Michele Anna Jordan's Dinner & a Movie program continues at the Rialto

The Rialto institutionalizes the renowned date night combo

Remember dinner and a movie? Date nights? No? Perhaps it’s time to remind yourself. In February the Rialto kicked off a year of themed dinners, prepared by local chef Michele Anna Jordan and matched with interesting films (some well-known, some not).

The series follows up on two successful, proof-of-concept “Dinner & a Movie” events at the Rialto, “The Godfather” dinner in 2022 and “The Gleaners and I” dinner in 2023.

“Dinner & a Movie came about in 2022 when Michele pitched me about doing a dinner tied to the 50th anniversary release of ‘The Godfather,’” Rialto owner Ky Boyd said. “It was the perfect time. We were trying to find things to bring people back to the theatre, and special events were the key. We had such a good time doing it we decided to do a series.”

The series kicked off with “Big Night” in February and runs bi-monthly. This month, on April 21, in celebration of spring, the Rialto will be showing Thomas Bezucha’s 2000 film “Big Eden,” a gay love story starring Arye Gross, Eric Schweig and Tim DeKay and set in a small fictional town in northwestern Montana where artist Henry Hart (Gross) goes home to visit and care for his ailing grandparent.

To accompany what the Rialto describes as “this often overlooked gem,” Jordan designed a menu to celebrate the flavors of spring.

“The first course is fresh French breakfast radishes with specialty butter and Nightingale epis,” Jordan said. (Epis are those beautiful baguettes that look like wheat.) “And then next course is half of a grilled Green Globe artichoke with roasted scallions, aioli and a new garlic vinaigrette. The main course is a spring risotto—a vegetable risotto with roasted maitake and trumpet royale mushrooms.” Note, the risotto is made with chicken stock. “Then strawberry rhubarb galette with black pepper cream for dessert.”

Green globe artichokes, which are now hard to find, are one of Jordan’s favorite spring treats. What’s so special about them?

“Number one they taste better,” Jordan said. “They have a better texture, and they cook evenly.

Jordan said that most artichoke growers have replaced Green Globes with thornless artichokes, which she finds inferior from a culinary standpoint. “If you hold a thornless one in your hand and hold a Green Globe in the other hand, the Green Globe will be much heavier for its size, and that indicates the meatiness of the parts that we eat. Sometimes, by the time you get the heart of a thornless artichoke tender enough to eat, everything else has turned to mush. It's very complicated to cook them well, and they just don't have the delicious flavors and textures of the Green Globe.”

Here is the Rialto’s Dinner & a Movie schedule for the rest of the year:

APRIL 21 — Big Eden (2000)

JUNE 9 — The Godfather, Part II (1974)

AUGUST 18 — Diva (1981)

OCTOBER 13 — Rosemary’s Baby (1968), one of Jordan’s favorite films.

The tentative menu for the 50th anniversary release of “The Godfather, Part II,” looks amazing: caprese salad on skewers; risi e bisi, a classic Italian soup of rice and English peas; porchetta, stuffed and rolled pork belly, roasted until the outside is crisp and interior is tender and juicy (or roasted cauliflower); warm Italian potato salad, and a refreshing radicchio salad alongside; and for dessert, cannoli.

Boyd is excited about how the Dinner & a Movie series is working out.

“Michele is more than just a great chef and writer,” Boyd said. “She is a brand. It makes perfect sense to complement our brand with hers. It’s great fun collaborating on movies and menus that we think will resonate with our audiences.”

Dinner & a Movie at the Rialto is roughly $75 per person. You can get your tickets here. Tickets are currently available for this weekend’s showing of Big Eden and the June showing of Godfather II.