might end up being a purple frozen spin on Monstropolis’ favorite soda that is topped with a Scream Apple Foam. The final answer will be discovered when guests visit next year!
When guests visit Monstropolis, they will have two different ways to experience what a day in the life of Monsters is like in terms of their eating habits. They can visit Harryhausen’s and Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza to enjoy a night on the town or a more casual hangout for Monsters University’s finest students.
As the human world waits to visit Monstropolis, Disney culinary teams are hard at work with Walt Disney Imagineering to help bring the story of this world to life. Part of this is the physical representation and experiences. Another part will be what people smell and taste.
“The best part of our job is that with every project and every story, we get to see it through a new lens and then add things to it that feel uniquely Disney and can’t be replicated anywhere else,” said Evan. “Whether that’s with one eyeball or dozens of them.”
At the end of the day, everything that is being created for Monstropolis is about storytelling. When the area opens in 2027, guests will get to step into the story of Monstropolis as they saw it on the screen in Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University. This will include some monstrously delicious foods at these two restaurants.
What do you think of the culinary approach that is being taken for Monstropolis? What are you most excited about? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
