The Boardwalk - New for 2023

About the only former place I would take over the current is Donut Time (Starbucks is fine, but I never understood a half hour wait for sugary coffee and only semi fresh baked goods). I felt the Donut time donuts were always fresh and good.

Nostalgia wise at Donut Time, I remember talking to Pete for over an hour over donuts and coffee one cold Halloweekends evening there. It was my first and only real chat with him, and he struck me as a genuinely great guy He was super easy to talk to and had a ton of knowledge and love for the park in an easy going sort of way. Only reason we stopped chatting was the park was closing. Whenever I see his name pop up here I always think of that "Donut Time" and it's not hard to see why he is missed.

Chuck Wagon:

I'm curious, would you describe Famous Dave's or Bay Harbor as being hugely popular?

As Jeff mentioned, Famous Dave's was popular despite having pretty average food, and that was while being outside the park. I don't know how popular Bay Harbor is, but how many park guests even know it exists?

And most importantly, in addition to being off the beaten path, neither of those restaurants are on a beach.

Bay Harbor once served spoiled milk to my then-2-year-old. I'd be more pissed about it, but he barfed all over the place as a result, so there's that. It's just OK, but I suppose top of the list for Sandusky.

Bay Harbor is interesting, because the potential is there. I don't know if it's been updated or not, but the 1990's "design" and atmosphere made the food seem a bit less than exciting, for what they try and serve. They have a great bar and nice fire pit - and I have enjoyed my meals there and would like to go back, but most of the time I'm not dressed for dinner when I'm up there.

The spoiled milk thing would sour me on going back.

edit: changed wording - the dated design/architecture of the place.

Haven’t visited Bay Harbor in a long time, but, I do remember when it was the Cedar Point Yacht Club!

Hold on. Bay Harbor wasn’t unique to CP and still exists?!

…so.. what predated Famous Dave’s in its current location on the Marina? I was thinking that it was Bay Harbor but could be wrong. Furthermore, I had no idea that there is another restaurant where Bay Harbor is now. Interesting.

It was Boathouse and prior to that it was Marina Steak House. When I worked at CP we’d go to Marina for a “fancy” dinner, although the atmosphere was casual enough for boaters. They had steak and local fish, perch or walleye. The place was surrounded on three sides by big glass windows for an uninterrupted view of the Marina.

Boathouse! That’s it. Thank you. (First place I ever tried fried sweet potatoes)

So when the ferry was running, I vaguely remember waiting to go home in a building in the marina. Was that building turned into Famous Daves? Teardown/rebuild, or am I way off?

You know, I just realized the Google satellite view of the park is very recent, as you can see the footers for the Grand Pavilion on it.

I used to ALWAYS go to the Boathouse. Loved it. Went to Famous Dave's once when it first opened, haven't been back.

Liked Bay Harbor a couple decades ago, haven't been in ages, so I don't know what it's like nowadays.

Progress on the pavilion is coming along nicely. Looks much larger in person than I was imagining.

Hudson:

So when the ferry was running, I vaguely remember waiting to go home in a building in the marina. Was that building turned into Famous Daves? Teardown/rebuild, or am I way off?

I’m pretty sure that, when I worked there in ‘78, both the Marina Steakhouse (Famous Dave’s) and Bay Harbor were there. I believe Bay Harbor opened in ‘77. I think the ferry dock was maybe built off the side of the pier that is there today with the marina store, which was also there back in ‘78. I used to buy my snacks and my Reader’s Digest magazine at that store. Maybe that’s where you waited? Back then, I considered the Marina Steakhouse to be too rich for my blood, and I never even thought about Bay Harbor. A couple years ago, however, my family decided to try Bay Harbor. I was less than thrilled. The seafood smelled very fishy, and the light breading was much heavier than I expected. Maybe I’m overly particular, but I figured it would be at least as good as our local Bonefish Grill chain restaurant, and I hoped it would be better, but it fell short.

The waiting area for the ferry was to the right of the building as you approached from the road, which would put it behind the Marina Store. It might still be there.

Webcams are on the construction site today. Looks like the slab under Wild Mouse is almost there. Wonder if it starts going vertical in the next few weeks.

Shouldn’t take very long to put up once they do.

I'll echo what others have said about Bay Harbor, its extremely underwhelming and grossly overpriced for what you get, even by park food standards. No spoiled milk, but something was most assuredly undercooked as my fiancée and I both ended up with mild food poising (although I lacked the foresight of Jeff's son to demonstrate that while we were still in the restaurant).

However as dated at the décor is... its actually kind of awesome. Pure 1980s upscale Floribbean with lots of bronze & yacht accents, like taking a time machine back to every fancy restaurant the Golden Girls ever visited.

I'm not sure if I've been going to the bay harbor that everyone else has but I and my family have always enjoyed going there, we don't make it a frequent stop but it has been a good treat when we have gone.

We-o-we-oooo:

Floribbean

I love this word because I understand exactly what you're talking about.

Me too, and I can’t believe that room remains unchanged.
We used to make Bay Harbor a stop but usually during the off season if we happened to be up there. It was good, wasn’t too expensive, it was popular with locals, and it gave me a chance to be at Cedar Point. I’ll never forget the time I ordered scallops and they gave me, I don’t know, twenty maybe? Not that there was anything wrong with that but it was soooo many. Another time I went to fish a piece of raw onion out of my salad and it just kept coming and coming until I had what was surely the world’s largest unbroken onion ring hanging off of my fork. Like, the dog could have jumped through it. I showed it to the waitress and she just gasped. I said “What the hell kind of onions you raising back there?”
ah…good times…