New eatery in France for 2017?

[Rhaw757]

I chose to post this as a rumor since nothing has been officially announced by the park (that I know of).

Like I mentioned in the Invadr thread, my step dad works as a building inspector for James City County and got a work order to inspect a building in Busch Gardens for a new eatery in France called France Fries (was the name on the permit he said). He's not all that familiar with the park, so he couldn't tell me exactly where it was.

So nothing major, but interesting nonetheless, especially during these slow months while not much is going on in park news.

 

[Zachary]

I can confirm that a new eatery of some kind is taking over the old La Grande Glace location. From what I've heard, a complete gutting of the building is involved. Very interested to see what the finished product will look like.

 

[Zimmy]

I hope they sell traditional turkey legs and churros!

 

[Thomas]

Those are already for sale in Cafe Lulu. But you can never have too many insults to French cuisine.

 

[CastleOSullivan]

I really hope they can find a way to portray some authentic French cuisine. French cuisine is difficult to do in a theme park setting. The park struggles enough with their current setups. Let's see how they manage a more difficult food variety.

While I applaud the park on all of their new food options from last year (Marco Polo's Marketplace, F&W Festival, etc), I also feel like the quality dropped as soon as it was made right. The attention throughout the park last year seemed too scattered because as soon as culinary fixed one restaurant, they would move on to the next one. Then the previous restaurant would go back to their old (bad) habits due to new/transferred employees.

I'm sure they will pull off something visually stunning, maybe even from a taste standpoint initially, but I'm still skeptical about the food remaining consistent.

 

[Thomas]

If they were to make these fries into poutine... I wouldn't complain.

 

[Nicole]

No knowing actually if french fries will play a central role at this new eatery, I still need to point out that they are actually Belgian, not French.

And, Thomas, doesn't poutine belong in New France, since it originated in Quebec?

 

[Thomas]

Yes, but this is BGW we are talking about... And, honestly, as long as I have easy access to poutine I will forgive any inaccuracies.

 

[Lord Robert]

Last year it was the Marketplace, now this new eatery is replacing La Grande Glace in France? Interesting two seasons when it comes to it's culinary department that I'm sure they'll pull this one off to.

 

[Merboy]

I miss La Grande Glace. Lulu's and Josephine's is fine and all, but what I want is an ice cream shop where I can pick the ice cream, the number of scoops, and the toppings. Not a predetermined item from a menu. I went to Josephine's last year wanting strawberry ice cream in a waffle cone with chocolate sprinkles. That's all. But they didn't offer that.

And I agree with CoS, the quality of food does seem to revert after a while. I noticed in Festhaus the quality definitely has declined a bit. Pity, really.

 

[Alf33]

I miss La Grande Glace. Lulu's and Josephine's is fine and all, but what I want is an ice cream shop where I can pick the ice cream, the number of scoops, and the toppings. Not a predetermined item from a menu. I went to Josephine's last year wanting strawberry ice cream in a waffle cone with chocolate sprinkles. That's all. But they didn't offer that.

I sent an email to Customer Relations a little while ago suggesting this exact same thing! You should do the same as the more of us that request it the more likely they'll implement it. I miss getting a cone with premium ice cream and then sitting down and watching people go buy, especially during HOS. I also find it ironic that Josephine's has a sundae named Chocolate Chip Cookie dough that doesn't actually have that flavor of ice cream in it.

 

[Thomas]

I think Roman Frieze could easily fill the void left by La Grande Glace, but last time I checked they only served that horrid soft serve garbage in there. The main issue is that Pralines and Cream (the superior ice cream flavor) is no longer easily acquired at the park... I think it's only served on a certain variety of funnel cake nowadays.

At least we have the gelato stand.

 

[Shane]

Does London Dairy server Soft Serve? I haven't entered that shop in a least a decade.

 

[Thomas]

I think almost everywhere at BGW serves that sludge.

 

[CastleOSullivan]

I still miss the pomegranate smoothie that they had for the first two months or so.

Anyway, I doubt there will be room for any indoor dining with the new restaurant but that area of the park needs some.

 

[JUmelSA]

I miss La Grande Glace. Lulu's and Josephine's is fine and all, but what I want is an ice cream shop where I can pick the ice cream, the number of scoops, and the toppings. Not a predetermined item from a menu. I went to Josephine's last year wanting strawberry ice cream in a waffle cone with chocolate sprinkles. That's all. But they didn't offer that.

And I agree with CoS, the quality of food does seem to revert after a while. I noticed in Festhaus the quality definitely has declined a bit. Pity, really.

Couldnt you ask to customize? Ithink i asked for a flavor of milkshake not on the menu but they still made it by mixin thingz.

 

[Nicole]

You can order any mix of ingredients you want. The problem is that they don't have many flavors.

 

[Merboy]

I actually did try asking if they'd just make me what I wanted (personally I didn't think it was such an extravagant request) but the employees said they weren't allowed. I'm sure that had more to do with them not wanting to do it rather than an official policy so I'll try again next time. Though Nicole is right, they don't exactly have 31 flavors.

 

[MAZ]

I was in Geleti-Celeste tonight, which is like a baskin robins only much much much better, and I thought about this thread. If they can keep multiple exotic flavors of ice cream like 'honey baklava', why can't Busch do it? The only answer I can come up with is, people are indecisive. I'm thinking that 20 choices of ice cream is too much critical thinking for a family of five in a theme park setting.

 

[Merboy]

That's a good point. Even in La Grande Glace there was somewhat of an issue occasionally with the queue taking a few minutes too long because someone was still trying to decide on a flavor. It was never quite as bad as Marco Polo's can get at times but I can certainly see why it would factor into the decision to serve pre-determined items rather than a richer variety of choices. I just miss grande galce though. Sad face.