Food Fridays: Stouffer’s Plaza Pavilion

In 1964, Walt Disney oversaw a massive expansion of DISNEYLAND’s infrastructure. Upset at the poor reputation that the park’s food service had gotten over the years, Walt Disney removed ABC’s UPI division from running the park’s food service concessions and brought in new sponsors with higher quality reputations. One of which was Stouffer’s, which ran high end restaurants years before it began selling frozen foods. One of the restaurants it ran was the Plaza Pavilion on Main Street. Selling the company’s famed lasagne and spaghetti, the graceful location bumped up DISNEYLAND’s food service reputation and operated under various sponsors for 30 years until it closed as a restaurant in the late 1990’s. The building was used for various non-food purposes for over ten years until it became the Jolly Holiday Bakery, a Mary Poppins themed restaurant.

Food Fridays: California Oranges

Before DISNEYLAND opened in 1955, one of the things that tourists did when they visited Southern California was to drive out to orange groves and take pictures of themselves picking oranges. (The other big attractions were Hollywood and the beaches, of course.) After DISNEYLAND opened, people were less enamored with looking at orange groves, so the largest orange grower Sunkist decided that if the tourists were no longer coming out to them, they would come out to the tourists.

The Sunkist Citrus House opened on Main Street, replacing a bakery that had originally taken the spot. Sunkist sold simple baked goods and freshly squeezed orange juice and lemonade. While the Citrus house was profitable, its main goal was to advertise oranges to the tourists who, it was hoped, would go home and look for Sunkist in their local grocery stores. The refreshing drinks were so popular, a second location was opened in Adventureland and was given an unusual name- “Sunkist, I Presume?”

Both locations remained open until the 1980’s. Sunkist decided to change its marketing efforts and DISNEYLAND was looking to operate most of its food locations. “Sunkist, I Presume?” became the Bengal Barbecue, while the Main Street Citrus House would become an ice cream parlor, a bakery (again) and an ice cream parlor (again).

Food Fridays: Post Toasties

Mickey Mouse Birthday Week! Food Fridays: Mickey Shaped Food

In most cases, people want to avoid thinking about mice when they’re eating for obvious reasons. Mickey Mouse, however, has bucked this trend. Countless food items shaped like Mickey are served daily at DISNEYLAND.

Mickey’s Food presence isn’t limited to the Disney theme parks, however. Some food can bring Mickey’s magic to any house.

Food Fridays: Maxwell House

Long before coffee became the domain of hipsters and expensive drink chains, it was just an afterthought, served at breakfast and often came with free refills. At DISNEYLAND's town square, Maxwell House provided a place for guests to enjoy breakfast and a cup of coffee with the hope that they would return to Iowa and start buying Maxwell House instead of Folgers.