Food in the Park

Fish? No, it's all the boaters relieving themselves in the lake that I would worry about! :)

No I was just worried about the vegetarians because they dont want water that had animals in it.

Isn't that a little ridiculous?

Nope. That's a LOT ridiculous! ;)

So from Thursday, I can attest that the Midway Market, at least, has a decent number of celiac-friendly options.

Except for the dessert table, of course. I considered getting ice cream, as most (but not all) ice cream is safe, depending on any fillers. I asked the girl serving if she knew if there was any wheat-based filler in there. Not surprisingly, she didn't. She called over the manager, who also didn't. Again, I wasn't surprised, but what DID surprise me was when I asked if I could possibly see the ingredients in any way to check for myself, he replied "No, the ice cream is provided by an outside vendor and we don't have the ingredients list."

I found it VERY suprising and disappointing, in this day and age of food sensitivities and allergies, that a restaraunt would not have ingredients available for the asking. Most places I've been have been VERY accomodating about such requests, and I was a bit disappointed to see Cedar Point fail in this category.

Other than that, it was a great meal, though. At least there was fresh pineapple at the salad bar to fill in for dessert...

I saw that they have "Starbucks" coffee in Donut time, is there any kind of corporate association of starbucks with donut time, or is cedar point just choosing to sell their coffee there?

I must be a serious minority here because I LOVE the food at CP, I love the burgers, dogs, pizzas, fries, donoughts, candy, funnel cakes, elephant ears, slushies, chicken strips, chicken sandwitches, nachos, churros, and corn dogs. Mainly because i eat that stuff on a day to day basis anyway, yeah im an unhealthy eater and my breakfast contains ice cream and lucky chams but i love it and it tastes good! Isnt that all that matters? Good tasting food? Oh and another thing, i eat all that stuff everyday and im pretty slim maybe because of my high metabolism or maybe because im always running around and doing stuff either way the food is fine, Keep up he good work CP!

I also agree with a statement that was made earlier, if you are on a diet, when you go to CP the rules should be erased while your there! Your supposed to let go! Eat grease and love it! Its only one or two days youll be doing it so spoil yourself! Have fun, Live a little!

Your profile says you're 15. Wait a few years and keep eating the same way.

If you love the food at CP, my guess is that you either have low standards or you haven't been around to other parks. Even "bad" food can be a higher quality.

I agree with jeff. And besides, I can't speak for the rest of us here, but i go to cedar point way more than once or twice a year. Friday will be my 4th time this year and I plan to go many more time after that. If i "let go" every time I went to The Point, I would not be fitting into the Millennium very long. ;)

While I would tend to agree with Jeff that even "bad" food can be of a higher quality, when I go to CP I take the "NextGen89" approach in that it is a day to "let go" and have things that I definitely don't have on any sort of regular basis. Grabbing whatever "bad food" of choice between rides or while just walking around the park is just part of the day that I look forward to. Given that I rarely go more than 2 or 3 times a year it's not a big deal because a lot of the day is spent "on the move" going from ride to ride, but even on the 2nd or 3rd trip I try to eat different things just to keep things interesting, and that means trying different locations throughout the park as well as the "sit down" restaraunts inside and outside the park.
Having spent 4 summers working in "Food Operations", I will say that the vast majority of food "offerings" at CP are based on demand vs profitability and ease of preparation, and while more variety when it comes to vegetarian or even non-vegetarian food would be great, I don't think that the "eating situation" at CP as a whole is that much worse or different than other amusement parks around the country with the exception of Disney parks (which are definitely geared to cater to a much wider clientele - ie. an international or worldwide audience that due in part to cultural differences, will or won't eat certain things as well as the fact that Disney tries to bring its patrons from this country a taste of the many foods that its' international visitors regularly eat).
Anyway, more direct interaction with CP officials (e-mail, letters etc.) as to how to improve the "culinary offerings" of CP can only help, as well as "voting" with your "food dollars". So keep it up, and things will change.

P.S. Cheesebuger-on-a-stick is dead! Long live cheeseburger-on-a-stick!!!

If you don't think it's that much worse than other amusement parks, you haven't been to very many.

I've always disliked CP's food, but then again I've never really found any park food that I really like. It always seems to be really low-quality.

Exception is LaRosa's Pizza at PKI, but then that's not really park food.

But I love that "type" of food - corn dogs, fried cheese, etc., and I always eat it anyway, hoping it'll be better. I deal with the health issue by eating only one meal (i.e. last time I went to CP, a cheesburger and half of my fries at 2 p.m. kept me going until the next day at noon).

First i hate to see national chains in parks. They can do it better themselves (if they have the right people) and keep ALL of the profit.

Second CP food definately isn't anywhere near the best in the industry, but i find most to be average to slightly above. Again nothing to go out of your way for, but then again i don't go to CP to eat.

Lastly, vegetarian and even "healthy eaters" are an extremely-vocal minority. Emphasis on vocal. Why do i say, you might ask? Well i will say that there are enough healthy eaters out there to support places like Tommy's out in Cleveland Heights (great food by the way) where they specialize in vegetarian cuisine. But the flip side is how many of them out there do you see? There definately isn't as much a market for "Not-Dogs" as there is for KFC. That's why there isn't a nationally sucessful vegetarian or purely healthy concept out there. Sure Subway has latched onto the healthy kick and people think they're helping themselves because they get the low fat whatever and then load it up with cheese and mayo and other fatty toppings that completely destroy the whole reason of buying the item in the first place.

The point here is that with high volume places like amusement parks there IS NOT enough of a market to justify having locations dedicated to healthy options. Unless you're willing to take a hit on the bottom line. At GLP we used to offer a grilled chicken as a healthy option and burgers still out sold the chicken 20 to 1. And it was not a bad product. I currently work at a major health organization where there is a lot of talk about healthy eating, and we try to offer what is asked of us. But the healthy choice or vegetarian option is ALWAYS out sold by other less healthy choices. The problem is that even when people talk of healthy eating they still lean toward fattier high calorie choices. It just doesn't make sense for a place like CP to offer what will never sell as well or as fast as anything else when you're talking about selling hundreds if not thousands of corn dogs and burgers a day.

Gener, I won't argue that vegetarians are a vocal group, but your claim that there is not enough of a market to justify having options is completely absurd! I never once heard park guests mumbling "I wish I could get a donut" in the past, but this year when Donut Time opened I see people lined up.

Additionally, your statement that vegetarian or healthy options always being outsold by junk is also completely true, just look at the size of people where ever you go. The majorority of adults and even many children are either overweight or obese. But these people don't even have the choice to eat healthier. If you go to the park to eat elephant ears, cheeseburgers and french fries, then just ignore the stands with salads, watermelon and corn-on-the-cob. Does having this food available really offend you that much?

I'm sick of arguing this point already. Everyone thinks they know what the "average guest" wants to eat at the park when in reality no one knows. Stupid statements like "live a little and eat crap" or "no one goes to amusement parks to eat healthy" are also absurd. A diet is a lifestyle.

For me, as a vegetarian/vegan, there is nothing satisfying or fulfilling to eat (healthy or not) at Cedar Point and most other parks. That upsets me. The bottom line is when I go to the park I want to spend less time and money there because I have nothing to eat.

Gener also has a pretty ridiculous and narrow view of what the Cleveland market wants. Tell me, what do you think people go to the two Mustard Seed Market locations for? Trader Joe's? Wild Oats Market? Web of Life in Westlake? Why do you suppose those organic sections in every Giant Eagle keep getting bigger and bigger?

Stick to what you know, because you don't know anything about the demand for better food, especially by vegetarians.

I usually don't eat much at C.P. anyways. I grab something in the morning before I get there, then when I'm at the point a snag some fries occasionally. For dinner I might hold out 'till i leave the park, or go to my hotel. Though I'm no vegetarian by any means, I'd still love to see more fruits and veggies, and healthier meals sold. It's easier on the stomach, and can still taste great. But I'm not going to press my opinion on what Cedar Point should or shouldn't have/do, because I have just one viewpoint, and I don't know what everyone else thinks about the food there.

-Eagle

When did i say that healthy food or vegetarians offend me? Some of my best friends fit those catagories. My point again is that this is a supply and demand type thing. There isn't enough demand to warrent parks in haveing the selection. If there was you wouldn't see such a void of options. Period.

And how many Wild Oats have gone under? Or the place on Coventry in the Heights? Both locations are in the heart of tree hugging vegan lovin' lifestyles and they couldn't survive. It goes back to the fact that there aren't that many vegetarians out there when looking at the population as a whole. And for every one that opens up another closes. Sure stores like giant eagle may expand, but it isn't from an expanded market or enlightenment in eating habits from the average joe. It's the big box trying to squeeze the little place out of the market, which they do so well. Put simply it's Giant Eagle tapping into a market that they didn't before. It certainly isn't in hopes that UAW Phil will suddenly have this epiphany that vege burgers, sprouts and multi grain is the way to go.

Oh it's not just Cleveland Jeff obviously much of the country has the same fear of healthy food.

And i don't see the comparison here with the donut shop. First it isn't healthy. Second it is a highly specialized food item (ie people aren't lining up all day to buy them like you would expect from an entree type item). Third, i thought they should have done this long ago when i heard that the park used to make their own pastry goods. That being said the park still needs to be careful how they operate it, this is a product that can easily blow its profit in the afternoon with poor management of controlable inputs.

Anyhow, anyone out there who has worked in a high volume food service environment would agree with me. As a F/S manager i don't particularly care to deal with the healthy stuff because we innevidably loose on the offering. You see when you deal in high volume the systems and models are set up for high levels of production and speed of service. When something isn't being ordered but once in thirty, it becomes a bigger pain than its worth as an operator. And again this is most true for high volume. But even if there is a market niche for Tommys there still is a limit as to how many can be supported by said market (which isn't nearly equal to the number of Taco Bells out there now is it?). If it was so darn popular there would be more of it out there.

Hey Jeff, remember how you stuck up for the company on not giving away the gate with GLP season passes? Well it's also the same business decision here in having less options in healthy/vegetarian foods. People say they want it all day long, but when it's there they don't buy it. Work in Food Service management for ten years and then get back to me on how little i know. Sorry vegetarian/health concious people, most Americans aren't into or willing to make the comitment to that lifestyle choice.

So you say all these places can't survive and I say they thrive, and there are more of them. Do we live in the same city? Like I said, have you tried to get a table at Mustard Seed (Fairlawn or Solon, doesn't matter) on a Friday or Saturday night? I certainly can't be imagining it every time Steph brings my carnivorous ass out to one of these places. (And Coventry, as with many areas on the east side, is an irrationally high rent district and hardly representative of the area, as much as people that live there would like to think.)

What about the countless Japanese sushi places or Indian places that serve heavy amounts of vegetarian food? Steph has a book filled with places around Northeast Ohio that serve this stuff. That's not imagination, that's for real. The demand is most certainly there.

In fact, the notion that good food costs more to serve and prepare is total nonsense. I know this because our grocery costs haven't increased a dime since Steph went veggie. But don't take my word for it. A recent study of school food programs (and I couldn't tell you the where or who off the top of my head) showed that a healthy fresh-food, balanced diet program, set by a nutritionist, costs exactly the same amount to prepare a pre-packaged, USDA, fed-subsidized program of processed food. You know what the real kicker was? The kids in the nutritionist school had better grades and there were fewer incidents that required discipline.

You also neglect to consider the options available at other theme parks. Even PKI had decent salads and fresh fruit last weekend. If it's such a risk or profit killer, why do they do it? What about Busch? Disney? Even the crappy Aramark-run corporate cafeterias of the world? Am I just imagining this? I don't think so.

You're stuck in the same entrenched dogma that the rest of American culture is stuck in. You see what you want to see. I think you should look around a little.

Jeff I think you are seeing what you want to see because many familys that go to mustard seed and japanese sushi places feel like eating this way that certain night. That does not mean that they are vegeterians and never eat anything else they go to these reastaurants to eat healthy food that night but if they were to go to cedar point say the next day I dont think they would plan on eating healthy they would try to have a good time since it is an amusement park and having a good is usually what you go there to have. A time also consits of eating eating food you love to eat. Most people that you see at these reastuarnts come to cedar point and this is there day to come and ride roller coasters, maybe watch a few shows, and eat what ever they want. So I don't know about you but if I wasn't a vegeterian which im not when it came time to eat I would go get some fries, pizza, a burger, or other similar foods and I would defianately not want to go eat vegetables or fruits.

This discussion is interesting on both sides, though I do agree with gener that the market for quick serve vegan fare just isn't very big. I remember a number of years ago, when McDonald's was first being criticized for it's high fat menu, a spokesman said "if we could make money selling celery sticks and tofu then we would sell those products, but we can't".

For Cedar Point, I still think a small specialty food stand that sells vegan and health conscious foods could break even, and it would be a nice customer service gesture to please vegan folks.

Yes, PKI does sells salads, but so does CP at Coyote Cody's on the Frontier Trail. Fresh fruit also, I believe.

Does anyone remember when Surrey, on the main midway, sold made to order deli subs? They were very good, but I think it went over like a lead balloon. I remember getting one once, thinking it was good for a deli sub, and then passing Surrey countless times while I was munching on a burger. Now people line up to buy Dipin' Dots at that same food stand.

I do tend to buy a lot of the park food when at CP, I like the various treats. I've also had some very good meals at the out of park full service restaurants. So, for whatever I'm in the mood for, I can say that I'm pretty well fed when at CP.