With summer approaching, the amusement park industry is going through some big changes right now — particularly as it relates to foodservice.

Matthew Anderson“We’re seeing a growing number of amusement parks and themed entertainment venues making huge investments in food and beverage in the last year because they believe in the importance of this amenity to both attract diners and keep them at the park longer,” says Matthew Anderson, associate principal-hospitality, Rippe Associates, who worked on the operations side for amusement parks for many years prior to becoming a consultant. Case in point: Six Flags Entertainment Corp., which last year merged with Cedar Fair (Anderson’s former employer), rolled out a $1 billion investment in guest experience upgrades for this year and next, of which $80 million will go toward food and beverage improvements.

When it comes to the design and operation of amusement parks, “they’re just like stadiums, but outside,” Anderson says. That generally means a combination of retail, concession, grab-and-go, marketplace and servery-style offerings. “One of the parks we work with has 50 different food and beverage outlets.”

What’s different, however, with amusement parks these days is the development of full-service restaurant concepts on these properties.  Disney’s been excelling at this for years — and other park operators have taken notice.

Park operators want the longest stay possible and repeat visits,” Anderson says. “The rides aren’t going to change day to day in a single year, so how do you change their experience? Maybe it’s improvements on the entertainment side, but also on the food side. If there’s a wide enough range of food offerings, guests might not be able to try all the food they want in one visit, so they might plan to come back again to try something different next time.”

One interesting benefit that full-service concepts at amusement parks offer, other than stepped-up foodservice and hospitality, is that they give parents a place to relax while their kids run around the park, so they’re not simply dropped off and left to their own devices. “In the past, you might have parents drop their teenagers off with $40 in cash to go play and feed themselves,” Anderson says. “But then that’s all they have to spend. If I [as a park operator] can do something to get the parents to stay, not only would the teenagers and the parents likely spend more, but there would also be more chaperoning, fewer unsupervised activities, and more families staying together. That’s a win-win for the parents and the parks.” 

Another tactic park operators are taking to improve foodservice these days is expanding their culinary teams and bringing in local chefs. “You’ll always have that 70/30 split with chicken tenders and pizza and fries, which parks do really well, but there’s room to be more creative with that 30%,” Anderson says. “We once brought in a rotating roster of local chefs to take over a location for a month and offer some specific dishes or concepts only available at the park, not at their restaurants. That helped draw in adult ride enthusiasts who were just as interested in the food.”

Another tactic Anderson used to get guests to stay longer into the evening as an operator was incorporating live music and entertainment at full-service venues. “We developed a small pavilion and brought in local musicians and acts to play while guests enjoyed a nice meal and some cocktails,” he says. “[Parks] are not known for promoting alcohol, but if they can create a comfortable, safe setting—like a sit-down restaurant or music venue—to do so, that’s just another way to capture more revenue.”

So, how does all this innovation translate into foodservice design and equipment specification? “We want to offer the freshest product available and make it clear that it’s all fresh,” Anderson says. “We must think about how we design front counters to send that message. Nothing is hidden behind a wall anymore. We want to showcase as much food as possible and have guests walk past items as they’re dished out in front of them.” Instead of old school hot wells, maybe there’s a row of ceramic crocks holding hot goods.

Instead of pre-packaging menu items, Anderson suggests showcasing sandwiches and dishes being freshly made and frequently replenished in more open-air displays, even if staff are still grabbing and serving the actual items to guests. “When you can see the food being freshly put out — not sealed in a bag getting soggy it excites people and they think, ‘wow, that all looks great,’” Anderson says. “It also helps lines move quicker. When people can’t see the product, it’s harder for them to make a quick decision and that causes bottlenecks.”

From a design standpoint, some of the prep and make areas might be more out in the open, so guests can see staff hand-breading chicken tenders versus simply pulling them out of a fridge or freezer. “It sounds simple, but it has a major impact on the message [operators] are trying to send about the food,” he adds.

Labor-Saving Equipment

Amusement park operators — like stadiums and arenas these days — are “really trying to do less hot-holding and shorten the window between when food is cooked and when guests eat it,” he says.

With more cook-to-order needs, equipment choices for amusement parks center on labor-saving and more automated pieces. It can be as simple as clamshell griddles with automated presets. “Parks often have younger employees who are new to foodservice so you want simple pieces where the cook can just press a button and the griddle will cook the burger perfectly every time — all they need to do is just put it on a bun,” Anderson says. These pieces also prevent waste. “I can’t tell you how many burgers I wasted accidentally burning them as a cook in high school.”

Of course, combi ovens are super critical for high-volume, limited labor operations like amusement parks, Anderson says. “And fryers these days are also so much more automated and programmable than ever before. We’re not quite at the robotic arms or robots just yet, but these automated pieces can do so much from a labor and waste-saving standpoint.

Unattended Retail

While food pickup lockers — both heated and ambient — were all the rage at amusement parks in 2021 and 2022, they’re a little less common now, Anderson says. “Operators have turned their focus more toward just getting people through lines and spaces quicker rather than loading up lockers, which can degrade the quality of the food if items are not picked up fast enough,” he says.

Unattended retail technology is being used more now in marketplace settings, not unlike at modern stadiums and arenas. “Any type of cashless or frictionless technology has been doing really well in amusement parks to get crowds moving in and out faster,” he says.

Amusement park operators leading the way in foodservice have made bigger investments in packaging, Anderson says. “We’re not seeing all the food going in the exact same paper boats anymore,” he says. “Nowadays, we’re seeing more custom-designed French fry buckets and containers with branding and themes for that part of the park. There are also those limited edition popcorn buckets and souvenir items that always do well. Manufacturers are coming up with a much wider variety of custom vessels for all types of food.”

From a design standpoint, Anderson says he must think about where all these products are “going to live” in the foodservice spaces and allocate enough space for them accordingly. “Those Snoopy head buckets are not stackable,” he jokes.

Anderson says he’s excited about the future of amusement parks as a longtime operator and now a designer working in the space. “It’s exciting to see the investments in food and beverage that they’re making—and how we can respond as consultants.”