For many of us, getting down to Walt Disney World or over to Disneyland is no easy, or cheap, proposition. Most of us have full-time jobs and families that require 101% of our time, resources, and income. In the interim time between Disney trips, we are forced to find reasonable substitutes. Of course we know there’s nothing that ever feels the same, but if you’re lucky, you find an oasis or two that come very close to replicating the feelings and emotions of being surrounded by Disney magic.
If you’re really lucky, that oasis serves food too!
For me, that respite is Rainforest Café.
I know, I’ve heard from a few people who immediately say
“that touristy place?!?” Well, yes, I suppose. From the early days when Steve Schussler
founded RFC, he was brilliant enough to know that a concept like that was
likely to have a higher survival rate in a highly-tourist-populated area. Hence the first Rainforest Café being
established in The Mall of America up der in Minnesota, hey?
Now I take issue with anyone who immediately implies or assumes
a themed restaurant is somehow bad or unworthy.
Although I suppose a great many of said restaurants are to blame. A certain chain involving cardboard &
ketchup pizzas and another over-sized singing mouse comes to mind! Strip the theme completely, and I’ve never
had a bad meal at a Rainforest Café. And
you may have noticed I know a thing or two about eating! I’ll go on record that the Blue Mountain
Chicken Sandwich at RFC is the best chicken sandwich I’ve ever eaten in my
life. I find it very hard to deviate and
order anything different. Though I have
plenty of times. The coconut shrimp
rock. The ribs, sorry “Mojo bones” are
excellent.
And since we’re all grown-ups
(or at least grown-“olders”) here, let’s talk about the bar menu! I love me a good margarita sirs! Rocks, never blended, and no salt, por favor
and any skilled “Navigator” (that’s RFC lingo for bartender) can mix-up a good
one. But if it’s a taste of the exotic
you seek, and why shouldn’t you, order Rainforest’s Green Python!
<= Delicious!
Like Indiana Jones, I hate snakes. But this particular beverage is one serpent I
find quite charming! Rum, Midori, banana
liquor, sweet & sour, and pineapple juice; I can’t believe Jimmy Buffett
hasn’t written an anthem about it yet!
I must say too that in the past when someone has said to me
“the food’s not good” I’ve retorted with, when was the last time you ate
there? In every case it was usually, “I
don’t know, a long time ago.” While
every restaurant has better days and worse, I’ve found RFC has taken giant
steps forward in quality and consistency since Landry’s Restaurant group bought
the concept and took over operations in 2000.
I always respond to those people the same way. “Try it again. Trust me.”
Read Steve's book It's a Jungle In There!
That’s no knock against Steven Schussler and the company he
created. Schussler is an amazing
entrepreneur and crazy dreamer and built RFC from a concept in his house
(literally, right down to a live baboon and waterfall in his living room) to
the amazing restaurants we saw popping up all over the country in the late-90’s. He’s a visionary and a risk-taker who
believes in making something amazing that will blow guests away. Sound like someone else?
There’s no mystery why Rainforest Café is immediately
associated with the Disney Parks in my mind, or so many others’. From the detailed theme, to the animatronics,
to the actual smells of the gift shops and dining rooms (yes, I stand by my
belief that Rainforest Cafes have the “Disney smell”) to creating roles for the
employees to play. Your server isn’t
your waiter; they are your Safari Guide. The hosts and hostesses are your Tour Guides. The kitchen staffers are called Trailblazers.
My home RFC!
My family and I frequent our local Rainforest and a large
mall in Schaumburg, IL and on multiple occasions we’ve been served by a Safari
Guide named Johnny. Now I don’t know the
guy personally, but I’ve been compelled to contact the company multiple times
to praise him for the job he’s doing. I
worked in the restaurant business for a few years out of college. I waited tables, tended bar, and quickly
found myself training new hires, preparing them for what restaurant work is
really like. Even in your average I
Can’t Believe Its Tuesday’s it gets so hectic some nights you want to run out
screaming. I can’t imagine the
distractions, the pressures, and hurdles to be leapt gracefully in such a
high-flow, intensive, interactive environment.
Yet this Johnny pulls it off every time without ever letting his guests
see him sweat. I believe it’s due to one
simple thing – he buys into the concept 100%.
He is a Safari Guide. No,
he’s not role-playing, but you can see he gets it. Rainforest Café doesn’t just serve food, they
serve entertainment. They deliver an
experience. Every meal there must be
something special. Just like the best
Disney Cast Members do.
That is also why Rainforest Café was such a perfect fit at
the Disney parks. There’s a beautiful
two-story RFC in Downtown Disney at Disneyland in California.
This was the first location I took my son
when he was just two. And yes, it’s
another reason I’m so connected to the company.
There’s one at Disneyland Paris.
And there are actually two Rainforest locations on the Walt Disney World
property in Florida. One, appropriately
so is located inside Disney’s Animal Kingdom (I think it would be a bigger
mystery if there wasn’t one
there!) My favorite however is the
location in Downtown Disney-Orlando.
It’s so big there’s even a volcano sprouting from the roof. No, if you know the menu not the
dessert! Although, that would rule!
I don't know where I'm a gonna go when the volcano blow!
And Schussler Creative and Landry’s did it again in 2008
with the opening of a brand new sister-concept to Rainforest Café. Well, if that sister was created from
fossilized mosquito blood extracted from amber, mixed with a little frog DNA,
and hatched from an ostrich egg into a colossal goat munching super-predator .
. . but I digress.
"I have an idea for a restaurant!"
T-Rex Café was
founded in 2006 with its first location in Kansas City. Two years later it found its next natural
home at Walt Disney World. Life
Rainforest, T-Rex features life-size animatronic dinosaurs, special effects,
themed dining rooms, and of course a large merchandise area. It’s also home to the special hybrid of the
popular Build-A-Bear stores, Build-A-Dino!
Come on, you can try to roll your eyes all you want, but that’s pretty
cool!
Seriously, the outside looks like a nightclub in Bedrock
complete with the complete skeleton of a brachiosaurus (or some other sauropod
. . . geek check) stretching its neck over the entrance.
As soon as you walk in you are greeted by a
life-sized mama T-Rex and her pups! I
wouldn’t say you’re just there to look around - she doesn’t like it! Just kidding.
The restaurant is sprawling and inhabited with all sorts of dinosaurs
and other prehistoric creatures, from the giant octopus guarding the bar to the
wooly mammoth perched above the glacial Ice Cave room. Yes Bill Nye Science Guy, I realize mammoths and dinosaurs never would have . . . you know what? Shut it!
The Ice Cave, I should add uses one of the coolest lighting effects
I’ve ever seen in a restaurant. It’s
like dining in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude.
And just like Rainforest Café, the food is good. The menus are admittedly similar, but if it
ain’t broke, as they say. My last visit
I had the Boneyard, a large platter of ribs and roasted chicken. The name was fitting by the end of dinner, as
it was nothing but a pile of bones, cleaned right down to the white.
I was the apex predator that night, my friends! My buddy Joe had the Gigantosaurus burger – a
loaded double-cheeseburger so big you should lift it with your legs, not your
back! And we kicked the night off with their
mountainous Colosso nachos! Fair to say
our end of the table was definitely man cave Heaven! Fear not, the wives got salads and split a
pasta and fish entrée (you know, “lady food”) and were very happy with their
meals too!
Listen I’m no yokel who falls for the lights and spectacle (and
robots) of every themed restaurant that pops up. See my earlier post where I skewered another
eatery on Disney property; the Celestial
Sphere of the City Where Movies Used to be Made! And no, I’m not on the Landry’s payroll
(although I’d be happy to be . . . *winks*)!
I tell it like it is here, and Rainforest Café (and T-Rex Café) is a
great experience not to be passed up, whether it’s in Chicago, Kansas City, or
Downtown Disney. It’s an enhanced family
dining experience, wonderful on its own, but even more special to us Disney
fans! Don’t overlook it in favor of some
celebrity chef name or trendy hotspot of the moment. Go have a great meal at Rainforest Cafe, and throw a couple ducats to the crocodile while you're at it!
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