Busch Gardens - Williamsburg, VA

Mr. Foodie and I are hitting the Hampton Roads Virginia area and we plan on visiting Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA.

Have you ever visited? From my understanding, it is an amusement park set up by various European countries... complete with "authentic" cuisine.

We're curious if there were any recommendations from fellow LTH'ers on various eats we should try during our visit there.

Thanks in advance!

Beer. Do the beer brewery tour. Watch the film "The thunder of hoofbeats, the rattle of chains" (cute horses, better when drunk).

foodie1 wrote:We're curious if there were any recommendations from fellow LTH'ers on various eats we should try during our visit there.

When I lived in DC, I'd head down to Busch Gardens about twice a year. I have no memory of anything special about the food (not bad, just not memorable).

Busch Gardens is all about great roller coasters and pretty good beer--a dangerous combination.

Best,
Michael

eatchicago wrote:Busch Gardens is all about great roller coasters and pretty good beer--a dangerous combination.

Just curious... what kind of beer do they feature?

Antonius

Antonius wrote:Just curious... what kind of beer do they feature?

Well, they feature pretty much everything that falls under the Anheuser-Busch banner, which means a lot of junk. Although, that does not mean that there is not good beer to be had there. I believe there is a hefeweizen featured in Das Festhaus, and I do like some of the Michelob varieties that are available. (Most of my information here is about 10 years old).

Best,
Michael

eatchicago wrote:

Antonius wrote:Just curious... what kind of beer do they feature?

Well, they feature pretty much everything that falls under the Anheuser-Busch banner, which means a lot of junk. Although, that does not mean that there is not good beer to be had there. I believe there is a hefeweizen featured in Das Festhaus, and I do like some of the Michelob varieties that are available.

All things being relative, I'm going to wait till there's "Interbrew* Gardens"...



A

* I know the name has been changed since the merger with the Brazilian company but I can't remember the new name and prefer it that way. Prost/Skol!

Talk about out of date, my one and only visit to Busch Gardens/Williamsburg was almost exactly 21 years ago as a freshman at William & Mary. That said, I don't think you should expect much from the food at the park, but there ARE some great options in and around Williamsburg, and the most important of these is the huge oversupply of amazingly good pancake houses. I recommend you fuel up at one of these operations before you go to Busch Gardens, and then you won't have to worry about what you'll eat at the park, because you won't be hungry again for at least 36 hours. The King (or is it Queen) of them all is Mama Steve's House of Pancakes, and that would be the "if you're only doing one" choice for me. Get the Virginia ham, get the grits, get eggs up and runny. Let somebody else order pancakes and take bites off their plate (Mama' Steve's pancakes are very good, but you can get as good in restaurants here; the ham is a different story) . If you do this, you will be happy.

If, after your visit to the amusement park (at which you should avoid any and all beers), you then head back to the Green Leafe for real beer until 2:00 a.m. or so, you will be even happier (until you have to get up the next morning, of course).

JimInLoganSquare wrote:If, after your visit to the amusement park (at which you should avoid any and all beers), you then head back to the Green Leafe for real beer until 2:00 a.m. or so, you will be even happier (until you have to get up the next morning, of course).

Heh, the most exotic thing I remember from the Greafe was Moosehead

leek wrote:

JimInLoganSquare wrote:If, after your visit to the amusement park (at which you should avoid any and all beers), you then head back to the Green Leafe for real beer until 2:00 a.m. or so, you will be even happier (until you have to get up the next morning, of course).

Heh, the most exotic thing I remember from the Greafe was Moosehead

The move toward beer diversity began in 1994, according to the website I linked above. When were you in Williamsburg last? (Mrs. JiLS and I vacationed thereabouts in September 2005, and I was pleasantly surprised by the enormous beer selection at the Green Leafe. Last time before that was 1987; and yes, Moosehead would've been at the outer edge of the Green Leafe's beer envelope at that time).

And don't forget, Williamsburg is a short walk from the ocean. There is a lot of seafood available. So Southern ham and grits for breakfast and piles of crab for dinner.

Greats recs from you all - Thank you!

I'm looking forward to that breakfast JiLS posted about... Virginia ham, grits & runny eggs.

For dinner, Cynthia's suggestion of a crab dinner sounds perfect too!

Thank you again for your recs!

foodie1,

I have no idea what's there now and how good the food is but many, many years ago, when I was a relatively young person, I visited Colonial Williamsburg... well, first as a kid and later as a young adult... anyway, I remember some of the pub/tavern/restaurant spots in reconstructed Williamsburg as being pretty nice... I don't know that the food is especially special but the atmosphere of the colonial setting is nice... But if I remember correctly, they try to offer some dishes as made back in colonial times...

Virginia is an amazingly beautiful state and the Tidewater area, though a bit hot and steamy in summer, is quite swell. If you're at all a history buff, you might want to check out the Jamestown site. The site itself is, of course, most interesting but the surrounding landscapes -- at least when i saw them many moons ago -- were also beautiful.

Bon voyage!

Antonius

Antonius wrote:I don't know that the food is especially special but the atmosphere of the colonial setting is nice... But if I remember correctly, they try to offer some dishes as made back in colonial times...

That's a fair assessment, at least for Chownings, the only one of the "official" Williamsburg dining spots I have visited. The atmosphere is of course what it's all about, although the food is by no means poor quality, and they do offer period-authentic dishes (served as a prix fixe meal). The prices are pretty high for what you get; nevertheless, at least at Chownings, the meal includes live music and the authenticity goes right down to the lighting (no electricity in the dining room). As the room darkens, and in the quiet surroundings (no motorized traffic on that stretch of Duke of Gloucester Street), it can be somewhat romantic, as well as (at least seemingly) historically accurate. And, of course, a lot of fun.

Indeed.....it's the old colonial-style places within the Colonial Williamsburg park that are the most interesting.....just be careful if it's a hot night....I'm pretty sure the authenticity extends to providing no air-conditioning (I could be wrong on this though)...

I agree the food is fine (not spectacular)...but it's a very nice memorable experience...all pretty much have the same food from the period (wife says she had the best bread pudding ever)

And of course, nothing like drinking an
Anhauser Busch product from a goblet (much like George Washington did in his day.... I believe he prefered Mick Ultra)

Yesterday, we hit Mama Steve's Pancake House in Williamsburg and sadly it wasn't as I hoped. Not sure if it was an off day. We both had the famous breakfast platter. Mr Foodie had a delmonico steak while I tried the Smithfield ham, and both of had silver dollar pancakes, scrambled eggs and a side of grits.

It was okay, although the ham was extremely salty - I'm not sure if that was the ideal way it should be. Nonetheless, it was breakfast, yet a little pricey for a $30 tab that also included coffee and orange juice.

For dinner yesterday, we feasted at Captain George's Seafood Buffet.. a small chain here in Hampton Roads area. This buffet was massive and unimpressive. The food wasn't anything to rave about, but at least we did get a variety of seafood - blue crab, crab legs, oysters, scallops, mussels, clams, etc.

Williamsburg was a decent experience but we are currently missing the good eats of Chicago. We have plans to visit Doumar's in Norfolk tomorrow, but due to the heavy flooding, we're staying indoors today and working up an appetite.

Don't get yourself too pumped up about Doumar's. The only memorable items on their menu are the ice cream cone (hand made on premises, FYI...they claim along with several others to have invented the ice cream cone) and the limeaid. I hate to say it, but as a six year old, it was pretty fun and exciting to go to Doumars, but they've seen better days. Even their once touted minced barbecue sandwich is completely forgettable.

My two nostalgic musts in Norfolk are:
1) The French Bakery (Granby St. near the Granby Street Bridge), where the son of the Lebanese founder makes a mean warm pastrami submarine in several sizes on their own freshly baked French bread. (secret spices!)

and
2) Tony Jr's Hot Dogs (on Lafayette Blvd., about four blocks north of Tidewater Drive...not to be confused with Tony's Hot Dogs directly across the street). Tony Jr. still uses the same proprietary frank, custom made by Hormel, that his father rest his soul, used for many years, right across the street. DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES EAT AT WHAT IS NOW CALLED "TONY'S HOT DOGS", in the building directly across the street on the west side of Lafayette Blvd. You want to eat from Tony Jr.'s trailer, which is surrounded by the barbed wire fence, and open only from 11am to 4pm. Tony Jr. serves up the exact same Coney dog that his father served across the street for decades. Tony's was at that time an institution where doctors and bankers sat on stools, shoulder to shoulder with painters and longshoremen, and all gladly endured Tony's sharp tongue and harassment, because they were enjoying the best hot dog in town.

I spent a week in Norfolk this past July and ate twenty five of Tony Jr.'s hot dogs. Tell Tony that Chef Ron from The Standard Club in Chicago sent you.



PS: Smithfield ham is supposed to be really salty.

We used to like Nick's for fish (I want to say it's in Newport News?), and the Trellis in Williamsburg for fine dining. There used to be a really good ice cream place on the way from Williamsburg (colonial parts) out to BG, kind of on the side of the road - Rocky's maybe? They made their own, from whatever fruit was in season, as well as chocolate, etc.

Leek,

I believe you are referring to the legendary "Nick's Seafood Pavillion", in Yorktown on the river, right next to the York River Bridge.

Wonderful place! I loved their crabmeat au gratin. They had a truly spectacular Greek salad which I believe might have been mixed and dished up tableside. They closed during one of the big hurricanes back in the eighties or nineties and never reopened. I read somewhere that a new similarly named place under completely different ownership is now open in a revitalized York River waterfront development.

And yes, The Trellis is a fine restaurant (doing eight hundred to a thousand covers per day). Marcel Desaulnier, the owner, is a fine pastry chef. (Not a frog, by the way, but a New Englander of French-Canadian heritage who actually served as a US Marine infantryman in Viet Nam) Marcel also makes a fine Chesapeake Bay Clam Chowder. (fresh clams,clear clam broth, celery, onions, potato, no cream or tomato!)

foodie1 wrote:Yesterday, we hit Mama Steve's Pancake House in Williamsburg and sadly it wasn't as I hoped. Not sure if it was an off day. We both had the famous breakfast platter. Mr Foodie had a delmonico steak while I tried the Smithfield ham, and both of had silver dollar pancakes, scrambled eggs and a side of grits.

It was okay, although the ham was extremely salty - I'm not sure if that was the ideal way it should be. Nonetheless, it was breakfast, yet a little pricey for a $30 tab that also included coffee and orange juice.

Like most things in Williamsburg (at least those things placed out where tourists will find them), Mama Steve's is rather expensive. (On the other hand, have you priced a breakfast for two at Orange or Walker Brothers lately?) If you can get past the price, it's a pretty good spot, in my experience. They have one of the most professional staffs I've ever encountered in a breakfast joint, and the consistency of quality is pretty impressive. Regarding the specifics of your meal, as Evil Ronnie points out above, criticizing Smithfield ham for being salty is a bit unfair; that's just the nature of the ham. It's smoked, not sugar cured. And that funky, funky flavor sets my taste buds humming. But it's definitely not anything like a sugar cured ham, and is perhaps an acquired taste. I will also note that the HUGE slab of the stuff served up at Mama Steve's is probably not the best choice if you are not already familiar with the style.