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We use hot popcorn "topping" and we try to refrain from asking "Would you like butter on that?" though most staff do improv. I don't like "Would you like topping on that?" Sounds icky. Finally I asked "With or without?" and everyone knows what I mean.

How do you word it when you ask?

we say butter but then we use butter too.

In the alternate universe that is movie theatre concessions I think most patrons understand what 'butter' means. Whatever that oily, salty, yellow substance is, I always say 'layer it!'

[This message has been edited by cat (edited January 11, 2008).]

We say "would like like plain or butter flavor"

even more importantly have you ever tried getting that stuff outta your clothes?

Many theaters use self-dispensing butter pumps now, which would eliminate having to mention it at all.

Or... actually use real butter and be proud enough to yell it from the rooftop (or in your case Mike, your elephant)!

Has anyone tried ghee? It's a clarified butter substitute used in Indian cooking. We tried it for a couple of nights and got a good reaction but i'm unsure if we want to adopt it regularly.

We now have self serve.....

We use real butter, didn't have good results with O'dells. People pay well for it too.

Just curious Lance what you did not like about O'dells? And, how do you keep your real butter stirred so it doesn't separate?

Donna,
First off, Odell's is pricey, Then because of the separation in melted butter and from reading the debates here and on that other board, I thought we would try Odells....the customers knew right away. They wanted their salted butter back. We go through a fair amount so we melt it, stir it up and then dispense it and the customers love it. So...real butter it is for our theatre.

just switched to act3 topping from sams ...people love it ..........

Maybe someone could enlighten me, but I've never understood the reason behind using topping instead of butter. Popcorn is a theater's "bread and butter" (pun intended), so why skimp on the one item that has the highest profit margin... by far? I would think you would want to make your popcorn the best it can be so you can sell more. Has anyone really found a patron who prefers an artificial topping over real butter? The decision just seems so obvious, at any price.

I think that besides price it has to do with the storing and handling. Also, I know that real butter has a very high water content and from my own experience when you melt a stick of butter and pour it on your popcorn it makes the popcorn very wet and soggy. The real butter needs to be handled properly in order not to spoil and it needs to be skimmed ans refrigerated. I personally like the ODells butterfat product, I think it tastes great and you can advertise it as real butter. I would be careful though at advertising fake butter "toppings" as butter because some people are allergic to Soybean Oil which most of these are made from so if the concession worker says "butter" and someone gets sick from the soybean oil I think they might be able to sue.

Unless you have a very small operation you would be crazy to use real butter..Its soggy on the popcorn, expensive and turns bad if you melt it to hot...

no good for any busy theater!