Top Gun Maverick Dinner and a Movie Night

**Fair warning before we get into it: some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning I get a tiny kickback if you buy something. Think of it as tipping your server, except the server is me and I am wearing an apron and watching a movie. You pay nothing extra and I get to keep doing this. Win win.**

The Top Gun: Maverick Snack Board That Basically Built Itself

I was supposed to be making the Top Gun dinner from Rewind & Dine this week. That was the plan. Tuesday was the day. And then Monday night happened.

I had been hearing that song all week. You know the one. OneRepublic – that whistle. If you know, you know. And once that song gets in your head, there is exactly one thing that can get it out, and that is watching the movie immediately. So I asked Matt if he wanted to watch Top Gun: Maverick with me on Monday night and he said yes, and by the time the credits rolled I had completely abandoned my original plan and was already mentally building a snack board at eleven o’clock at night.

I will say this without apology: I loved Top Gun: Maverick. Maybe even more than the original. We saw it in the theater when it came out, and it was one of the first movies we watched in our new home on our home theater setup, which still feels like a flex every single time I turn it on. Tom Cruise is a little out there, sure. But he is also one of the greatest actors alive and I will not be taking questions. Miles Teller too. That cast did not miss.

And I have to tell you about Kenny Loggins, because he deserves his own paragraph. My mom is his biggest fan on the planet. He kissed her at a concert in the nineties and she has never recovered. She has dragged me to see him live probably twenty-five times, which is more than I have seen my own favorite artist, Gavin DeGraw. So every single time I hear Danger Zone, I think of her. There is something genuinely sweet about a movie that makes me think of my mom within the first thirty seconds.

The snack board idea hit me fast and it came together even faster, because as it turns out, the timing was perfect. Big brands have gone all in on patriotic packaging this year with America’s 250th anniversary around the corner, and Walmart had basically done all the shopping for me. Entenmann’s chocolate donuts with red, white and blue sprinkles. Cheez-Its in patriotic packaging and printing. Little Debbie brownies wrapped in stars and stripes. Luigi’s Italian Ice in cherry and lemon. Red white and blue M&Ms. And then there were the star shaped tots, which I had randomly found at Target a few weeks earlier and grabbed immediately because I knew, I just knew, they were going to be perfect for something. I did not know what. And then I did.

You can find all of the labels I used on this board at the bottom of this post – I use 5×7 photo printer paper to print them out and then add them to toothpicks.

Everything you need to recreate this board is linked on my Amazon storefront right here 👉 https://amzn.to/4fwxinO

If you are here for the full Top Gun dinner with recipes, that post is coming soon! And if you want the original Top Gun chapter with a full sit-down dinner menu, that lives in Rewind & Dine 👉 [Get Rewind and Dine Here]

Here’s everything on the Top Gun board:

Be My Wingman Wings

Great Balls of Fire BBQ Meatballs

Maverick Mini Sliders

4 Star General Star Tots

Jet Tires Chocolate Donuts

Patriotic M&Ms

Patriotic Cheez-Its Patriotic

Little Debbie Brownies

Ice Man Italian

Ice Coors Lights with the bar rules sign Danger Zone sign

Everything is from Walmart, tots from Target, and the board props are all linked on my Amazon storefront 👉 https://amzn.to/4fwxinO

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The Runway

The whole concept started with a sticky road strip I found on Amazon and a set of mini fighter jet planes. I had used a similar idea on my Cars snack board and my Cars brunch board, and the second I started thinking about Top Gun, the runway came to me immediately. Both movies literally open on a runway. It felt less like a creative decision and more like the only logical conclusion.

I laid the road sticker (linked here) down the center of my large round board (linked here) and staged three jets (linked here) along it, one taking off at the far end and two positioned mid-board like they are lined up and ready. Everything else got arranged around the runway. The Danger Zone caution sign went at the end. It was the last thing I put on the board and it was absolutely mandatory.

I think this might be one of my favorite boards I have ever made. I said what I said.

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Be My Wingman Wings

Garlic wings with a side of ranch. The sign says everything that needs to be said. These are the kind of wings you make when you want something that feels effortless but still shows up for the moment, which is honestly very Maverick of them.

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Great Balls of Fire

BBQ meatballs in a star shaped serving bowl, because of course. I added Famous Dave’s Devil’s Spit to give it the fiery kick. The name writes itself and I refuse to apologize for how much I enjoy it. These also appear in my original Top Gun chapter in Rewind & Dine, which is not a coincidence. They belong at any Top Gun themed table, movie one or movie two. The star bowl options are linked on my Amazon storefront (here) and (here).

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Maverick Mini Sliders

Mini cheeseburger sliders on brioche buns. Small enough to eat with one hand while you are watching the carrier deck scene with your jaw on the floor. They are called Maverick Minis and that is enough.

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4 Star General Tots

These are the stars of the show, pun absolutely intended. Tots are my favorite – if I go to a restaurant and they are serving tots, I am getting them without question! I found star shaped tater tots at Target on a random weekday a few weeks before this board happened, threw them in my cart without a plan, and had to physically stop myself from telling strangers in the frozen food aisle about them. They are exactly as perfect as I knew they would be. The “4 Star General” label felt inevitable.

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Jet Tires

Entenmann’s chocolate donuts with red, white and blue sprinkles, renamed Jet Tires, because look at them. That is a tire. Available at Walmart. Do not overthink it.

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Ice Man Italian Ice

Luigi’s Real Italian Ice in Cherry Lemon Swirl and a lemon-lime flavor, tagged as Ice Man Italian Ice. Cool, refreshing, and deeply on brand for a character who was too cool to sweat for an entire movie. Also red, white, and blue. Also from Walmart. Also perfect.

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The Bar Rules

The Coors Light situation deserves its own moment. I used silver Coors Light bottles as the drink of the night – mostly because that is Matt’s favorite beer and we had it on hand, and tagged them with the sign that reads: “Disrespect a lady, the navy, or put your cell phone on the bar, you buy a round.” If you have seen the movie, you know the scene. Maverick walks into the bar, puts his phone down, and ends up buying a round. It is the one moment on this board that is pure Maverick, not a callback to the original, just a hat tip to the sequel and the vibe it set from the very beginning.

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The Full Spread

When this board was finished, I genuinely stood back and stared at it for a solid minute. The runway pulls your eye straight through the center. The red, white, and blue color story holds across every single item. The labels are fun without trying too hard. The jets are doing exactly what jets should do on a snack board, which is look cool and make people ask questions.

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Ready to make this board? Here is everything you need.

All the food comes from Walmart, with the star tots from Target. For the props that make it a real moment:

The Board | The Jets | The Road Sticker | Star Bowls Option 1 | Star Bowls Option 2

Browse everything together on my Amazon storefront 👉 https://amzn.to/4fwxinO

And if you want the full Top Gun sit-down dinner with recipes, it is coming soon right here on the blog. The original Top Gun chapter with a complete themed dinner menu lives in 👉 Rewind & Dine

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Tag me when you make it. Maverick would call it a need to know, and you need to know how good this board is.