Joe,
Nice review. I was surprised by the look and presentation of the food. The service and atmosphere was way above what I was expecting. This is a giant leap for the park's culinary department.
I was bewildered by your impatience at having to wait, as you stated "a solid 10-15 minutes", for your food. Even though these were not entree's that needed extensive prep and cook time, they were prepared from scratch. If it is a full service establishment, I would be disappointed if they plopped down a salad or quiche in a plastic to-go container in under 5 minutes. A full-service dining experience is supposed to be a more relaxed event to spend time enjoying the food, conversation, and atmosphere. If I have limited time or in a rush, I would not bother patronizing a place like that and I would go to a fast food place.
Plus, this is a new "al fresco" dining experience where there really is not a dedicated kitchen/facility close by. You stated this was the first day of operations; so I think they will improve as they gain experience and work out the kinks. Sounds like they are in the process of figuring a way to cover/insulate the dishes and/or serving tray.
I hope they get a good response from park patrons. Given the size and limitations of this food operation, I don't think they want to overwhelmingly advertise too much. If this is only a 6-8 table venue, I don't think they want to end up turning away a couple hundred folks each day.
Sounds like this is a trail run, hopefully for the rest of the summer. If the park thinks this is feasible and makes a reasonable profit, I could see this expanding, either taking over an existing food location of building a new facility for next year.
