Restocking the food shops overnight!

After seeing how busy all the food and restaurant shops were this Saturday, does anyone on here work with the food service department? I'm wondering how all the food, utensils, ice, soda, and anything food related is restocked from their closing late Saturday night(12-1 a.m.)to be ready for Sundays 10 a.m. opening. The midway must be full of delivery trucks or pallets from the front to the back of the park, when you think how many food places there are. I don't see much action on the live webcams past closing, but it seems like a huge task to deal with, especially after a busy day like this Saturday, where the places were nonstop busy until past midnight.

I use to drive semi truck for the company that supplied Cedar Point with a lot of its food. I went to the park quite a few times, usually went on tuesdays or thursdays. I got there around noon or so, and traveled around to the back of the park, in front of breakers, and behind corkscrew. I backed in to the dock for the food building there, and workers with pallet jacks got out all the pallets, and put them in the proper storage area (walk in coolers/freezers etc). Hope that helps!

The foods warehouse delivers to each location each night based on what the location orders. Food employees usually come in at 8am and start unloading the order and preparing for the day.

They use a food train that consist of a tractor and 4 trailers. I have almost hit them a few times behind Stockade when they do day time deliverers and they are always losing things going over the crossing. There is also a forklift that follows it around to unload the pallets. Then the food stand works unload them. Sometimes you will see two guys go through frontier town with a pallet jack of product during operating hours if a stand is in need. Everything goes to what used to be the red warehouse and gets distributed from there. Remember most of the high output food stands have back stage access and you may not see them replenish them. Places like Coasters, Dragons Inn, and Happy Friar would get the train deliveries. I'm sure Chick-fil-A does too but I was never in the back of the park early enough to see. I usually opened and we had to be at 8 so I normally saw Park services, food deliveries, maintenance, etc. doing last minute work. My current fulltime job as taken me to the red warehouse a few times for produce deliveries. Yes the park does get fresh produce!

What do they do with all the food that is left over at the end of the season?

My guess is maybe let the employees have some, or some might go to Castaway Bay/ TGI Fridays.

typically during halloweekends each area manager tries to run as much of the product and supplies as low as possible. All the rest is returned to the foods warehouse and condensed. And is used at Castaway bay and other various places year round. If there's too much of something that would spoil, chances are the employee cafe will have it on special during work crew after the season is over. On Closing day, you will see menu items disappear off menu boards as the product runs dry at each location. At that point the warehouse only is taking product back in, not sending any out. They do have accounting for all of this so area managers and other supervisors can be held accountable for cost of goods used versus sales.

I don't see any food items-perishable or frozen, go to TGI Fridays, as it's attached to a location being currently renovated, and closed. The beer would be my question...lol. The kegs used in saloons etc....it'll go flat. So will draft beer be discounted closing day? Maybe even the bottled beer and other malt beverages? It does go flat and expire. Just curious.

The TGI Fridays at Castaway Bay.

The Employee Cafeteria typically operates for a few weeks after closing day so some food is sent there to be used. Not sure if they still do this but when I worked at the park they would have a sale for a day or two at the Foods Warehouse for employees sometime around mid November. Any food the park did want to keep would be sold for a pretty decent price.

Ok, AlexGillman, forgot about that!

Being a chain establishment, TGI Friday's likely has a specific supply chain and separate food products required under franchise agreement. I'm not so sure that excess food could simply be used there. Then again, it's always possible that CP is able to break some of those rules, being an amusement park. I just doubt it since part of chains is consistency of product, and that's why corporate likes to control its supply chain.

Menu items that are specific to Fridays will likely only come from the distributor that Fridays corporate approves of but stuff like ketchup, eggs, lettuce, etc could probably all be used there. But the thing to remember is that Fridays is probably on a regular schedule for food delivery and won't really need anything left over from Cedar Point. For example the restaurant would not order less ketchup in hopes that Cedar Point would have extra for a couple weeks after closing. Like what has been said already, anything extra (which isn't much) is used in the Employee Cafeteria and the rest is sold to employees.

^Not ketchup, Fridays uses heinz where Cedar Point/Fair uses Red Gold.

Which is why I said "For example". Replace ketchup with cheese if it makes you feel better.

I know both of the Fridays locations and Famous Dave's receive produce separate from the park.

What about Johnny Rockets, Chick Fil A, and other chains?

The chain food is used to feed the seagulls over the winter.

Gatekeeper2013 said:
^Not ketchup, Fridays uses heinz where Cedar Point/Fair uses Red Gold.

Just to be clear....at OUR house, we do use Red Gold. Only because it's the Official Cedar Point brand! Only wish they would put out coupons....so we stock up when it's on sale.

When we use it, we mention its the "Official Cedar Point ketchup!"

yeah, I know~pretty sad. but, we've done it for a while.

They should use some of that dollar pizza from the park over at Castaway Bay, it tastes a whole lot better than the stuff they're using there now.