The little details

The musical soundtrack of Diagon Alley would play a critical role in immersing guests in the Wizarding World. The London Symphony Orchestra, who performed the movies’ soundtracks, were brought in to work on new arrangements for the area and its attractions.

Thierry Coup travelled to London’s famous Abbey Road Studios in March 2014 to oversee the recording sessions. “You’ll recognize the theme, the score,” he claims. “But it is rearranged in a way that goes so well with this brand new adventure. Music brings emotions together. Even if you close your eyes and just hear the music of [composer] John Williams, you start visualizing and experiencing these feelings, these moments that Harry Potter lived.”

As well as ensuring that Diagon Alley would sound authentic, Universal also had to ensure that even the smallest elements would look authentic – right down to the design of posters in the shop windows and the packaging of the merchandise sold within. That meant carrying out a meticulously detailed graphic and product design process, led by London-based design firm MinaLima. The firm, made up of Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima, had previously spent a decade designing graphics for all eight Harry Potter movies. The pair met on the set of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and worked on creations such as The Daily Prophet newspaper.

J.K. Rowling provides little detail on how the graphics on signs, documents or products look in the Harry Potter books. “Rowling captures the essence of an object, but we were given free rein to create all the details,” says Mina. Although some designs for the movies could be reused directly, in many cases they had to be extensively reworked in order to create functional, real-world items.

Often, the designers had to look through the eyes of the fictional person that created an object in order to generate ideas. The merchandise in Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, for example, was designed to look as though it was dreamt up by two 16-year-old boys. “We used all kinds of rudimentary printing techniques and clashing graphics for the Weasleys’ products,” says Mina. “We drew inspiration from childishly designed things like firecracker packaging.”

A variety of looks and styles are incorporated into the area. “Harry Potter's world includes Gothic, Victorian, Soviet elements, ‘70s and ‘80s influences,” Lima says. “When we designed The Daily Prophet, we knew it needed to be quite imposing-looking as a newspaper from the Ministry of Magic’s totalitarian state, so we looked at Soviet propaganda images and mimicked their look.”

The signs on the various shops had to reflect the age of Diagon Alley, with MinaLima employing faded paint, ghost-lettering and vintage wood. But the weathering was purely artificial – the signs are actually extensively hurricane-proofed.

Dining, wizard-style

As in the original Wizarding World, and later in the Simpsons-themed Springfield, Universal saw dining as an essential part of the overall guest experience in Diagon Alley. Ric Florell, Universal Orlando’s Senior Vice President of Revenue Operations, explains: “When our guests dine with us in our restaurants, we want them to be fully immersed in the theme, so they feel as if they’re in that world. With The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, we want our guests to feel as if they’re a part of the adventures that their favorite characters experienced. We’re bringing to life our guests’ favorite stories and giving them a chance to experience them first-hand – and we want our food and beverages to enhance that experience.”

Executive Chef Steven Jayson was once again called upon to give actual flavor to imaginary dishes and beverages. His team placed notes throughout Rowling’s seven books, with each marking an idea for a possible food or drink offering. “With everything we did, we tried to make it as authentic as possible,” says Florell. “Of course, we had to have the Leaky Cauldron.”

Just as the entrance to Diagon Alley itself would be nondescript, so would the entrance to the “grubby-looking pub” described by J.K. Rowling in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. “If people hadn’t pointed it out,” says Rowling’s text, “Harry wouldn’t have noticed it was there.”

“All we've got out in front of this restaurant to indicate that the Leaky Cauldron is actually here is a very simple sign. A witch standing around a cauldron,” explains Florell.

While Rowling had given hints as to the pub’s appearance – built upon in the movies – she hadn’t devised a menu. “The tricky part was creating a menu when there was no mention of any of the food items in the books and only mention in the films to Split Pea Soup,” says Florell. “So, we devised a menu with delicious dishes you would find in a British pub. We also took into consideration what our guests wanted. For example, we received a lot of interest in having a larger beer selection in the Hog’s Head pub in Hogsmeade. We took that feedback and decided to offer more options in the Leaky Cauldron.”

Image: Universal

Jayson says of the headline restaurant: “We wanted to expand the dining from Hogsmeade into Diagon Alley by recreating another beloved restaurant found in the Harry Potter books and films that delivers a completely different experience than the Three Broomsticks – yet has the same magical feel. In the Leaky Cauldron, you actually feel as if you’re walking into a pub with dishes that are true to the British culture.  We even imported certain ingredients like English cheeses to add to our dishes.”

Three of those cheeses would be incorporated into the Ploughman’s Platter, along with a traditional Scotch Egg (a hard-boiled egg wrapped with sausage, which is breaded and fried). In an attempt to ensure that the traditionally heavy British pub grub would not overwhelm guests in the heat of Florida, Jayson’s team did make some changes. “Our Scotch Egg is flash fried. It’s not in the deep fryer for very long, plus the coating that we use on this item is kind of thin,” he explains. “We supplement that with a beautiful apple and beet salad, some Branston Pickle Relish plus a field green kind of salad and some roasted tomatoes. So you've got some lighter items in there alongside the authentic British pub fare. You've got some protein with the eggs and the cheese, some carbs with the peasant bread. So in the end, it's a balanced meal.”

Other entrees would include pub favorites such as bangers and mash, lamb and Guinness stew and toad in the hole.  A selection of pies, including cottage pie (meat and vegetables in a potato crust) and fisherman’s pie (salmon, shrimp and cod in a potato crust) would also be on offer.

Whereas guests at Hogsmeade’s Three Broomsticks pick up their food directly from a counter, Universal hoped to bring together elements of the counter service experience with elements of the table service experience in the Leaky Cauldron. After placing their order, guests would be handed a numbered candle before being seated. Staff would then use the candle to locate the guests and serve them their food.

As for the drinks that guests would enjoy with their food, Florell says: “We knew that we were never going to be able to top Butterbeer, which is still going to be served at the Leaky Cauldron. So we thought that we'd try and create some other new beverages which would then take their inspiration directly from the Harry Potter movies. So we have things on tap here like Peachtree Fizzing Tea, Tongue-Tying Lemon Squash and Fishy Green Ale.” The latter creation features “fish eggs” that actually contain blueberry-flavored liquid, and are designed to explode in the drinker’s mouth.

Although none of the new beverages were likely to attain Butterbeer’s level of success, Universal did have a new version of its classic creation up its sleeve. At Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour, Butterbeer would be reinvented – this time as an ice cream flavor. This would be served up alongside other unusual varieties of ice cream, which Jayson claims were “inspired by flavors associated with England, like Clotted Cream and Earl Grey and Lavender.”