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“Brew at the Zoo” is a regular event for many zoos, where guests can sample various beers at locations around the park as they walk among the animal exhibits. Since it’s popular with adults, thought Jim Mahler, director of food and beverage at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York, why not make a kid’s version?
Of course they couldn’t do beer, but what about ice cream? “We call it ‘Penguin Palooza’ and there are ice cream tastings around the zoo, along with kid-friendly foods, entertainment, and face painting,” Mahler says. “It’s a huge hit and very popular in the community.”
 The event is one of several started by Mahler and the zoo to build attendance through food and drink. If, to paraphrase an old saying, the way to a guest’s heart is through his stomach, it also may be the best route to his or her entertainment budget.
With an extensive restaurant management background, Mahler came to the zoo in 2004 with a plan to overhaul the facility’s food and beverage department: “I started with our banquet facility, which was nice and was often rented out, but we would allow groups to bring in their own caterers. By building our own high-quality catering service we took that business, which was leaving the zoo, and now catering has become a significant profit center.”
In 2009 the zoo hosted 180 catered events, from weddings and corporate parties to bar and bat mitzvahs, not including public events such as “Brew at the Zoo.” “Food and beverage has become a large part of the zoo’s business plan; it doesn’t hurt that a local magazine named us one of the best places in Syracuse to get married,” says Mahler.
It’s not often an attraction facility develops a reputation for something other than its rides or attractions. However, some parks have cultivated a strong emphasis on food and beverage to the point where it becomes the attraction.
“We find that many of our guests come specifically to eat, which I believe is unusual in this business,” says Jeff Ingram, marketing manager for DelGrosso’s Amusement Park in Tipton, Pennsylvania. The facility features more than 30 rides and a waterpark, but since the ownership’s background has been in the food business that has been a major emphasis.
“The DelGrosso family started as restaurateurs and they continue to manufacture a line of specialty Italian food products,” says Ingram. “Food has been a key part of their business, so naturally they wanted to maintain that tradition when they bought the park.”
 To help bolster midweek business, several years ago the park started “Spaghetti Wednesdays,” which feature a different pasta dish served each Wednesday with a fountain drink for $5.75 or $6.75 depending on the plate size. DelGrosso’s also cooks its own meats and pizzas and has earned a reputation in the area for homemade potato salad. “In an era when most park food is delivered prepackaged and frozen, it’s pretty unusual to see people come to a facility looking forward to eating a freshly prepared meal, but that’s what happens here,” says Ingram.
Cooking Classes
To go along with the popular healthy eating trend, some attractions are luring visitors by offering “edutainment” dining. At Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, guests pay extra from March through December to attend daily culinary classes that teach classic American recipes from an old-fashioned country farmhouse that features a state-of-the-art kitchen with Viking appliances, copper countertops, and flat-screen monitors.
 “Food is integral to our guest experience so this was a natural for us,” says Martha Hoy Bohner, park spokesperson. “There’s also our bluegrass and BBQ festival each May that draws capacity crowds.” The festival features an all-you-can eat buffet, and guests are invited to purchase the festival’s signature barbecue sauce, which is bottled for the occasion.
The pull of food attractions may be that they draw guests who ordinarily wouldn’t go to a theme park. For example, it’s hard to picture many Silver Dollar City guests who show up to ride the park’s “WildFire” or “PowderKeg” roller coasters also paying an extra $12 to learn about baking the perfect birthday cake.
“The crowds that attend our ‘Spaghetti Wednesdays’ and our popular Italian Food & Heritage Festival tend to be older,” says Ingram of Del- Grosso’s Amusement Park. “They’re not going to be filling up the lines at our thrill rides, but they’re often bringing their children and grandchildren to enjoy that part of the park, so everyone in the family has a good time.”
 Food and Fun
In some cases food may not be the premier attraction but it’s part of the experience. Nearly 1,500 feet above Rotorua, New Zealand, the Cableway Restaurant provides tables with a panoramic view the city and is the site of numerous weddings and parties. “You see couples come up and become engaged over dinner, then they’re back months later for the wedding,” says David Blackmore, sales and marketing manager for Skyline Rotorua. “There’s really nothing like it in the area.”
Skyline features a scenic gondola ride to the top of Mt. Ngongotaha, which is the location for the Cableway Restaurant and the more casual Terraces Café. After dining, guests can take the gondola down, walk along nature trails, or cruise in a “luge,” a one-man four-wheel cart that rolls along scenic pathways.
Cableway provides buffet-style dining, and a ticket for a ride and meal is NZ$69 (US$48.20). Maintaining a fine-dining restaurant that’s a little remote takes some planning. “Our gondolas can move 2,000 people in an hour, so we’re able to get our guests up and down fairly efficiently, “ says Blackmore. “Supplies are trickier. We do send up supplies through the gondola, and we also have a road we can drive up there. At the top are full-size freezers and storage rooms so we can keep well stocked without needing to run down to the base to pick something up in a hurry.”
 Fine Dining
Keeping up a fine dining facility in a more traditional park can also be a challenge. Employees at Albert’s, a restaurant and bar with a waterfall view inside the San Diego Zoo, face zoo regulars who walk in with a look of wonder never knowing the facility existed. “People usually associate dining at the zoo with fast food, but it’s not like that here,” says manager Mark Freisinger. “It takes them a moment to look around and say, ‘Wow, I wish I knew about this place before I ate.’”
In addition to lunch and dinner, Albert’s hosts special events for zoo members such as brewmaster and winemaker dinners and is also known locally for company functions. “That’s become a huge part of our business as companies and organizations have looked for other, more cost-effective locations for dinners and engagements,” says Freisinger.
The recession has hurt the business of countless upscale restaurants, and Freisinger reports that he had a number of empty tables over 2008 and 2009. “This year we’re seeing crowds get back up to normal, which is encouraging. It shows there’s a place for fine dining at the zoo. It may not be what some people expect, but it’s here.”
John Morell is a freelance business writer based in Los Angeles whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. He can be reached at john@jcmorell.com.
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