Restaurant Chains you wouldn’t mind seeing at KI

[SonofBaconator]

I have some that could just be pickup locations and not full blown restaurants- remember these are existing local brands:

• Taste of Belgium: local and can be found in a few sports venues
• Wings and Rings: again local and headquartered not too far from KI
• Frisch’s: local Cincinnati chain with a lot of history
• Montgomery Inn- again a local brand

Like I said, these are just some ideas to hit my head. I certainly wouldn’t want all of these in the park at the same time because I love our food options already.

[rotag]

BD's Mongolian Grill maybe (i say maybe cause of all the spices)

[nhimes90]

1 hour ago, SonofBaconator said:

I have some that could just be pickup locations and not full blown restaurants- remember these are existing local brands:

• Taste of Belgium: local and can be found in a few sports venues
• Wings and Rings: again local and headquartered not too far from KI
• Frisch’s: local Cincinnati chain with a lot of history
• Montgomery Inn- again a local brand

Like I said, these are just some ideas to hit my head. I certainly wouldn’t want all of these in the park at the same time because I love our food options already.

I don’t know if you know or recall, they once had a restaurant where Brew House is called Wings. They, for a time, had Montgomery Inn Ribs and Chicken. 
 

Now that they have their own BBQ restaurants in the park, I don’t see them bringing back Montgomery Inn any time soon. 

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

Honestly I hope we get no more chain restaurants added to the park. I think it would be better to move away from the chain restaurants and just have chef major do his magic and have park original food. Obviously still have popular Cincy things like Larosas and Skyline to pay homage to the city, but I think things like subway, chick fil a, panda express, etc could be replaced.

[SonofBaconator]

36 minutes ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

Obviously still have popular Cincy things like Larosas and Skyline to pay homage to the city, but I think things like subway, chick fil a, panda express, etc could be replaced.

Those believe those restaurants pay to have their spaces in the park. I don’t know how much the park makes off of them but I know they get something if I’m not mistaken 

[BeeastFarmer]

Cracker Barrel above the entrance!

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

49 minutes ago, BeeastFarmer said:

Cracker Barrel above the entrance!

I think that would be better in Rivertown imo. I think a Montgomery Inn would be better above the entrance

 

[rotag]

2 hours ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

Honestly I hope we get no more chain restaurants added to the park. I think it would be better to move away from the chain restaurants and just have chef major do his magic and have park original food. Obviously still have popular Cincy things like Larosas and Skyline to pay homage to the city, but I think things like subway, chick fil a, panda express, etc could be replaced.

how bout some local exotic foods like Indian, actual Mexican, authentic Chinese to replace panda, subway and bigot bird.

[CorkscrewMcPuke]

An affordable one.

[MDMC01]

Though I think there are a ton of great food options at the park (and that's saying something as I'm a picky eater), a Panera Bread would be cool, maybe a sit-down location on International Street or Action Zone (if rethemed to Adventure Village, that is). However, Tom +Chee and French Corner kinda do they same thing (Grilled Cheese and Baguette are my usual order there).

If you would have asked me a year ago, I would have said I want Wendy's to come to the park. However, I'm not a big fan of theirs anymore.

[SonofBaconator]

24 minutes ago, MDMC01 said:

If you would have asked me a year ago, I would have said I want Wendy's to come to the park.

I thought about including Wendy’s because they’re from Ohio but their food isn’t as unique as the current offerings across the park

[BlondyRidesOn]

I agree with Hawaiian Coasters 325; no more chain restaurants.

However, if we were to go through route of local restaurants, I'd like to see an Izzy's Reuben restaurant somewhere in the park. They sell Reuben sandwiches with Gliers Goetta, making it the perfect fit for an area like Oktoberfest. 

[teenageninja]

Chain restaurant quality is very difficult to manage in an amusement park.  Chic-Fil-A does ok, but it's operated like a franchise.

I'd rather have unique food experiences at the park.  We've already got Panda Express, Skyline x 2, Larosas x 2, Chick-Fil-A, that's a pretty big chunk of the parks food offerings.

[disco2000]

^There are more than 2 places to get Larosas in the park...and if you throw Soak City in the mix then you can add another Skyline to the mix (albeit an Express)

And you forgot the chain Tom+Chee to your list.

[tks944]

12 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

^There are more than 2 places to get Larosas in the park...and if you throw Soak City in the mix then you can add another Skyline to the mix (albeit an Express)

And you forgot the chain Tom+Chee to your list.

There is also Subway on Coney Mall and Soak City

[disco2000]

Do we count Dippin Dots to the chain mix LOL. Or Auntie Anne's.  Or Graeters.  

Regardless, a large component of food offerings are chains.

[brenthodge]

I-like others have said-would prefer no chains in the park. I prefer a “unique” experience and the culinary team has shown they can step it up. I’d prefer maybe a few “featuring…” type restaurants where the local company pays to sponsor and gets limited branding, but there are more food options than just a LaRosas in a theme park. Like IS pizza featuring mainly artisan flatbreads and more unique ingredient pizzas- and LaRosas cheese and pepperoni more as an “add on” than the sole feature. The signage and interior would NOT be LaRosas (or Graeters etc) but unique name and look with “featuring LaRosas Pizza” on the sign. I hate that we have literally an unimpressive Graeters  and Skyline plopped down on IS just like you would see outside the park. 

[BoddaH1994]

12 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

Those believe those restaurants pay to have their spaces in the park. I don’t know how much the park makes off of them but I know they get something if I’m not mistaken 

By a chance encounter, I met one of the franchise owners that has a location in the park. I’m not sure how meal plans and stuff work with their arrangement, but, at least as of our conversation a few years ago, they paid Kings Island a rent plus a percentage of sales.

[rotag]

While not unique to food offerings in the park, is unique to Ohio and that would be quepies (sp?)

[SonofBaconator]

1 hour ago, BoddaH1994 said:

By a chance encounter, I met one of the franchise owners that has a location in the park. I’m not sure how meal plans and stuff work with their arrangement, but, at least as of our conversation a few years ago, they paid Kings Island a rent plus a percentage of sales.

And that probably gives the park more guaranteed $$$ as opposed to an original concept. Like I said, I wouldn’t want the whole park flooded with chains, but if the park got more money out of it- I wouldn’t mind an extra chain or two.

[TombRaiderFTW]

Chain restaurants make sense to me at major parks... in limited quantity. People are picky eaters. You're going to have more food sales if people see a nationally recognized name they feel secure with, like Subway. You lose some number of food sales to parking lot picnics and the restaurants down the road if some people can't find something familiar.

What I'm not a fan of is when half or more of the food offerings are chains. I'd say Kings Island has maybe a few too many chains for my preference. I feel like the CF era has, in a sense, seen the park turn into more of a large Family Entertainment Center for the Cincinnati area than a destination amusement park, so there's where having more local chains makes sense. And I get that KI has a ginormous season pass base, so it makes sense to make the park into a collection of Cincinnati favorites so people will spend their Friday nights somewhere where they can get Tom+Chee AND ride roller coasters--parks nowadays are competing against other forms of entertainment rather than each other. I just wish that having a collection of iconic Cincinnati foods meant that instead of getting a 3-Way at Skyline on International Street, you could get Chef Major's unique take on it from a 1960's-themed stand in Coney Mall, where it both makes more sense thematically and isn't taking up a space that could be used for a return of, say, the Rainbo Bakerei that existed there in 1972 and made sense with the German quadrant of IS, ya know?

[silver2005]

Replace Subway with Penn Station. 

[robintodd]

19 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

I have some that could just be pickup locations and not full blown restaurants- remember these are existing local brands:

• Taste of Belgium: local and can be found in a few sports venues
• Wings and Rings: again local and headquartered not too far from KI
• Frisch’s: local Cincinnati chain with a lot of history
• Montgomery Inn- again a local brand

Like I said, these are just some ideas to hit my head. I certainly wouldn’t want all of these in the park at the same time because I love our food options already.

Montgomery Inn was served where the Brewhouse was along with the saratoga chips and Montgomery Inn cole slaw.  At the same time you could also get the ribs, chips and cole slaw at Cedar Point where Famous Daves is now.  

[BB1]

Pink's.... A travesty to lose my favorite hot dog joint from CP's line up, would love to see it come to parks like KI but considering current mgt at the restaurant that doesn't look very bright. 

[BSnow]

I would love to see something like The Farmhouse Kitchen and Grill that Cedar Point just opened this year.  Their food is great and they are super efficient.  

http://The Farmhouse Kitchen and Grill https://maps.app.goo.gl/Zz6WkTBHg8JFn5KP7

[NegativeGs]

I rarely eat at chain restaurants when visiting CF parks. But, I do agree that either a Penn Station (or DiBella's) would be preferably over Subway. Not disliking Subway, I eat there frequently when I travel. How about a Japanese noodle bar? My daughter and I would surely be there every KI visit.

[kingsislandfan1972]

I wouldn't mine seeing a Chipotle there, but honestly I would really like to see Kings Island have a place where they sell Gyros and other Mediterranean foods! (Hummas & Pita bread!) 

[Snowball]

21 minutes ago, kingsislandfan1972 said:

I wouldn't mine seeing a Chipotle there, but honestly I would really like to see Kings Island have a place where they sell Gyros and other Mediterranean foods! (Hummas & Pita bread!) 

A Mediterranean restaurant at KI would be absolutely AMAZING. I’d love to be able to sit down and have a gyro at the park.

[kingsislandfan1972]

27 minutes ago, Snowball said:

A Mediterranean restaurant at KI would be absolutely AMAZING. I’d love to be able to sit down and have a gyro at the park.

Agreed 100%, maybe a build your own Gyro place!

[BeeastFarmer]

How about a Kahn's Sausage Haus? Or a Rain-Bo Backerei?