New Cinemark movie theater is getting into the pizza business

It isn't my proudest high-school memory: A friend and I snuck a whole pizza into a Cinemark movie theater in Plano one Friday night. We wanted pizza, we said. Our local Cinemark didn't have pizza.

I'll let you decide whether my friend shoved the large box of pizza underneath his T-shirt or whether I fit it in my purse, because I can't remember. It's pretty embarrassing. Also kind of awesome.

Today, moviegoers don't have to go through such culinary gymnastics to enjoy a slice of hot pepperoni pizza while watching A Star Is Born. Dine-in movie theaters have popped up all over the country.

As of March 7, Plano-based Cinemark is cutting in on its competition.

Cut! by Cinemark is the company's first dine-in movie theater in Texas, and it's now open at the Dallas North Tollway and Highway 380 in Frisco. It's like they heard my high-school needs: This new movie theater serves pizza (and lots of other items) to diners inside the theater.

Inside their massive kitchens, Cut! runs a pretty serious stone pizza oven program, which starts with hand-stretched dough and hand-squeezed tomatoes. After toppings, the pizza cooks for just 2 and a half minutes, cruising through the multi-tiered oven like a jetsetter on a moving sidewalk.

"I think when people first come, they'll say, 'Well, I've had theater pizza.'" (I'm nodding my head.) "Well: They haven't had this pizza," says Joe Murphy, divisional vice president/vice president of restaurant operations for Cinemark.

The kitchen, which serves up to 972 people if all theaters were full, looks like a restaurant kitchen on steroids. Up to 30 cooks fit in there, working its six grills, 12 fryers and eight pizza ovens. Back there, they're making blistered shishito peppers, Nashville hot chicken sliders, bourbon bacon jam cheeseburgers and brisket nachos. For anyone who wants the typical giant bucket of buttered popcorn, two big popcorn machines at the front of the kitchen remind us of where we are: the movies.

"To build a Cut!," says James Meredith, senior vice president of marketing and communications for Cinemark, "we build a restaurant inside of a theater."

Cinemark operates nearly two-dozen movie theaters in Dallas-Fort Worth, and none of them except this Frisco movie theater offer dine-in dinners. The idea is to expand Cut! nationwide, Meredith says.

They don't plan to make changes to the existing Cinemarks in North Texas.

Meredith says the movie theater keyed in on three things: food, drinks, and social settings. Outside of the restaurant-length food menu available during any movie, there's a big bar in the lobby, and a patio and arcade with games.

"If you take a look around," Meredith says, "there are little spaces to hang out."

"We're constantly striving to create the best out-of-home experience we can."

It's a crowded market, and Cinemark knows that. In early 2018, we wrote a story called 8 D-FW movie theaters where you can get food served at your seat. There's Alamo Drafthouse, Look Cinemas, iPic and more. New-to-Texas theater Cinepolis opened recently in Dallas and Euless.

"Luxury loungers" are a must at these types of theaters, and Cinemark's are electric recliners with seat warmers. Movie theaters are kept between 69 and 72 degrees, yet moviegoers are notorious for saying that theaters are too cold. Butt warmers offer a little heat.

Cut! by Cinemark has 10 movie theaters, each with 65 to 150 seats in each. One theater has XD, with special picture and sound quality. The building also has a banquet room or theaters that companies can rent for events.

We get the appeal: "People love to put their PowerPoint up on the big screen," Meredith says.

Cut! by Cinemark opened March 7, 2019, and is located at 6969 U.S. Highway 380, Frisco.