Knott's Taste of Knott's 2020
Knott’s Berry Farm, Buena Park, CA
Last weekend, Knott’s kicked off the sequel of its Taste of Calico event in the form of an expanded food festival appropriately called the Taste of Knott’s. Growing beyond Ghost Town into the Boardwalk and Fiesta Village (Camp Snoopy remains off limits), this event maintains the same parameters and premise as last month’s offering—no rides or scheduled shows open, only restaurant and pop-up food stand locations—but offers greater capacity and space to partake.
All guests to the Taste of Knott’s must go through the same safety and screening protocols as were in place for the Taste of Calico, so check out the first part of our report from last month for more information. Guests at the Taste of Knott’s event must wear face coverings at all time, except for when eating and drinking. They are not allowed to be walking around while eating or drinking, so no using that as an excuse to skirt the mask rules. Guests should also maintain social distance from others outside of their parties, including while in line.
That said, for those who feel comfortable enough to attend (and it’s perfectly understandable to not feel comfortable attending; staying at home is always going to be safer than going out as long as this pandemic continues), there’s a nice comfort and small return to normalcy to be able to wander the park again—even if there aren’t any rides open. The ambiance of this classic theme park maintains a nostalgia and familiarity that can be soothing and therapeutic in these turbulent times. Plus, since the Boysenberry Festival never ended up happening earlier this year due to the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, this event feels like a make-up for that missed opportunity.
Guests who enter must purchase a Tasting Card for admission beforehand, online. Building off the success of the Taste of Calico, the price has gone up $5 to $30 for a regular adult tasting card (Season Passholders do receive a discount), which provides five tastings at any one of 27 food locations around the park. Here’s a look at the venues open and their menu items.
There are also information displays with maps all around the park showing the corresponding locations of each place.
One smart move adopted after the initial Taste of Calico opening weekend was the interspersing of food items so that certain, more popular items can be found at more than one stand. This way, guests aren’t limited to only one location that might build up lines. For example:
The Boysenberry Chicken Tender on a Waffle with Fire Honey can be found at both Spurs in Ghost Town and Coasters Diner in the Boardwalk.
The loaded Tater Tots items (with pulled pork and “faux pork” jackfruit) are located at both the Calico Fry Co. and Sutter’s Grill.
Deep Fried Boysenberry Pie Bites and Funnel Cake Fries Topped with Strawberry Dipping Sauce are both featured at Sutter’s Funnel Cake, Ghost Town Grub, and Log Ride Funnel Cake.
The Louisiana Style Mild Pork and Beef Sausage can be found at both Fireman’s BBQ and the Charleston Circle Booth.
The Hatch and the Homestyle Mac and Cheese are both found in the Wilderness Dance Hall Patio and Boardwalk Pier Booth.
Watermelon Lemonade, Boysenberry Beer, Boysenberry Sangria, Boysenberry Wine, Boysenberry Margarita, and Boysenberry Smoothie are located in multiple locations in Ghost Town, Boardwalk, and Fiesta Vilage.
Though it may have been opening day luck of the draw and impact from the warm weather, the resulting lines on my visit last Friday consistently looked shorter than on opening day of the Taste of Calico. While some locations did have a bit of wait, they were 15-20 minutes at most, as opposed to 45-60 minutes from before, and many had very short waits. Kudos to Knott’s for addressing the biggest criticism of their earlier food event and mitigating it.
Ghost Town
Ghost Town is unchanged from the atmosphere offered with the Taste of Calico event. There are small boutique and souvenir stands located in several areas, similar to what guests see at the Boysenberry Festival and Knott’s Merry Farm’s Christmas Craft Fair. Several stores are also open for guests who want to purchase official park souvenirs, though these will require people to go indoors. There are benches scattered everywhere, of course—and even more than before, with additional capacity extended into the area under Silver Bullet and around the former Reflection Lake.
Consequently, though some parts of Ghost Town can get a little lively—especially around Calico Park and the heart of the land around Town Hall and the Bird Cage Theatre, there are also stretches of Ghost Town very fit for social distancing because of the relative lack of guests passing through or congregating in these areas. The sparser portions of Ghost Town include the front nook over by Wagon Wheel Pizza and the loading station of Ghostrider, the area around what’s called Fog Alley during Haunt (over by Ghost Town Grill), and the Silver Bullet pathways that make up Forsaken Lake during Scary Farm.
Ghost Town has by far the largest selection of food, with 16 locations. I ended up getting the Shrimp Po Boy (nothing to write home about); the Tater Tots Topped with BBQ Pulled Pork, Chipotle Ranch, and Shredded Cheddar Cheese (really delicious, one of my favorites); Boysenberry Meatballs (always great, though mine seemed to have been sitting under heat lamps for a while); French Toast Churro Sticks with Buttercream Caramel Dipping Sauce (really delicious, really sweet, very diabetic, much better to share); and the Boysenberry Smoothie (utterly fantastic and a can’t-miss, had the consistency of almost a Slurpee).
I also noticed that Sutter’s Funnel Cake also had one of the longer lines in the park, even close to park closing, as guests clamored for the Funnel Cake Fries and also the Deep Fried Boysenberry Pie Bites. I wish I could have tried them, but I was pretty sugared out and full by that point. The Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Sliders also seemed pretty intriguing, though I didn’t make it over to see how popular they were.
Ghost Town offers the most entertainment, though none of it is scheduled. Over at the Calico Stage, rather than have a DJ spinning music like during the Taste of Calico, guests can instead enjoy a movie of Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies in a taped performance filmed at Knott’s a couple of weeks ago. The concert video plays on a loop, but for fans of the performers, it’s a nice way to enjoy their music and showmanship without risking the band through repeated performances and exposures.
In Calico Park, guests can watch a magician show featuring Ace. He does a variety of illusions ranging from simple, elementary card tricks to a pretty impressive prestidigitation finale. With corny enthusiasm, a bit of self deprecation, and a lot of energy, this is a great little bit of entertainment to catch.
Finally, similar to the Taste of Calico, a few familiar faces from Ghost Town Alive! will pop up on the balconies around Calico from time to time. Deputy Mayor Howell, Clay Mayfield, and Peg Leg Cinch interact with passers-by and each other (when paired up) to provide some fun banter and innocent improv.
Fiesta Village
Over at Fiesta Village, the atmosphere is decidedly more colorful and festive. There are several vendor stands set up over by La Revolución, and the store in the arcade between the fountain and the stagecoach crossing is also open, offering more mercantile business.
A more compact area with only four food stand locations, the lines are a little consistently longer here, though Knott’s has also added additional 6ft spacing stripes to expand the marked capacity of the queues. End of the line sign holders (reminiscent of Haunt in a way) also man some of the more popular spots to help space people and delineate where to start waiting.
Looking for a place to escape the [relative] crowds? Head over to Montezooma’s Revenge to the tables closer to Camp Snoopy, or to the tables in front of the entrance to Jaguar. Those seemed to be quieter than the other seating areas scattered throughout Fiesta Village.
I was only able to try the Carnitas Fries with Pico de Gallo and Sour Cream. This item was made fresh when I ordered, and that helped it rank as one of my favorite dishes despite its relative simplicity. The carnitas meat was tender and flavorful but not intensely so, and the fries were wonderfully crispy. It’s a shame I wasn’t able to food hack it with the Boysenberry salsa also offered (with Boysenberry chips) at La Papa Loca. Oh well.
One item that I kept missing, however, was the Esquites. Basically elote without the cob, this item was out of stock multiple times when I stopped by Fiesta Dogs. Either it was immensely popular, or there was an inventory error, but I wish I had been able to sample it.
The live DJ has moved to the Fiesta Village Stage, providing diners with some ambient music as they munch on their items. The tables are socially distanced, and the dance floor doesn’t really provide a lot of open space (so as to discourage actual congregation). But the tunes still provide a nice bit of audio filler to promote a more energetic ambiance.
The Boardwalk
Of the three lands, the Boardwalk was the only place where I could not find any particular “dead zone.” Not that it was ever crowded, either, but during my pass through, I saw many tables taken up by guests enjoying food from one of its seven stands.
Tables are spread out everywhere, but probably the most scenic location occurs by the Surfside Gliders and Scrambler. The waterfront setting is quite charming, especially around sunset. In the main midway adjacent to HangTime, signs have also been placed on the planters prohibiting people from sitting on and congregating at these locations.
Here, I indulged in the Slow Smoked Brisket Sandwich (better than it looked and actually kind of flavorful, though the brisket wasn’t super tender either); the Hatch Chili Mac and Cheese (disappointing… not spicy or even particularly flavorful); and some Boynseberry beer (keep in mind that the included serving for the Tasting Card is basically a half cup). Much of the food here can also be found in Ghost Town, but the Boardwalk offers an often less-crowded alternative to the typically greater lines of Ghost Town.
I didn’t see any overt entertainment at the Boardwalk, but I did encounter Ronnie and Connie Roonie, a charming, middle Americana couple seemingly stuck in the 80s but hilariously observant and quite fun in their banter. Operators of KnottsNuts.com (yes, they actually created a blog to support the actor backstories), they call out to passers-by similar to the Ghost Town Alive! characters in Ghost Town, only Connie and Ronnie lounge on their beach chairs on a stage over by Wipeout and the Sky Cabin. Still, they were a riot, though, even engaging in delightfully silly activities like taking a picture of me taking a picture of them.
Oh, and from the southern end of the Boardwalk, guests can spot the facade of the upcoming, reimagined Knott’s Bear-y Tales attraction, which will replace Voyage to the Iron Reef. The walkway is blocked off at this point, and the ride transformation is all happening indoors anyway, but one of these days, when theme parks return (in Southern California), guests will be able to experience this modern twist to a beloved classic attraction!
You might be wondering how crowds and operations went on my visit last Friday. Well, from what I saw, the lines were greatly reduced pretty much throughout the park, compared to the Taste of Calico. The combination of lengthening the marked areas and doubling up on locations of many food items—plus the greater capacity and space allotted—meant that there was just more room and less congestion, by and large.
On the flip side, guest behavior and compliance with the safety regulations wasn’t quite as pristine as my previous visit to opening day of the Taste of Calico. I actually did see a few people not wearing their masks—two because they were drinking while walking, another who simply eschewed her mask while waiting in line, and a couple others who seemed to realize that they needed to put on their mask as I passed by, even though they had been on the move already. In addition, I saw probably half a dozen people not wearing their masks properly (that is, with nostrils exposed), compared to zero last month. Unfortunately, I did not any employees request proper mask wearing—partly because there were often no employees nearby, but sometimes because they either missed or ignored such guests even though they were visible.
With more people attending this event and thus a higher likelihood of encountering non-perfect behavior, plus the luck of the draw nature of just random observation, it’s understandable that the Taste of Knott’s might be slightly less controlled than the Taste of Calico. If that keeps certain people away out of safety concerns, that’s understandable. Overall, though, the vast majority of people I saw were definitely practicing all the Coronavirus safety measures in good order.
The Taste of Knott’s event runs Fridays through Sundays, now through Sunday, September 13th. The hours run 12-9pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 12-8pm on Sundays. Interestingly, the weekend following the Taste of Knott’s current scheduled finale would fall upon the traditional opening weekend for Knott’s Scary Farm. Now, the Halloween Haunt is definitely NOT happening this year, but speculation is rampant that a spooky version of these recent outdoor food festivals may emerge in the fall, allowing guests and fans to get just a “taste of Haunt,” including a return of the Into the Fog art exhibit.
We’ll see if that becomes official or is just baseless rumor, though. In the meantime, if you feel comfortable enough and interested enough to attend the Taste of Knott’s, book your online ticket reservations in advance, keep your mask on when you’re in the park (including over the nose) unless you’re eating or drinking, don’t be one of those jerks who tries to skirt the rules by eating or drinking while walking, and give everyone around you plenty of space. We’re all in this together, and the more we work together, the sooner we can drive down the pandemic and bring back a little bit more of normality!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
