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Eat'n Park - are you kidding! I love Eat'n Park. I used to work at the restuaurant in Ambridge in the 70's. Unfortunately, it is no longer there. I didn't meet my sweetie there or get engaged there, but he used to stop in and visit me quite a bit. He would also pick me up after the late shift for a ride home. One evening after he picked me up, we went for a drive. He parked so we could talk, and there I sat in my waitress uniform: brown skirt and mini tie, white shoes and blouse, blue apron tied up in a pretty bow (and paper clipped to perfection), and my black and white name tag. And it was there that he asked me to marry him - I said yes, of course, and we have been married for 35 years now! I'll never forget what I was wearing when he proposed -that awesome Eat'n Park uniform!

Fran
Aliquippa, PA Share

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Oh, young love! My first real job was as a waitress at Eat'n Park. I actually started out as a carhop at the Avalon location, then after the store closed and was remodeled, returned to continue as a regular waitress on the inside. :) I'm afraid that if I hadn't returned after the construction, I wouldn't have met the love of my life, John.

I worked there through high school and even on the weekends after I started my career job at the Bank of New York Mellon. During my senior year of high school, a new cook was hired at the same store. I want to say there was an instant attraction between the two of us, and the romance began. Spending time together at work gave us a chance to get to know one another, and pretty quickly we started dating. We had other friends who also met there and dated (then married), and we shared great friendships with these couples, along with each other. I must admit, although probably not allowed, we would occasionaly sneak a kiss in the freezer.

It's not the most exciting story of romance, but a lifelong love developed from that innocent relationship so many years ago. John and I just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on October 29, 2008. We are raising children, our son, John, and our daughter Jamie, who both respond the same when we ask...."where do you want to eat?" They almost always say "Eat'n Park!"

Sandra
Pittsburgh, PA Share

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During our dating years, Eat'n Park was our favorite date place. We were both poor college students. I was at Seton Hill and John was at Penn State, main campus. John's home was in Greensburg. When he came for a visit, we would head for the local Eat'n Park. This was during the time when you could sit in your car and have your order brought out to you. We would order two orange drinks, an order of fries with ketchup and sit in the parking lot for most of our evening, catching up while sharing those fries. On August 9th of this year, my husband and I will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. Eat'n Park is still one of our favorite places to go for a date. Things have worked out pretty well. Now, we can each get our own order of fries!

Donna
McMurray, PA Share

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This isn't a typical "Valentine" love story, but one of the love that I have found in friendship. Valentine's Day isn't about finding my "one true love,” but in my case, I have found so much more. The friendships, the care, and the joy that I have found this past year at the Whitehall Eat’n Park have been a special gift in my life.

The past year has been a somewhat difficult one for me. I had a fairly serious surgery in January 2008, some ongoing health problems, my Mom passed away suddenly in April, and my uncle died in May. Through all of this, my Eat’n Park family has been such a comfort to me.

I have written many times to the corporate office of my gratitude, but I want to share my story with others. I truly believe that people come into our lives when we need them most. I have found that not only do I care about the team at Whitehall, but they care about me. I feel like Norm on Cheers...everybody knows my name!

We all have a story. Our lives are all filled with sadness and joy, so going to this Eat’n Park has opened my eyes and my heart and helped me to realize that life is too short - so we should love and live every moment. To me, that's what love is all about...the giving, the sharing… the caring - and I have found all of this and more in the friendships that I have found at the Whitehall Eat’n Park.

A special thank you to manager Jenn P. Her friendship has been such a wonderful gift in my life. The managers, servers, cooks, greeters, and salad bar people that I have come to know and love have been a source of strength and joy for me. They have placed an Eat’n Park smile on my heart. Eat’n Park truly is a "place for smiles" in my life. How blessed am I!

Mimi
Pittsburgh, PA Share

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If you’re like me, you may have set a few New Year’s resolutions back in January. Like so many of our guests, I set two important resolutions: to watch my waistline and my wallet. With our Smaller Portions at Smaller Prices menu, we’ve tried to make it easy for our guests (myself included) to stick to those resolutions. Our Smaller Portions menu is full of breakfast, lunch and dinner entrees that fit my appetite and my budget. They’re available all day and are all listed in our regular menu, just below the appetizers section. Although the portions are smaller, I still get a satisfying meal at a great value. Best of all, the menu features some of our most popular selections, like Bananas Foster French Toast, the Shredded Pot Roast Sandwich, our Baked Lemon Sole and - my favorite - Rosemary Chicken. Delicious, satisfying AND affordable…what’s not to love?

To get a look at a few of these items, check out one of our newest commercials, which hit the air earlier this month. This commercial was filmed at our Robinson Township Eat’n Park in early January and features some of our real guests sharing their thoughts on Eat’n Park. Enjoy!

Kevin

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Tomorrow, of course, is Valentine’s Day. In honor of the holiday, we recently asked some of our email club members to share their Eat’n Park love stories. It turns out that our restaurants have played a part in more than a few romances, and apparently, love is in the air at Eat’n Park all year round!

We’ll be including more stories in upcoming postings and in our email newsletters, but we wanted to share a couple of our favorites in time for Valentine’s Day.

If you have a story of your own to share, click here to send it to us. And, if you’re not already a member of our email club, click here to join now so you won’t miss out on the latest Eat’n Park news, love stories, and more.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

From Lillian, of Cheswick, PA:
I worked at the Lawrenceville Eat'n Park on 40th Street all through high school and college. During 1985, I would see this same guy come in for lunch everyday. I thought he was cute and always wanted to wait on him. He ordered grilled cheese, fries and a Sprite everyday. A girl that I worked with would write my name and phone number on his receipt and put it in his bag. He never called. That same fall, I went to a wedding of a friend that I had grown up with, and the guy from Eat'n Park was there. As fate would have it, my sister in law knew him and introduced us. He told me that he came into Eat'n Park everyday because he wanted to ask me out, but was too shy. We danced and talked all night and found out that we lived about 10 blocks from each other. He asked me to marry him that night! I said yes! We tried to elope two weeks later, but our parents wanted us to marry in a church. We waited five months and on April 12, 1986 we were married in church and had a small reception afterwards.

This April, we will be married 23 years and we have two beautiful children. Years later, we were having dinner at the Etna Eat'n Park with our five year old son and nine month old daughter who had just been diagnosed as profoundly deaf. We had only been using sign language for a month and were told that it would be a while before our daughter would understand what the signs meant. After dinner that night, we were waiting for the waitress to bring our check, when she arrived with two smiley cookies for our kids. My daughter looked at her and signed "cookie"! She understood!! It was her first word!! Our daughter is 13 now and still loves those smiley cookies. We buy them constantly for her to bring to school. We have even ordered them in her school colors. We eat at Eat'n Park at least once a week and it will always hold a special place in our hearts!

And from Shawn, of Pittsburgh, PA:

The Monaca Eat 'n Park was the second to last stop on a Scavenger Hunt that I sent my then-fiancee on the night of our engagement. The hunt directed her to a number of places that we went to during our courtship, and Eat 'n Park was where we had our first late-night meal, the night that we met. I left a "care package" for her at each stop with some mementos and a note (a clue) to the next location. At Eat'n Park, her "care package" included a Smiley watch and a note that directed her to my house, which was the last stop of her hunt. Once she arrived, she ascended a staircase adorned with rose petals and the names of the places she visited during her journey, with "our song" playing. She was crying when she reached the top, and I asked her to marry me. The answer was a resounding "yes!" Share

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At Eat’n Park, our goal is to be a great neighborhood restaurant. Part of being in the neighborhood is being a good neighbor. There are lots of things we do to support our local communities, including our annual campaign to support Children’s Hospitals. We also want to support kids’ health and fitness, and youth sports are a great way for kids to get fit, learn teamwork, and make friends.

However, we know that the costs of uniforms and equipment can be expensive, and in these tough economic times, it’s even more difficult for teams to cover these costs. So, we are proud to continue our support of local teams with our Youth Sports Sponsorship Program, which we started last year. Leagues are already forming for the 2009 season, so we wanted to remind coaches and parents that we have this program available.

Every Eat’n Park restaurant has funds set aside to provide a uniform sponsorship for at least one local youth sports team. If you are a coach or parent looking for a sponsor and can put the Eat’n Park name or logo on your team’s t-shirts or uniforms, we’d love to hear from you! Just contact the manager at your local Eat’n Park and he or she can get you started. Click here to find the telephone number for your nearest Eat’n Park restaurant. Don’t wait though - each restaurant has a limited budget to work with, so sponsorships are awarded on a first come, first served basis.

We wish all of our local youth sports teams a great season! Share

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