The best new thing at CinemaCon 2023

[Steve Guttag]

I think Eisenberg wins with the Chili Cheese Hot Dog. The dog is chili flavored (or infused in some way) with cheese on the inside. It tastes pretty incredible and it has the right balance of flavors. It also, unlike a traditional dog needing the toppings, isn't messy or will glop all over the floor or a chair.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Next year: A Chicago-Style Dog wrapped into the saussage, complete with mustard, onions, relish, pepper, pickle and a tomato inside the dog.

It raises the important question: Maybe they can put the bun inside the dog too? They should call it the (H)eisenberg.

Putting cheese into sausages seems to be all the rage now, but I vaguely remember Disney was already selling hot dogs with cheese inside the dog at Casey's Corner in Walt Disney World back in the early 90s, not just cheese mingled with the rest of the mistery-meat, but as in the Juicy Lucy of dogs...

[Jim Cassedy]

I once tried to come up with Pop-Corn-Dogs. Basically, I'd poke some un-popped corn into an
un-cooked wiener and nuke it till the corn popped. Although it worked with varying degrees of
success, it was mostly a food failure, although not as bad as my attempts at making mustard
oreos, or French fried ice cream.

[Mike Blakesley]

I wound up getting sick on Wednesday evening so I missed the last half of the day and a half of the convention, for the most part. (I made it to the "awards" on Thursday night.) Part of my problem might have been malnutrition -- I hate convention food in general, and this one took "mediocre" to a new low.

My favorite spot on the concession floor was the Pepsi booth, as usual. I noticed that they weren't pushing "Pepsi Nitro" nearly as hard this year -- could be because it tastes like flat soda pop. But on the bright side I did learn a lot about laser projectors later in the day, even if some (not all!) of the terminology went over my head.

There were quite a few cool looking new concession items. The process for that is the same every year: I take pictures of new candies we're interested in, send the names to our concessions supplier when we get home, and she responds that they're not carrying them.

[Steve Guttag]

Each year, I take a picture of the (mostly) empty Pepsi booth. Even when free, nobody wants it. Still, if you didn't get one of the Eisenberg's Chili Cheese Dogs before going under...you missed the best in show (and so close to Pepsi's booth).

[Mike Blakesley]

Well I don't like chili or hotdogs so no great loss for me, but that does sound like it could be a hot item.

I suppose Pepsi might have more people in their booth if they had a house-sized presence right inside the front door like Coke does. I've often wondered what kind of $$$ Coke invests into CinemaCon. The final night party is really over the top.

[Steve Guttag]

Don't like hotdogs? What next? Baseball, Apple Pie?

[Eric Richard]

I did notice the Eisenberg booth was very popular this year. I hit them up several times!

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I used to eat hotdogs when I went to ball games, in fact they serve Eisenberg dogs at Wrigley Field, the factory is but a few miles away from the ballparks 1060 West Addison address. Also, occasionally while I'm on my way out of Costco, but otherwise... no.

[Mike Blakesley]

Don't like hotdogs? What next? Baseball, Apple Pie?

Pizza is next. I don't like pizza either, and here's a shocker considering I'm in the theater biz, I don't like popcorn. I love the smell of it being made but I just don't enjoy eating it. (I do like baseball and apple pie however!)

I love burgers, but you can hardly find a good one these days, what with all the restaurants tripping over each other trying to fancy them up beyond recognition. I better not get started on burgers.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I'd say the smell of popcorn doesn't really match the taste. You don't really smell the salt or sweetness, it's acombination of fatty acids and toasted corn, no movie theater smells right without it.

What aspect of popcorn don't you like? I don't like popcorn when there is an overabundance of those half-popped kernels and a lot of those hard to byte husks left. I prefer a mix of both salty and sweet popcorn and popcorn needs to be fresh and popped in the right oil. I really don't need any (artificial) butter flavor added when it was popped in pure coconut oil. I hate this new trend of "healthy" hot-air popped popcorn for example.

As for burgers: <rant>I really like the more simple, more honest kind of burgers, but they seem to become increasinly rare, even over in the U.S. of A., where the Hamburger is as much a national icon as the American Eagle. So, quite often it's either fast food from one of the usual suspects or over-priced fancy-pants burgers nowadays. I don't need advocado, 30 year-aged super-cheese, mushrooms, caviar or exotic fruits on my burger. I also don't want any fancy broiche buns... just slightly butter them before toasting! I don't need 2 inch-thick, dry-aged wagyu beef either, just some good quality, honest 80/20 ground beef in a good bun to patty ratio. A good burger also doesn't need bacon and if you put bacon on top of it, make sure it's crispy and not some of that sad and sloppy microwaved stuff many fast food chains serve up as bacon.</rant>

[Leo Enticknap]

I wound up getting sick on Wednesday evening so I missed the last half of the day and a half of the convention, for the most part. (I made it to the "awards" on Thursday night.) Part of my problem might have been malnutrition -- I hate convention food in general, and this one took "mediocre" to a new low.

I think there was a bug doing the rounds. I woke up on Monday with a slight headache, feeling a bit nauseous, with joint and muscle aches all over, and very tired. After three industrial strength light roast coffees, I dragged myself to the booth and finished my buildup punchlist. I then went back to my room at about 12 noon intending to have a quick nap before dealing with some remote support cases, and was out cold for six hours! It was a 24-hour thing and I was pretty much recovered by the following lunchtime. However, I heard that one of the people I met during the booth buildup days had been in contact with others who had been ill with covid, so I did a test on Wednesday just to be sure, which came back negative. So I suspect that there was a bug - not covid - that went through Cinemacon.

Incidentally, on the subject of covid, I noted with interest that the email we got when initially registering stated that we would either have to show a vax certificate or take a test on arrival, but I was not asked to do either at the registration desk; and neither were they doing the rubber armbands with GDC logos on them to signify that you'd been screened, either. So if contagious people had shown up, it would have gone through the whole convention pretty easily.

As for Steve's innovation nomination, being violently, anaphylactically allergic to butter and cheese, I am not in any position to offer an opinion!

[Bruce Cloutier]

A couple of good steamed dogs on fresh soft buns (maybe toasted) and cold beer and I am good. Don't need to play hide the cheese. Don't even need to mess it up with ketchup, mustard, relish or any of that. I've never been one for gimmicks. They're just trying to find cheap ways to justify the price and to get a little boost in sales from the curious types who will try anything once.

Sounds tasty though.

[Mike Blakesley]

quote] I suspect that there was a bug - not covid - that went through Cinemacon.[/quote]

I took a Covid test after getting home and found that I did not have Covid. But, out of our Montana group -- which spent quite a bit of time with each other -- five of the eight of us wound up WITH Covid, so it was definitely around. Mine was just a horrible cold that is still slightly hanging on even though I went to the doc and got some antibiotics to attack it with.