2010 Food improvements

I'm glad Happy Friar didn't change one bit. I missed it so much!

I posted some pictures of the new food places, and lots of other things in the park here...

http://coasterbuzz.com/Forums/Thread/57391.aspx

Stopped at Perkins today during rain. Great coffee, excellent eggs Benedict, fast and very friendly service. Gonna be tough talking my wife into eating there. We usually camp at the park and bring all kinds of food. But this is definitely a bonus to the park. Anyone know the hours for Perkins?

How were the prices? I did not get to see a menu.

The front window at Perkins had its hours as 7:00AM-10:00PM, if I remember correctly.

The prices are around $10 or so for sandwiches and $11-14 for most of the entrees. I haven't been to a "real world" Perkins in a while but I assume these are floating a little bit above real world prices.

Perkins is a solid addition to Breakers overall. It already seems to get more traffic than the Coffee Shop did. Whether or not guests will miss the breakfast buffer remains to be seen (although Breakwater Cafe will still have one apparently).

Perkins' "real world" prices were absurdly high for what they offer, at least the last time I was in one. At least you can get drunk at Fridays.

Perkins prices are no higher that any Bob Evans I've been to.

The difference, of course, is that Bob Evans doesn't completely suck. :)

JuggaLotus said:
Yeah, but what would the teenagers do when they go in at 6 for dinner and find that they stopped serving dinner 3 hours prior and only have decaf coffee and pie available?

I think you're having fond flashbacks to Jerry's Country Inn there in Hudsonville, Jugga.

Never been there, but that's probably because I don't get home till 5:30/6 and they are putting away the coffee and pie. ;)

I just stopped by the Bosco Stick stand by Wave Swinger. They looked pretty good so I stopped to get one. There are 3 pictured on the sign. Original, which appears to be custard), Apple and Pepperoni. I asked for Original. "We don't sell that one" he says. How about apple? Nope. The only one they sell is Pepperoni. So why are all 3 displayed. I hope this changes later in the season.

The way to drive repeat business is pretty simple and it works in every industry. You build up value in the customers mind to the point it exceeds the price. Then you have a sale. Continue to deliver and you have a loyal customer. Food is potentially the worst product CF could possibly gouge people on. Everybody notices it, everybody hates it, everybody knows they're getting taken and they don't buy. I think it's much easier to meet the value/price threshold on a ticket price because they do have the best rides in the world. The food? Well it just plain sucks.

I tried the new pizza at Pizza Patio on Sunday, and it was awesome! You can't even compare it to the crappy old pizza. Awesome crust, gooey cheese and the right amount of sauce. The slice was huge and $4.25 was definitely reasonable.

That being said, I still encountered what I absolutely hate about walk up food service at CP. Here was the procedure for ordering. The guy in front of me ordered a whole pepperoni pizza. That window then ceased to take any more orders until his pizza was ready, approximately 5-6 minutes. Then I ordered a slice of pepperoni, but by then they were out of pepperoni slices, so again all orders at the window ceased until I got my slice, another 3-4 minutes. Each window had it's own line, so you couldn't move to another one easily, and they were all doing the same thing.

They had 3 windows at the pizza joint. I'd bet that if they took orders at just two windows, and then used a simple number system for items that need to be waited on with pickup at the third window, the lines would move much faster. Just my two cents on the issue.

Yeah, the service sucks at the walk up food stands. Improving the food is a start. Now it's time to improve the service and the prices.

I tried a few different things this weekend. I am fine with the ketchup. I'm not picky enough to notice a difference there.

I liked the ribs, though they were a bit pricey. An entrée comes with a biscuit and 2 sides. They had all the standard selections for side dishes. A half slab was $15.95 and a full slab was $24.95. A half a slab with the biscuit and sides was enough for me. There was a good amount of meat on the bones though.

I never saw the walking tacos before. But, I don't think it was new this year. I liked that too. I never had a walking taco with Doritos. I think I prefer Fritos. Still good though Though the short line I waited in took forever to get through.

You can see my comments a few posts back about the Basco Sticks.

I tried the Fried Cheese Curds which came in mid-season last year. I loved them I don't think I will be getting cheese on a stick after trying these. This is my new favorite fried cheese product at the park. Made fresh in just a couple minutes. When I say fresh, it's still a pre-portioned package. But, it wasn't cooked until I ordered it. I'm not sure if that was because it may have been slow or if it will be like that all the time. I would hope that when the weather gets cooler and lines get longer that would have a certain amount made up.

I ate breakfast at Perkins Sunday morning. The staff was very friendly. The service was quick and the food was good. I have pictures of the menu I will post later.

I eat sugardale hot dogs all the time so I didn't bother trying those. I still want to try the funnel cake fries and the Pizza. I will probably try those at CoasterMania! this weekend. There's probably a few other things I want to try. But, I can't remember right now.

Jason Hammond said:

I tried the Fried Cheese Curds which came in mid-season last year. I loved them I don't think I will be getting cheese on a stick after trying these. This is my new favorite fried cheese product at the park. Made fresh in just a couple minutes. When I say fresh, it's still a pre-portioned package. But, it wasn't cooked until I ordered it. I'm not sure if that was because it may have been slow or if it will be like that all the time. I would hope that when the weather gets cooler and lines get longer that would have a certain amount made up.

I 100% agree about the cheese curds. When I saw the pre-package I thought, "oh, this is crap", but they were very good, and at around $3.50 my snack MVP thus far this year. I still have a lot to try though :)

Thank my wife for the curds. :)

Man, I don't know...but that just doesn't sound right.

Everyone on the forum in harmony, "Thank you Mrs. Putz."

Well, except that she does not share my last name, but you can probably call her Diana.