Joe Cool Cafe closing

Bret said:

I would agree Noggin except I would replace "most" with "all". :)

So.. Not most, all. But, there are some exclusions, so it's not all. We're still gonna call it all, but put an asterisk next to it.

"all* parks

*Some exclusions apply."

Oh kay...

Get a break from study hall to post on Pointbuzz?

Post random question that doesn't make sense nor is it an actual question?

Actually it was a comment on the maturity of your post. Sorry my attempt at humor with Noggin offended you to the point where you needed to be the grammar police. I'll try to do better next time. Seriously, it was an innocent discussion about park news. There was no need to be a jerk.

Waiting for someone to jump in and bash cp for removing yet another "family friendly" piece from the park. I could care less that this restaurant is going, as long as they replace it with another sit down restaurant elsewhere in the park. I'm sure we'll see some sort of new restaurant near the BlueStreak/Valravn location. Possibly the Pirate Ride location? Would be cool if the restaurant was Pirate Themed, hehe.

Bret said:

Actually it was a comment on the maturity of your post.

There was no need to be a jerk.

Irony, defined.

I agree CoasterGuy, and I didn't start the thread to bash the park. They could always have plans to add something better to replace the current. Really, one of the best parts of Joe Cools for us was the location near Planet Snoopy. I realize that doesn't mean a lot to most of the posters on here, but it is nice when you have a young child to have something close to their area. Personally, I'm sad it will be closing, but hopefully something better will take it's place.

Honestly, if they just removed the All Wheels Extreme Stadium already, they could build a nice family friendly restaurant right on the beach.

Careful, you'll stir up an entirely different nest of hornets with that comment. LOL

Sorry. I just don't come to CP to watch people perform tricks on their bikes. I can do that sitting on my front porch while kids do that in the neighborhood. The thought is what counts though... it WOULD be a good location for a restaurant, and it still would be close to Planet Snoopy.

LOL, true. That's a topic for an entirely different discussion. I agree though that it would make a great dining location. Doubt you'll see it happen. Besides, if they tore down the All-sports stadium, where would they store the Windseeker rescue cage? :)

Agreed. They have made noticeable improvements to the beach the past few years. First with Windseeker, then with Gatekeeper, then with Hotel Breakers, then with the Lakeside Pavilion... it would just make sense in my opinion. And lol, the stadium is more useful for storing a cage than providing entertainment. Just my two cents.

AWE is my favorite show at the park. I wouldn't be happy if they got rid of it.

I'm willing to see other people's points. Granted I'm sure people DO enjoy the performances. But does it need to take up a whole stadium? Couldn't there be a better place for it? The few times I've been to the performances there, there has been maybe half the stadium full on a busy day. All they need is somewhere to put a couple ramps... They could possibly just expand the Luminosity stage and use that for a day performance...

I think I'll make a thread about AWE later, as I didn't see one. I don't want to totally derail the thread. I just thought that would be a great spot for a new restaurant.

The advantage to Joe Cool cafe was in operations. It shared space with the employee cafeteria and didn't need the extra kitchen space, right?

They have a site down restaurant in the front of the park. They have restaurants in the hotel. They have a restaurant at the marina.

I'm a little biased about theme park food, because Food & Wine is going on at Epcot since Friday. I've been twice. I don't mind paying a bit for small portions of really, really good food.

That said, I agree with Matt's point about a bigger sit down restaurant, and it doesn't even have to be table service, in my opinion. One of the slightly annoying things about Cedar Point is that, other than the buffet, there isn't a single location where you can get a variety of counter service items in the same place. Get pizza here, go down the midway for fries, go down the midway for Subway, go down the midway for tacos... you get the idea.

Of the places that really do this well, I think Universals Studios Florida's Simpsons-themed place is best. They have five or six food genres, one checkout. Disney kinda has this (with fewer choices) at Cosmic Ray's, but the Simpsons joint does it better with more variety and way better food. (Link... the donuts and taco truck are outside.)

That's an excellent point Jeff. I can't remember the name of it but HersheyPark has something similar on a little smaller scale than what you described. I think it was 3 different type options with a single checkout. It wasn't horribly priced, and our entire family was able to find something we each wanted. Something like that would be great at CP.

Harmony Hall would be a perfect addition for Cedar Point. I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner. I thought we had a reasonable shot at it happening for 2016 before the possibility of Valravn came into the picture. I'd imagine it is still in the plans somewhere.

The challenge though, to me, is to not just pick some stuff out of the GFS catalog and plop it on the menu. Make something interesting. The Simpsons location, for example, has chicken and waffles that are pretty solid, and I imagine the Krusty Burger is pretty good too. This is what made Joe Cool so crappy. I'm sure they were boiling noodles (with no salt, obviously), uncorking a container of runny alfredo sauce, and serving it hot. And the funny thing is, the chicken tenders they use (I believe in several locations), are actually a good start... now combine them with a dry rub or sauce, maybe a few veggie sticks or something. It's like, people once raved about the barbecue sauce at Outback Steakhouse... it's just Cattleman's with a blend of seasoning added to it.

So think about the crappy penne alfredo. First, put salt in the damn water, and make sure you actually drain it. Now take the stock runny sauce, add some heavy cream and some cheap grated parmesan. For a little extra money you've infinitely improved the taste. Gonna put chicken on it? Stop using that pre-cut frozen crap and actually grill it. Marinate it first in some oil, maybe a little citrus and any number of seasonings (berbere would be an awesome choice). I understand there is additional cost to prep, and some extra cost for the ingredients, but if you're gonna charge me $15, at least spend four bucks on the food.

I can't argue with anything you just said. All excellent points and great ideas.