Hollywood & Vine
Hollywood & Vine is a character buffet restaurant in the Echo Lake area of Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Named for the famous Los Angeles intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, the restaurant presents itself as a cafeteria to the stars from Hollywood's golden age, and it is the park's principal character dining location. Its meal periods are split between two different experiences: a Disney Junior breakfast aimed at younger children, and Minnie's Seasonal Dining at lunch and dinner, hosted by Minnie Mouse and her friends in costumes that change with the calendar.
History
Hollywood & Vine opened on May 1, 1989, the opening day of the park, then known as Disney-MGM Studios.[1] In its first incarnation it was not a character restaurant at all, but a large self-service "buffeteria" serving the crowds in the park's Lakeside Circle area, as the Echo Lake section was first known. The scale of the dining room reflected that role: it was built to move a lot of guests through quickly, in the manner of a studio commissary.
The restaurant's identity changed in the late 1990s. After a refurbishment, it reopened on November 22, 1998 as Hollywood & Vine Cafeteria of the Stars, and character dining arrived with it, initially built around Minnie Mouse and her friends.[1] Over the following years the character line-up and the meal formats were adjusted repeatedly, including a period built around Playhouse Disney and later Disney Junior characters at breakfast and lunch.
The modern format settled into place in the mid-2010s. On January 4, 2015, Disney introduced Minnie's Seasonal Dine at dinner, a series of themed dining parties in which the décor, music, menu items and the characters' outfits all rotate with the season.[2] The rotation has included a Silver Screen Dine celebrating classic Hollywood, a Springtime Dine, a Summertime Dine, a Halloween Dine and a Holiday Dine. The concept proved popular enough that on May 14, 2017, Minnie's Seasonal Dining was extended from dinner to lunch as well.[1]
Setting
The restaurant occupies a prominent corner on Echo Lake, beside the 50's Prime Time Café. Outside, sharp-eyed guests can spot a window for Eddie Valiant's private eye office from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, complete with the silhouette of Roger Rabbit having crashed through it. Inside, the room is a bright, light Art Deco take on a classic Hollywood diner: black-and-white tiled floors, booths and tables, film-era posters and murals of Hollywood landmarks, and an open, cafeteria-like layout that keeps the space feeling like a working studio eatery rather than a formal dining room.[3] The décor is deliberately lighter than in many Disney restaurants, which suits its second job as a photo-friendly character venue.
Cuisine
Hollywood & Vine serves buffet food for all three meal periods, and the menus lean American, with the lunch and dinner spreads shifting in flavour and presentation to match whichever seasonal party is running. Breakfast is a conventional theme park buffet of eggs, breakfast meats, pastries, fruit and Mickey waffles, supplemented by items such as bananas Foster French toast. Lunch and dinner broaden the range with salads, carved and hot entrées, seafood and pasta dishes, and desserts themed to the season. Because the seasonal concept changes several times a year, repeat visitors rarely face exactly the same buffet twice.
Character dining
Disney Junior Play 'n Dine breakfast
Breakfast is given over to the Disney Junior Play 'n Dine, aimed squarely at preschool and early-elementary audiences. Characters from Disney Junior programmes circulate from table to table, and in recent years the line-up has typically included figures such as Doc McStuffins, Vampirina and Fancy Nancy, alongside Goofy in his roadster racer outfit.[4] Short dance breaks to Disney Junior music punctuate the meal. For many families, this breakfast is the most reliable way in the park to meet Disney Junior characters without waiting in a separate meet-and-greet line.
Minnie's Seasonal Dining
At lunch and dinner, Minnie Mouse hosts Minnie's Seasonal Dining. Minnie is joined by Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Pluto, each dressed for the current celebration — red-carpet finery for the Silver Screen Dine, beachwear for the Summertime Dine, costumes for the Halloween Dine and festive outfits for the Holiday Dine.[3] The characters visit each table for photographs and autographs, and the room's décor and the buffet's featured dishes change with them, making the restaurant one of the most frequently refreshed dining experiences at Walt Disney World.
See also
- Disney's Hollywood Studios
- 50's Prime Time Café
- The Hollywood Brown Derby
- Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano