Monday Mug Shot

Eat-N-Park

This is a nice, big hot cocoa, turmeric tea or hot cider mug! Just last night I had Ron and Franks Hot Apple Cider from it. Mmmm… No sugar, no caffeine, no chilly!

This is not an advertisement for Eat-N-Park. It is an unsolicited testimonial! Hehehe.

The coolest thing about this much is the colors. It’s a Pittsburgh company and it’s in Pittsburgh Steelers colors! I bought it on a Sunday when there were lots of Steelers jerseys on patrons and staff! We’re talking great corporate citizenship. At other times of the year it could be a Penguins or Pirates mug as well! For today’s memory, it would be Pirates colors.

In the summer of 2008, I got to introduce Tori to my favorite Pennsylvania restaurant. We’d taken the girls on trips separately. This had a lot to do with that the train festival Rina wanted to with us to was absolutely not Tori’s cup of tea! She’s okay with sitting around while we chase a couple trains, but for the whole weekend? No way! So, we did a little investigating and she chose to go to Hershey.

Now, the greatest challenge with Hershey in the summer is NOT the amusement park, which we didn’t go to. That’s a trip we really should make with both of the girls. We did go to the Hershey museum and Hershey’s Chocolate World. We made a day of it there, going on the chocolate ride that tells you how kisses are made, with free chocolate at the end, and seeing some of the exhibits. David ducked out for a couple of trains while Tori and I were at the 3-D chocolate theater and went to a chocolate tasting. The freebie after the tasting was one of the big 4-ounce bars of Hershey’s Milk Chocolate. I was glad it was that because Tori didn’t care for any of the darks we tasted.

While in Hershey we ate a dinner and a breakfast at Eat-N-Park. Breakfast was where Tori really appreciated it! She and I both had the Smiley pancakes. Pancakes with a smile and bacon is a breakfast just made for her, me too!

They are a family restaurant, but so much more. There is the standard fare that attracts the kids, not just Smiley cookies, but Smiley fries and Smiley pancakes. But there are also fantastic dishes for the adults too, great NOT fired fish dishes, lean and flavorful chicken dishes, out of this world soups and a great salad bar. They also have espresso-based drinks that rival Starbucks. In fact, I think Eat-N-Park has the edge on Starbucks Pumpkin Spice lattes! We’ve never had bad food or bad service and we’ve eaten at enough of them that you’d think by now…knock on wood.

Yummy food, yummy memories and I’m waiting for the Toledo location to open! Please??