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Monday, August 31, 2009

This week's local produce (week of 8-31-09)

Find the following locally-grown produce on our salad bar and in our menu items:

Western Locations

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

Yellow Squash (Found in our Pasta Primavera)
Wexford Farms – Butler County, PA
Brenckle’s Farms – Butler County, PA
Holthouse Farms – Willard, OH
Mason Farms – Erie, PA

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

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
Mason Farms – Erie, PA

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 (Found in our Pasta Primavera)
Leola Produce Auction - Lancaster

Green Peppers
Ivan Reiff - Lancaster

Watermelon
Leola Produce Auction - Lancaster Share

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

FREE food and great values for families every day at Eat’n Park

It’s here again already – back-to-school season! If you’re like me and my family, you’ve probably been looking for deals during your back-to-school shopping trips. My family’s bargain-hunting got me thinking about the great deals that are available for kids and families right here at Eat’n Park. Some restaurants offer deals on certain days of the week. At Eat’n Park, we prefer to offer our great values EVERY day.

You may not have known that….

We offer free baby food upon request at every Eat’n Park restaurant. We haven’t forgotten about our youngest guests!
Kids 5 and under eat free from our Endless Soup & Salad bar when they’re with an adult who has purchased it. In addition, kids 10 and under can always order the salad bar for half-price. This is a great deal for families. The salad bar is only $6.99 as an adult entrée, and it’s filled with crispy vegetables (many that are locally grown), hand-cut fruits, homemade soups, and fresh-baked goodies like muffins, biscuits, and cornbread. We’re proud to say that the soup and salad bar is our second best selling kids menu item. It runs very close to chicken fingers. How many restaurants can say that?!
Our Breakfast Buffet and Sunday Brunch are also free for kids 5 and under when an adult in their party has purchased the buffet. Like the salad bar, kids 10 and under can always enjoy the buffet for half-price. With breakfast staples like eggs, potatoes, sausage, bacon, pancakes, fresh fruit, and more, the buffet is a great way to start your family’s day!
Our children’s menu features 12 kids’ meals under $3, and includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner selections.
Of course, every child always receives a complimentary Smiley Cookie after their meal! Well, you probably did know that, since kids have been enjoying our famous Smiley Cookies for more than 20 years!

Here’s wishing you a successful and enjoyable school year!

Kevin Share

Monday, August 24, 2009

Eat’n Park Burgers Recognized as “Best in the Nation”!

Are you ready, Eat’n Park fans? We have some really exciting news to share with you! On July 18 and 19, Eat’n Park participated for the second year in the National Hamburger Festival in Akron, OH. Not only did we have a great time serving our famous Superburgers to all of the hungry festival attendees, but we were ecstatic to learn the results of the 4th Annual Best Burger Competition.

And the winner is….drum roll, please……our Black Angus Mushroom and Onion Burger! This fantastic burger, made with chargrilled, seasoned Black Angus beef and topped with grilled onions, mushrooms and Swiss cheese, took first place in the Best Traditional Burger category.

And, for the second year in a row, our Black Angus American Grill Burger placed in the Best Creative Burger competition. The American Grill Burger is served on grilled Texas toast and topped with grilled onions, green peppers, mushrooms and American cheese. Then, we finish it off with just a hint of yellow mustard….delicious!

If you haven’t tried these burgers, be sure to order one the next time you visit an Eat’n Park so you can find out for yourself why the judges love them so much. We'll even sweeten the deal: order the Black Angus Mushroom and Onion Burger between August 24 and 30, and we'll give you a free Smiley Cookie! Just print the coupon below to redeem this offer.

And don’t forget to make plans for next year to come and visit us at the National Hamburger Festival. If you would like to learn more about the festival, visit the website at http://www.hamburgerfestival.com/. To see our complete list of burgers, along with our entire menu, just click here.

Chef Reuben and Smiley had a great time serving burgers to hungry fans!

New Look for Our Morgantown Eat’n Park

From the moment you step into our newly remodeled Morgantown restaurant, you’ll know you’re in West Virginia! From the framed West Virginia University football and basketball jerseys hanging on the wall behind the new counter to the blue and gold upholstery and carpeting, it really feels like West Virginia.

We are excited to share the “before” and “after” photos with you, below. You will love the dramatic changes to the lobby area and the addition of a meeting space, for the comfort and convenience of all of our guests!

There are many other updates that we haven’t listed or pictured here so be sure to stop by and check it out for yourself.

This week's local produce (week of 8-17-09)

Here's what's fresh and local this week at Eat'n Park...

Western Locations

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

Yellow Squash (Found in our Pasta Primavera)
Wexford Farms - Butler County, PA
Brenckle’s Farms – Butler County, PA
Holthouse Farms – Willard, OH
Mason Farms – Erie, PA

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

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

Mushrooms – White and Portobello
Creekside Mushrooms – Butler, PA

Eastern Locations

Mushrooms – White and Portobello
Basciani Farms – Chester, PA

Tomatoes
Steve Groff – Cedar Meadow Farm

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

Yellow Squash (Found in our Pasta Primavera)
Leola Produce Auction - Lancaster

Green Peppers
Ivan Reiff - Lancaster

Watermelon
Leola Produce Auction - Lancaster Share

Farm Tour 2009 - Summer Edition

Hopefully, you recall my spring posting, "Farm Tour 2009". Well, I’m back with an update. How things have changed since those early days of spring! In the spring, the fields were just being plowed, and in some cases, seeds hadn’t even been sown yet. It's a wonderful sight to look out at these same formerly barren fields and see how they are flourishing. In most cases, the fields are filled with some really gorgeous looking veggies.

As you can tell by now, I enjoy visiting with our farmers, so for my summer tour, my first visit was to Cedar Meadow Farms in Holtwood, PA. This farm is doing some pretty creative things when it comes to getting the most out of their plantings. The owner, Steve Groff, recently received a Sustainable Agricultural grant to experiment with grafting tomatoes, which is a technique that is commonly used for apple trees.

Grafting in tomato production is used to increase the resistance to soil-borne diseases, and it also increases fruit production due to the increased strength of the plant. Basically, they take a very hearty and disease-resistant root stock from one variety of tomato, and graft it to the fruit-producing shoot of another variety of tomato. This yields a very prolific and quality tomato. As you can see, Steve’s grafted tomatoes are doing quite well.

I then went Brenckle’s Farm and Greenhouse in Butler, PA. This time, I visited the farm and not the greenhouse. I met with Don Brenckle and had an opportunity to see the fields and variety of vegetables that he grows. One of the items that I saw was zucchini. These plants were 4 feet tall had tons of yellow flowers on them. This particular field had already been picked but the plants were again producing more fruit for future harvesting.

Some of the other fields that I saw were corn, celery, red onions, eggplant and lastly, tomatoes. Every one of the fields was producing an abundance of produce, except for the tomatoes. Don said that his tomatoes were growing unbelievably well, and then on the evening of August 4th, things went south.

That evening, he noticed a white powder that was forming on the leaves of the tomato plants. Overnight, these plants turned brown and large blisters were found on the tomatoes. This highly contagious fungus destroyed all of the tomato plants in one of his fields. The spores of the fungus, called late blight, are often present in the soil, and small outbreaks are not uncommon in August and September. But the cool, wet weather in we had in June and the aggressively infectious nature of the pathogen have combined to produce an explosive rate of infection this year, specifically in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States.

Below is photo of what the tomato plants looked like when they were affected by the blight.

Thankfully, only one field was affected by late blight, and we have our fingers crossed that no other fields will be hit by the outbreak. Though Don’s tomato crop was lost, we are fortunate that our other local suppliers were not affected, and we’re still able to offer our guests healthy, delicious locally-grown tomatoes throughout this month and hopefully in to September.

My visit with Don was a reminder of the challenges faced by our local farmers, and how our FarmSource program can help sustain them when something like the late blight takes a toll on their production. Our FarmSource program ensures these farmers with a dependable income to support their families and their farms through the next growing season.

Until next time,
Jamie Share

Monday, August 10, 2009

This week's local produce (week of 8/10/09)

Western Locations

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

Yellow Squash (Found in our Pasta Primavera)
Wexford Farms - Butler County, PA
Brenckle’s Farms – Butler County, PA
Mason Farms – Erie, PA

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

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

Eastern Locations

White Mushrooms & Portabello Mushrooms
Basciani Farms – Chester, PA

Tomatoes
Steve Groff – Cedar Meadow Farm

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

Yellow Squash (Found in our Pasta Primavera)
Leola Produce Auction - Lancaster

Green Peppers
Ivan Reiff - Lancaster

Watermelon
Leola Produce Auction - Lancaster

Cucumbers
Hogeland Farms - Lebanon Share

Friday, August 7, 2009

Small but mighty: Mini Desserts are back!

They’re back: Our delicious mini desserts pack a lot of flavor into a small package. And they’re good for your wallet at only $1.49 each. You can even try all 3 for only $4.00!

We’re sweetening the deal even more for you, our blog readers. Just click here to print this coupon, then bring it to Eat’n Park now through August 21 to get a FREE mini dessert with your dinner.

There are three great flavors to choose from: Bananas Foster’n Crème, Strawberry Pie’n Crème, and Fudge Brownies’n Crème.

Enjoy!

This week's local produce (week of 8/3/09)

Ripe, juicy local tomatoes are coming into season! See what else is locally grown this week at Eat'n Park...

Western Locations

Tomatoes
Tye Brenninger - Marietta, OH

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

Green Cabbage
Wexford Farms - Butler County, PA

Zucchini
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

Eastern Locations

White Mushrooms
Basciani Farms – Chester, PA

Portabello Mushrooms
Basciani Farms – Chester, PA

Tomatoes
Steve Groff – Cedar Meadow Farm

Green Cabbage
Bob Musser - Lancaster

Yellow Squash
Leola Produce Auction - Lancaster

Green Peppers
Ivan Reiff - Lancaster

Watermelon
Leola Produce Auction - Lancaster Share

About the blog

Throughout this blog, we hope to share a bit of our culture with you through stories, recipes, and other information that we think you’ll enjoy. More importantly, we hope you’ll share with us – we want to answer those questions you’ve always had about Eat’n Park (how did we come up with that name, anyway?) and we want to hear your ideas, feedback, and hopefully, a few compliments too!

So, please feel free to comment on postings that pique your curiosity. We'll do our best to respond to questions within 72 hours. Please keep in mind that we are a family restaurant; comments containing offensive language will not be posted.