Kings Dominion Project 2024: Victoria's Pizza Renovation
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
This is a big development! I know Chef Denis had his eyes on redoing Victoria’s before he left the park, so I wonder if Chef Maurice has big plans in mind for the venue too.
Between its central location in the park, huge kitchen, large dining area, and a few nice elements to its aesthetic (the stained glass and the large back windows), this restaurant has so much more potential than it has utilized. A G&G/Outpost/Firehouse revamp to this restaurant could be a game changer and would bring a ton of life to this part of the park.
Between its central location in the park, huge kitchen, large dining area, and a few nice elements to its aesthetic (the stained glass and the large back windows), this restaurant has so much more potential than it has utilized. A G&G/Outpost/Firehouse revamp to this restaurant could be a game changer and would bring a ton of life to this part of the park.
I'd like to see them either move the kitchen to the back of the building to keep people from the back windows or, better yet, install a large, (covered?), outdoor seating area on top of the existing water park buildings directly behind Victoria's. I'm so, so very tired of looking out over a sea of gravel from the back of the building—I think it looks downright hideous.
I, too, an super excited about the place getting a facelift though. It has great bones (exterior profile, stain glass windows, torrents at the corners, etc.) but the place has reaked of garbage food for so long that it has really caused me to despise the place.
Also, longshot idea: Thoughts about putting a small stage in this restaurant? I really liked the little band that KD had during their off-season, mini-food/wine festival last winter. KD doesn't currently have a single restaurant with a performance space. I could see even just a small, elevated space for a pianist, small jazz band, or some other small entertainment product working brilliantly in one corner of the restaurant for use during WinterFest.
I, too, an super excited about the place getting a facelift though. It has great bones (exterior profile, stain glass windows, torrents at the corners, etc.) but the place has reaked of garbage food for so long that it has really caused me to despise the place.
Also, longshot idea: Thoughts about putting a small stage in this restaurant? I really liked the little band that KD had during their off-season, mini-food/wine festival last winter. KD doesn't currently have a single restaurant with a performance space. I could see even just a small, elevated space for a pianist, small jazz band, or some other small entertainment product working brilliantly in one corner of the restaurant for use during WinterFest.
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Rooftop bar - actual bar and not just service station.
Perfect location
Perfect location
Looks like a really thorough makeover — exactly what this place needed!
Sad to see that it looks like the stained glass windows have been removed, though. Those were a nice touch.
Sad to see that it looks like the stained glass windows have been removed, though. Those were a nice touch.
Can we just take a moment to consider that the video starts out "hello parkfans" I mean sure that could be just a generic park fans but when you consider this tweet it could be Parkfans.
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I wonder if this could also mean they add space and equipment to start making dough in-house?
If my office cafeteria can do it for hundreds of individual pizzas during the average lunch rush, I don't see why they can't do it at a larger scale.
If my office cafeteria can do it for hundreds of individual pizzas during the average lunch rush, I don't see why they can't do it at a larger scale.
I talked to one of the chefs I think 3 or 4 chefs ago about this. He said it's all volume related and that on an average day Victoria's turns out about 300 pizza an hour during peak times and 4,00 throughout the day he also noted that it was the busiest park restaurant during the summer by a long shot. Assuming those numbers are anywhere near correct currently given the many changes to culinary since it's hard for me to imagine them keeping up with demand especially given the tight staffing situation we have seen in recent years
When I worked their a LONG time ago a lot of pizza's were premade and stored in a cooler. Not sure if that can be done with fresh dough
Fresh dough stays good for a few days. The main issue with pre-making pizzas is wet ingredients mixing into dryer ones.
As a guest, I've seen them take pre-portioned dough from containers then run em through a press before getting sauced from a machine presumably tied to a can.
Given they're renovating the building and not just doing some lighter cosmetic changes, I can imagine they could build a space for dough and sauce making to serve the restaurant and as a commissary to supply the other pizza window on International Street. I could also see them adding a classic pizza oven.
While totally plausible staffing this may make it untenable, I don't think they need many more people to make this work depending on synergies that can be leveraged across the core culinary team.
If done right, given their existing sales volume, the unit cost per pizza would be less thus increasing their margins without changing prices. It's a pipe dream, maybe, but I can imagine with their economy of scale with suppliers that they could probably even reduce prices a little while maintaining those increased margins.
This model generally seems to work if the combination of quality and price point are optimized - look at AB era BGW dining as an example.
The only things I can see being an issue is ensuring supply can meet demand (as others have stated) when attendance is fluid as culinary operations thrive on predictably (good thing dough and sauce can be batch made and stored with losing quality relatively easily), and ensuring that Victoria's revamp doesn't cannibalize sales from other restaurants.
Given they're renovating the building and not just doing some lighter cosmetic changes, I can imagine they could build a space for dough and sauce making to serve the restaurant and as a commissary to supply the other pizza window on International Street. I could also see them adding a classic pizza oven.
While totally plausible staffing this may make it untenable, I don't think they need many more people to make this work depending on synergies that can be leveraged across the core culinary team.
If done right, given their existing sales volume, the unit cost per pizza would be less thus increasing their margins without changing prices. It's a pipe dream, maybe, but I can imagine with their economy of scale with suppliers that they could probably even reduce prices a little while maintaining those increased margins.
This model generally seems to work if the combination of quality and price point are optimized - look at AB era BGW dining as an example.
The only things I can see being an issue is ensuring supply can meet demand (as others have stated) when attendance is fluid as culinary operations thrive on predictably (good thing dough and sauce can be batch made and stored with losing quality relatively easily), and ensuring that Victoria's revamp doesn't cannibalize sales from other restaurants.
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I teach the owner of a MOD pizza in DC (and a couple other restaurants of the like) and they easily do that much daily. It's possible to do it with fresh dough. I showed him this line of conversation and he said if they really wanted to do well with fresh dough the best idea would be to have a couple of dough pressers, and you just have someone continually pressing and firing out ready to be topped doughs. He said if they could have a line of just firing out stock cheese, sausage, peperoni, and veggie pizzas, you just have the slow down on custom ones.
His feeling was that if any park wants to have good culinary they should have an outside industry experienced F&B manager to run each area of the park. Someone who knows operations really well to make things run smooth. In certain areas they could really help the chef with helping build a program that can do fresh and speedy at the same time since there are great pre-mix doughs that need just water or sauces that need maybe a little spice mix where you don't need to spend a lot of time to make it. That would open up staff to not need to be there so early and could worry about bigger staffing for operating hours and FOH.
Back when Chef Paul was there, Int'l St, pizza showed me their ingredients could be used to make crispy golden heaven or chum. It's got to cook right for the magic to happen. I presume the Chef taught them how to do it each April and then after a month they relapsed or a manager came by and said pile it high, people said it wasn't enough for the money. Gloppy mess.
Nothing against better ingredients and methods, but a lot of it is in the preparation, which is better overall now but still can be inconsistent. I haven't tried the pizza in a long time though, looks so generic lately.
Nothing against better ingredients and methods, but a lot of it is in the preparation, which is better overall now but still can be inconsistent. I haven't tried the pizza in a long time though, looks so generic lately.
It would have been chef Paul that told me the volume was to high to do fresh because the conversation started with the question how impressed I was at the time with International Street's changes and my hope that Victoria would see similar changes.
Also I again feel it's important to remind people that KD has been relying heavily lately on temporary volunteers to work many positions in culinary and raise the question on if KD can even reliable staff enough solid experience employees to do fresh well and consistently.
Based on that earnings call we can also question if they want to reliably staff it given they were basically bragging about being flat on pay.
KD uses a system where nonprofit organizations provide volunteers to staff food locations in exchange for a charitable donation of a certain amount back to the organizations. CF then list the donation a Charitable deduction make it a even bigger win for their budgeting. All those folks you see in kaki aprons with temporary paper stick on name tags are volunteers not park employees.