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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

This week's local produce (week of 9-28-09)

Western Locations

Round Vine-Ripe Tomatoes
Brenckle’s Farms – Butler, PA

Green Peppers
Holthouse Farms – Willard, OH
Brenckle’s Farms – Butler, PA
Yarnick Farms – Indiana, PA

Green Cabbage (Found in our Signature Homemade Coleslaw)
Wexford Farms - Butler County, PA
Yarnick Farms – Indiana, PA

Zucchini (Found in our Breaded Zucchini Appetizer)
Brenckle’s Farms – Butler County, PA
Harvest Valley Farms – Butler County, PA
Wexford Farms - Butler County, PA
Holthouse Farms – Willard County, OH

White Mushrooms (Found in our Stuffed Mushroom Appetizer)
Creekside Mushrooms – Butler, PA

Portabello Mushrooms
Creekside Mushrooms – Butler, PA

Radish
KW Zeller – Portage County, OH
Holthouse Farms – Willard County, OH

Eastern Locations

White Mushrooms (Found in our Stuffed Mushroom Appetizer)
Basciani Farms – Chester, PA

Portobello Mushrooms
Basciani Farms – Chester, PA

Tomatoes
Steve Groff – Cedar Meadow Farm

Green Cabbage (Found in our Signature Homemade Coleslaw)
Bob Musser - Lancaster

Green Peppers
Ivan Reiff - Lancaster

Watermelon
Ivan Reiff – Lancaster

Cucumbers
Hogeland Farms - Lancaster Share

Warm up with a Fall Espresso Beverage!

It's official: Fall is here, and if you're anything like me, you love warming up with a hot drink. Well, our espresso beverages are a great way to do that. We have a great selection of lattes, chai tea, and espresso milkshakes year-round, but the incoming chilly weather makes our hot drinks especially tempting.

One of my favorites is our Pumpkin Chai Tea, which is only available for a limited time. Made with Oregon Chai Tea, Torani Pumpkin syrup, and a sprinkling of cinnamon, the Pumpkin Chai really gets me in the mood for fall.

Our new Hazelnut Latte is another great new item. Of course, you can't forget about our other classic favorites, like the Caramel Latte, Caffe Mocha, or our Cappuccino.

At Eat'n Park, all of our espresso beverages are prepared to order, just like at your favorite coffee shop. Plus, we have your choice of 1%, skim, or soymilk. Click here to see our online espresso menu.

Stop in today to warm up with a handcrafted espresso! Share

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Enjoy a Great Meal and a Discount When You’re on the Road!

Recently, one of our guests wrote about our hotel discounts in her blog. It was then that it occurred to us that even though we’ve been offering this program for years, many Eat’n Park fans are not aware that they can receive a discount at Eat’n Park when staying at partnering hotels.

Just show your hotel room key at any of the locations below to receive 10% off your order.

PENNSYLVANIA LOCATIONS

  • Altoona, PA
  • Clarion, PA
  • Cranberry, PA
  • DuBois, PA
  • Fairview, PA
  • Franklin, PA
  • Grove City, PA
  • Harrisburg, PA (Lindle Rd)
  • Hermitage, PA
  • Indiana, PA
  • Lancaster, PA
  • New Stanton, PA
  • Pittsburgh Airport (University Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA )
  • Pittsburgh, PA (Banksville Road)
  • Pittsburgh Mills Mall (Pittsburgh Mills Blvd, Pittsburh, PA)
  • Somerset, PA
  • State College, PA
  • Uniontown, PA
  • Washington, PA
  • York, PA
OHIO
  • St. Clairsville, OH
  • Streetsboro, OH
  • Willoughby, OH
WEST VIRGINIA
  • Clarksburg, WV
  • Wheeling, WV

Thanks to Joyce at Rejoice in Saving for bringing this to our attention. Click here to read her blog for some other great deals.

Happy travels!

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Eat’n Park Hours, Locations, and Phone Numbers

Looking to find the location and hours of operation for the nearest Eat’n Park? Use our restaurant locator to find the address, hours of operation, phone number, and takeout menu for the Eat’n Park location nearest you.

Just click here to use the locator. You’ll need to enter your zip code, and our restaurant locator will let you know which Eat’n Park locations are closest. You can view (and print, if you wish) a takeout menu, as well as get the phone number so you can place your order.

Additionally, if you are a tour operator, the locator displays which restaurants have bus parking on site. Share

Monday, September 14, 2009

Eat'n Park Takeout Coupon

Fall can sometimes bring about the chaos of adjusting to new schedules, especially when someone in your household is heading back to school. However, this time of year also brings us Eat'n Park's Fall Specials!
Just like the rest of our menu, our fall specials are available to go. That means that Eat'n Park is your one-stop-shop for meals to make the whole family happy. Our takeout is already a great value, but we'll sweeten the deal even more with this special coupon for our fans: $5 off your next $20 takeout order! Just click here to print the coupon.

This offer is good through September 30, 2009.
So, next time you're too busy to cook, call your local Eat'n Park to place your takeout order. Just click here to get the number and see the takeout menu. And to find out more about all of our delicious new specials, click here to read Chef Regis' blog. Share

Fall in love with our Fall Specials!

Don’t look now, but fall is just around the corner. Really! School has started, the air conditioners are being shut off, the nights are downright chilly, and I am starting to see leaves in my yard.

Still, fall is my favorite time of year. You have football season, the beautiful changing of the leaves, the crisp autumn air, and the new fall specials at Eat’n Park. We are introducing to you a great line up of old favorites and new classics. Let’s take a look at the old favorites first:

Stuffed Mushroom Caps – What a great appetizer! These locally-grown mushroom caps are brimming with our own crab and seafood stuffing…perfect to share on a chilly evening when out with friends before or after a show.

Chef's Cobb Salad – This salad has the look of autumn with its layers of colorful ingredients, but still gives us the feel of summer. Rows of diced ham, American cheese, hard-boiled egg, ripe tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, Swiss chesse, and turkey over mixed greens. Gorgeous!

Gourmet Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup – Nothing’s better than this combination to take you home again, even if you are away on business or at school. We spice up the traditional grilled cheese sandwich by using our grilled six-grain bread and adding bacon to melted American, Swiss, and Pepper Jack cheeses. Served with a grilled-cheese sandwich’s best friend: hot, creamy Campbell’s Tomato soup.

Baked Ziti and Sausage – Roasted sausage, tender pasta, and rich sauce all baked together with a topping of mozzarella cheese. Does it get any better than that?

Turkey Dinner – An Eat’n Park favorite as long as I have been around (and no, I’m not telling you how long!). Tender-roasted turkey breast with stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce. Ahh, comfort food.

But if you don’t try something new once and a while, you’ll never know what you could be missing! Here are our soon-to-be classics:

Chicken BLT – This is a great hearty sandwich, and it is served on our one-of-a-kind six grain bread.

Skinny Scrambler – Breakfast never felt so good! Multi-grain bread, healthy egg substitute and lean Canadian bacon, served with a side of fresh fruit. It’s Eat’n Smart!

Texas Scrambler – Hearty, if not entirely healthy! This is our scrambler on steroids. Two scrambled eggs, two slices of American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and your choice of meat, stuffed between two slices of grilled Texas Toast. Plus, your choice of potatoes on the side. Bring your appetite if you are ordering this one!

Chicken Cordon Bleu – I have left my favorite for last. Hand-breaded and baked chicken topped with layers of thinly sliced ham, Swiss cheese, and a touch of white wine butter sauce. It’s delicious!

It’s been a busy summer, and the days are getting shorter. Give yourself a break, stop by an Eat’n Park, and let us do the cooking for you. You won’t be disappointed.

Enjoy!
Regis

P.S. For the nutritional information on these specials (and any item found on our menu), just check out our nutritional calculator! Share

Friday, September 11, 2009

Eat’n Park Rocks Winners

This summer, we celebrated our 60th anniversary in a big way. We wanted to thanks our loyal guests for 6 great decades. So, we gave away more than 500,000 rockin’ great prizes and rewards! Six lucky guests really won big by taking our top prizes:

$10,000 Grand Prize: And the winner is…. Cindy W!
Cindy, a postal service worker, lives with her family in Toronto, Ohio. Although Cindy took the top prize, she had quite a bit of help in doing so! Cindy’s mother-in-law actually received the winning ticket with her meal at the Steubenville Eat’n Park Restaurant. Since Cindy’s mother-in-law doesn’t have a computer, she asked Cindy to enter the ticket into the sweepstakes. Cindy promptly entered the code and the rest is history! In fact, the ticket was still sitting next to her computer when she received the call notifying her that she was our grand prize winner. Cindy split the grand prize with her mother-in-law, donated 10% to her church, and stashed the rest away for a rainy day.

Trip for 4 to Aruba (First Prize): Art A. from White Oak, PA

Southwest Airline Tickets (Second Prize): Leonard K. from Sewickley, PA; Lorrie L. from North Cambria, PA; and Samantha R. from West Mifflin, PA

Congratulations to our winners and thanks for rockin’ with us this summer! Share

A Great Day for a Smiley Cookie

There’s nothing quite like getting back to your roots! On Saturday, August 29, Team Smiley stocked the Cookie Cruiser with a LOT of Smiley Cookies and hit the road for Titusville, Pa.

This small city in Northwest Pennsylvania is the childhood home of Eat’n Park’s Chairman of the Board, Jim Broadhurst, and also the birthplace of our Smiley Cookie. On this particular day, Titusville was celebrating the 150th anniversary of the discovery of oil in the city. We naturally wanted to join in the celebration!

We had the best spot in town, parked right in front of Warner’s Bakery…where it all began! When Jim was a boy, he would stop by Warner’s Bakery every day on the way home to enjoy a happy-faced sugar cookie. Jim loved the cookies so much that as an adult, he wanted to give kids visiting Eat’n Park the same feeling (click here to read Jim's story). It was great to meet the people of Titusville and to hear their stories and memories about Warner’s Bakery and those famous happy-faced cookies.

It was a wonderful day filled with fun, new friends and so many great memories. Click here to check out photos from the festivities. Below, Jim poses next to the story of the Smiley Cookie in one of our favorite photos of the day.

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Memories From Our Chairman

As Chairman of the Board and former CEO of Eat’n Park, I’ve had so much fun helping the company grow over the last three decades. It’s been a year since I turned over the reins of CEO to my son Jeff, and I’ve had a chance to reflect on my favorite memories as we celebrate Eat’n Park’s 60th Anniversary.

You may not know that an early memory of mine became the seed for the idea of our most recognizable icon: the Smiley Cookie. Growing up in Titusville, PA, I would buy a smiley-faced cookie at a local bakery on my way home from school every day. I loved those cookies so much, and as an adult, I wanted to pass that feeling along to all of the children who visited our restaurants. The pride our bakers take in decorating the cookies brings joy to the faces of thousands of children everyday. I still can’t believe how popular the Smiley Cookie has become! The town of Titusville is proud of their role in our success. This summer, Titusville celebrated its famous heritage of being the place oil was discovered 150 years ago. Naturally, our Smiley mascot returned to his roots to be featured in the parade!

Another favorite memory of mine is our long and wonderful relationship with Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. He loved Eat’n Park and was always helpful in developing menu items and activities for children and families who were enjoying a meal in our restaurants.

Speaking of kids, our Caring for Kids campaign has always been close to my heart, and I will never forget the talented “Eat’n Park Singers” from the 1980’s. They were a dedicated and caring group of team members who graciously volunteered their time and talent to record a Christmas album, perform in the restaurants, and to raise money for Children’s Hospital. They were very special people. I’m so proud that our team members carry on this tradition of volunteerism to this day, both in the Caring for Kids campaign and for many other worthy causes.

Reading through the stories that our guests have submitted has brought back even more memories, and even though I could probably fill a book, I’ll stop here for now. But you shouldn’t! Click here to share your memories with us. It’s been a fantastic 60 years, and we look forward to 60 more years as your Place for Smiles!

Jim Broadhurst Share

A FarmSource Success Story: Rippling Brook Farm

Local farmers are busy harvesting their crops, and at Eat’n Park, that means that our guests are enjoying a bounty of fresh produce thanks to our FarmSource program. The seedlings I saw during my spring farm tour (click here to read that post) are now producing fresh fruits and veggies that we’re featuring daily on our salad bar and in our menu items. Click here to see photos of these bountiful fields from my summer farm tour.

It’s hard to believe that the FarmSource program has been up and running for seven years now. Besides the obvious benefit to our guests, I’m happy to say that the support that FarmSource provides to local farmers has kept at least one farm from disappearing.

I met Aaron Schwartz back in 2002 at a Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture conference. Aaron is an Amish farmer from Sligo, PA, and after the conference, he hitched a ride to our offices to talk more about the program I was developing. Aaron’s farm is a little off the beaten path, and he was eager to get his produce into the Pittsburgh market. He explained that unless I could help him, he was getting out of farming. At the time, a bushel of his zucchini was earning him 75 cents at the local farmer’s market, and the box needed to hold the zucchini was costing him 25 cents.

Eager to help my new friend, I convinced Paragon Food Service, one of Eat’n Park’s suppliers, to make a new stop on their regular routes. Today, the hand-breaded fried zucchini at Eat’n Park comes from Aaron’s farm. Additionally, you can find his melons at Giant Eagle and his organic fruits and vegetables at Whole Foods Market.

After that first year of using Aaron’s produce, he invited me out to his land to enjoy a meal with his family. Fresh chicken, apple pie, and goats milk rounded out the delicious menu, and we had a wonderful time eating and celebrating the success of our partnership. Afterward, Aaron and I were touring the farm when I noticed a bulldozer in the distance. I soon learned that Aaron was putting in a loading dock to make his farm more accessible for the food trucks used in wholesale trade! It was amazing to think that just a year before, Aaron had been on the verge of giving up farming.

As this program continues to grow, I look forward to sharing more stories like Aaron’s. We currently partner with over 20 local farms and dairies through FarmSource, and I’m constantly working to develop new partnerships. To see a map and links to our partners, just click here.

And to find out more about Aaron’s Rippling Brook Farm, just click here.

Happy harvesting!
Jamie Share

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

This week's local produce (week of 9-7-09)

Here's what's fresh, local, and delicious at Eat'n Park this week:

Western locations

Round Vine-Ripe Tomatoes
Harvest Valley Farms - Valencia, PA
Brenckle’s Farms – Butler, PA
Beccari Farms – Allegheny County, PA

Yellow Squash
Wexford Farms – Butler County, PA
Brenckle’s Farms – Butler County, PA
Holthouse Farms – Willard, OH

Green Peppers
Holthouse Farms – Willard, OH
Wexford Farms – Butler, PA
Brenckle’s Farms – Butler, PA
Mason Farms – Erie, PA

Green Cabbage (Found in our Signature Homemade Coleslaw)
Wexford Farms - Butler County, PA
Yarnick Farms – Indiana, PA
Holthouse Farms – Willard, OH

Zucchini (Found in our Breaded Zucchini Appetizer)
Brenckle’s Farms – Butler County, PA
Harvest Valley Farms – Butler County, PA
Wexford Farms - Butler County, PA
Holthouse Farms – Willard County, OH

Cucumbers
R.O. Apelt – Ohio
Holthouse Farms – Willard County, OH
Mason Farms – Erie, PA

Mushrooms – White and Portobello
Creekside Mushrooms – Butler, PA

Eastern Locations

White Mushrooms & Portobello Mushrooms
Basciani Farms – Chester, PA

Tomatoes
Steve Groff – Cedar Meadow Farm

Green Cabbage (Found in our Signature Homemade Coleslaw)
Bob Musser - Lancaster

Yellow Squash
Leola Produce Auction - Lancaster

Green Peppers
Ivan Reiff - Lancaster

Watermelon
Leola Produce Auction - Lancaster Share

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Eat'n Park Coupons

Looking for Eat'n Park coupons? Here on our blog is a good place to start. We often post coupons for our blog readers, so check back frequently. Click here to check out the coupon section for our most recently posted coupons.

The best (and most convenient) way to get Eat'n Park coupons is to sign up for our email club. You'll get a coupon just for signing up, plus a special coupon for your birthday and for your anniversary. Additionally, we often include special offers in our monthly newsletters. Just click here to join now!

Our Facebook fans and Twitter followers also get exclusive benefits like coupons and notifications when we have special offers. Click here to become a fan on Facebook, and here to follow us on Twitter.

Enjoy your savings! Share