The Nightmare Before Dinner: Over 50 Hauntingly Good Dishes and Drinks to Die For

Craft a spooktacular spread inspired by iconic creepy films and characters, with over 50 deadly delicious food, dessert, and drink recipes.

Gather ’round the haunted table, where every day is Halloween! If you delight in ghoulish frights and movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, and The Evil Dead; then get your goth on with over 50 recipes from Beetle House, the Halloween-inspired restaurant with locations in New York and Los Angeles that honors the legendary director Tim Burton and all his amazing films and creative characters.

The Nightmare Before Dinner includes sauces and dips for the recently deceased, eerie appetizers, sinister sides, cauldron companions like soups and salads, macabre mains, devilish desserts, and dark drinks and creepy cocktails. Indulge in a monstrous menu featuring:

Beetle Pie • , inspired by Beetlejuice • – a brilliant-green homemade pistachio pudding with a crunchy chocolate crust that evokes the corpse-fed grass and rich soil of a graveyard, and seedy and sweet blackberry jam that mimics the texture of blood and bugs Edward Burger Hands • , inspired by Edward Scissorhands • – a juicy burger with a Sriracha cream sauce, stuffed with smoked bacon, fried egg, pepper jack cheese, and avocado; with a pair of scissors shoved through it to keep it closed Silence of the Lamb Chops • , inspired by Silence of the Lambs • – a tasty lamb dish with a buttery mushroom and apple sauce, made gory with splashes of raspberry glaze Cheshire Mac and Cheese • , inspired by Alice in Wonderland • – a sweet-and-spicy take on one of America’s beloved comfort foods, served in a teacup The Fleet Street Martini • , inspired by Sweeney Todd • – a bright-red martini featuring Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey; pair with equally gory Love It Pot Pie

The Nightmare Before Dinner features food alternatives and substitutions for vegan and vegetarian diets for every recipe. The cookbook also includes full-color photography that creates a deliciously dark atmosphere and a bonus chapter on how to host goth-themed parties, so you can live the Halloween lifestyle every day of the year.

Also available by Zach Neil: Death for Dinner Cookbook: 60 Gorey-Good, Plant-Based Drinks, Meals, and Munchies Inspired by Your Favorite Horror Films

© 2025 Wellfleet Press (Ebook): 9780760396285

Release date

Ebook: 15 July 2025