Eat'n Park
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1949 |
| Headquarters | Homestead, Pennsylvania |
| Key people | James S. Broadhurst, Chairman and CEO |
| Industry | Food Services |
| Products | Restaurants |
| Revenue | ▲$303 million USD |
| Website | www.eatnpark.com |
Eat'n Park is a restaurant chain with locations throughout Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, and Northern West Virginia. The franchise began in Pittsburgh's South Hills in 1949, with the business model that customers could drive their car and park at the restaurant, while being waited on by waitresses on rollerskates. The privately held company is a member of the Eat'n Park Hospitality Group, a regional multi-concept foodservice company.
Today, the franchise has nearly 100 locations, and has become an indoor-dining family restaurant with some locations open 24 hours a day.
The franchise's mascot is "Smiley," a walking smiley face, and Eat'n Park is well-known for its trademark Smiley Cookies, which are frosted sugar cookies with smiley faces drawn on them in icing. Seasonal Smiley Cookies are constantly produced, including fish at Easter, black and gold cookies for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pirates. (Restaurants near Philadelphia sell green smiley cookies for the Eagles, and those near Cleveland sell orange and red smiley cookies for the Browns and Indians respectively.)
Eat'n Park restaurants are owned by the Eat'n Park Hospitality Group, a private firm. In the early 21st century, Eat'n Park's headquarters relocated from Robinson Township to Homestead in The Waterfront shopping and entertainment complex. Due to its huge popularity in urban Pittsburgh, the company has enjoyed many years of profit increases, and they are investing this money in a future expansion into neighboring states.[citation needed]
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[edit] Products
[edit] Big Boy Sandwich
Eat'n Park started as a Bob's Big Boy regional franchisee using the Big Boy icon signage and serving a double-burger sandwich, the Big Boy. Eat'n Park's burger used a different sauce – similar to tartar sauce – from the chain's standard. The affiliation was terminated in 1975.
Eat n' Park now offers two versions of this sandwich. The original Superburger is two 2.67 oz. burger patties with a slice of american cheese, sauce supreme, pickles and lettuce on a toasted double decker sesame seed bun.
In 2007, they introduced the Black Angus Superburger, which is the same as the original but with two 6 oz. Black Angus patties, and two slices of american cheese.[1]
[edit] Smiley Cookie
The Smiley Cookie is the official icon of Eat'n Park. The Smiley Cookie was created by the company's Chairman, James S. Broadhurst, who wanted to re-create a special experience from his youth when his mother allowed him to have a smiley faced-cookie from a neighborhood bakery each day after school. The cookie was first introduced to Eat'n Park guests in 1986.
Individual cookies are sold at all Eat'n Park restaurants, as well as in half-dozen or dozen packages.
[edit] Smoking ban
On June 1, 2007, Eat'n Park announced all of its restaurants would go smoke-free. The chain conducted a two-month study of five restaurants and found that customers preferred the change. The decision was made, in part, to Allegheny County's attempts at a county-wide smoking ban, as well as the success of restaurants in Ohio, which passed a statewide smoking ban in December 2006.[2]
[edit] Competition
Eat'n Park competes with Kings Family Restaurants, another local restaurant chain; Denny's, and Bob Evans Restaurants.
[edit] Origin of name
Many people often question the origin of the restaurant's name, and more specifically, the reasoning for the name "Eat'n Park" as opposed to the seemingly more logical "Park'n Eat". The official Eat'n Park website details the motivation for the name: "... in the late 1940's, 'Park & Eat' was as common a sight as 'Drive Thru' is today and could not be copyrighted. In a brainstorm, Hatch and company decided to reverse it -- to Eat'n Park." [3]
[edit] References
- ^ "Menu/Burgers'n Sandwiches". http://www.eatnpark.com/menuList.asp?CategoryID=9. Retrieved 2008-12-28.
- ^ Eat'n Park chain snuffs smoking
- ^ "Eat'n Park's 'About Us' page". http://www.eatnpark.com/aboutus.asp. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
[edit] External links
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