Knott's Berry Farm Reopens Its Kitchen To Welcome Guests, Employees
BUENA PARK (CBSLA) -- Knott's Berry Farm has reopened its kitchen to bring back some tasty treats even though they can't open their rides to the public just yet.
From funnel cakes with strawberry jam dip, to fries, mini corn dogs with boysenberry mustard, and boysenberry smoothies, guests are welcome to the feast.
The amusement park was forced to shut down five months ago at the start of the pandemic and furloughed hundreds of employees as a result.
As a whole, theme park revenue is down $18 billion this year and parks have cut 125,000 jobs, so Knott's Berry Farm was not alone in the hit to their business.
Intent on creating a way to bring 10-to-15% of their guests and employees back, they decided to go back in time to what they offered 100 years ago, before the Great Depression.
"It all started with food. It was a farm that turned into a restaurant that then turned into a theme park basically to entertain all the folks waiting to go into the restaurant. Here we are again entertaining folks with our food experience," Vice President of Marketing and Sales, Kevin Wynne said. "It is in our hundredth year literally going back to our roots."
Creating an open-air food court on the weekend, Knott's Berry Farm has found its way of recreating the experience many came to the amusement park -- minus the rides.
Guests say being back in their element and enjoying good food and positive energy still feels enjoyable even during this era of physical distancing and wearing masks.
Tickets are already sold out for the food festival on Saturday night but tickets are still available for sale online at knotts.com.
The festival will be held every weekend through September 13.
