How Pennsylvania’s Knoebels dominates the amusement park food game

ELYSBURG, Pa. — Amid the clickety-clack of wooden roller coasters at Knoebels, the occasional scream from a haunted mansion, and the circus-like symphony marching out of the old Wurlitzer organ, there’s an unexpected silence.

It’s the sound of people not complaining about amusement park food. You can’t hear it outside the baked potato kiosk, with its eight topping options, or at any of the pierogi stands, where you can get them deep fried or swimming in butter and onions. In a food court by the Phoenix wooden roller coaster, few people eating a “tiger tail” can explain what it is, because they’re licking their fingers.

“Well, it’s a pretzel rolled in cinnamon with caramel and chocolate drizzled across it,” said Tony Rodriguez, the food and beverage director at the 150-acre park.

Knoebels, pronounced with a hard “K,” is not just serving decent food out in Columbia County. That would be too easy in the world of amusements, where the standards, sadly, are often burgers that look like someone sat on them, droopy fries, and sodas that went flat while you were still packing the car. The family-owned amusement park was voted “Best Food” for the 2022 Amusement Today Golden Ticket Awards. Knoebels isn’t just a one-and-done champion, though. Since 2000, Knoebels has won the award 19 times. The park is the veritable New York Yankees of amusement food.

“It’s really hard for any other park to topple Knoebels,” said Tim Baldwin, editor of Amusement Today.

Only the beloved Dolly Parton and her Dollywood amusement park in the Tennessee Smokies has managed to dethrone or tie Knoebels in recent years.

While some of Knoebels’ food, including pickles, corn dogs, pork chops, bacon, and fried cheese, can be served on a stick, the park also has a sit-down, full menu restaurant called the Alamo. Every server, manager, and cook in the restaurant described their signature meal — chicken and waffles — the same way.

“Well, it’s pulled-off-the-bone chicken. That’s what makes the difference,” said Clyde Bills, manager of the the Alamo.

The Alamo was recently named the top theme park restaurant in the United States in the USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards, beating out eateries at Walt Disney World.

“When the meal comes to your table, a plastic lid is removed, and it immediately smells like home. The crunch of the waffles, the pull-apart chicken, and the creamy gravy combine in the most magnificent way,” Pennlive.com wrote in 2018.

“I mean, it’s just a pickle on a stick, but it’s fresh and it was only $3.50. You can’t beat that,” said Dyanne Smith, of Camp Hill, Cumberland County, between bites by the restaurant’s take-out counter.

“It was $1.50, mom,” her son chimed in.

Knoebels, about 130 miles northwest of Philadelphia, may have the least-captive audience of any amusement park in America as well. For starters, there’s free parking and free admission. Guests pay only for the rides they go on, or simply walk around. Park visitors can bring their own food or grill in the vast, covered picnic area. There’s an adjacent campground and cottage rentals for overnight stays.

Some locals treat the park like an open-air food court.

“People come down here just for dinner quite a lot,” said Eileen Murdock, the park’s director of human resources. “Some never even go on the rides.”

Baldwin, of Amusement Today, said the combination of quality food and affordability, plus a particular love for vintage and wooden rides, make Knoebels a rarity in the U.S.

“It’s not the fanciest food or exotic. It’s the comfort food people just enjoy and they’re just really good at it,” he said. “They’ve been doing it a long time. Knoebels has really managed to hold on to its magic and bless their hearts for that.”

At the turn of the 20th century, the park was a farm with a picnic area and creek-fed swimming hole that was popular in the summer. On July 4, 1926, Knoebels Amusement Resort opened and grew around that original swimming hole, now a pool. Knoebels suffered several devastating floods over the last century as tropical storms and hurricanes caused the network of clear, trout-filled creeks to spill over their banks.

Stacy Yutko, the park’s public relations director, said even in those early years, when Knoebels was just a swimming hole, the family offered food and beverages.

“Food has just always been important here,” she said.

At the park’s International Food Court, Rodriguez said he is always dreaming about menu items that would be slightly exotic for Central Pennsylvania. He served calamari there, for a while. Frog legs wouldn’t work on a mass scale, he said, but a trip to Florida and some hot alligator bites were just right. They’re deep-fried and cost $9.

“It’s not like chicken. It’s not like turtle, and it’s not like snake,” Rodriguez said.

The food court’s Polish Sampler offers kielbasa, potato cakes, and haluski, a combination of cabbage, onions, noodles, and bacon. Knoebels sold 91,861 potato cakes last year. Pierogi are scattered all over the park.

While it’s certainly international, the park’s Polish food is also a local nod. Hundreds of thousands of Poles came to Pennsylvania in the late 19th century, many settling and working in the anthracite coal town surrounding Knoebels. The park even has an anthracite museum and a mining-themed coaster rescued from the wrecking ball in Wildwood.

“You don’t find this at your typical amusement park,” said Patricia Buriak, who was visiting Knoebels for the first time from Bucks County with her daughters and grandchildren. “There is so much variety. This is an unexpected surprise of coming here.”

Buriak and others at her table had ordered that Polish platter, along with heaping piles of that buttery haluski. It was only lunch, and if they could hold out until 4 p.m., the park’s Oasis cafeteria offered an all-you-can-eat fish fry for $10.75. Knoebels goes through 38 cases of cod a week.

Then there’s ice cream, including flavors like teaberry.

“We camp here so we cook a lot of our own food,” said Amy Donelson, of Red Lion. “But we can’t resist coming in for ice cream. Maybe we should eat there, too.”