Beyond corn dogs and funnel cakes: Inside the food revolution at the Boardwalk

One of the most underrated culinary destinations in Santa Cruz is hidden in plain sight at the county’s largest attraction: the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The iconic seaside amusement park, with its swirling roller coasters, historic domed facade and throngs of summer revelers, isn’t known for creative dining – unless you count corn dogs, dipped soft-serve ice cream and funnel cakes. But within the past year, an array of diverse, modern items such as Nashville hot chicken sandwiches, quesabirria tacos and tikka masala has joined the hot dogs, turkey legs and kettle corn. 

Perhaps this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Other entertainment destinations, like Las Vegas, the Disneyland theme parks and sports arenas tapped into the idea that dining could be part of the draw years, if not decades, ago, and have cultivated food cultures that draw visitors from afar alongside the other, more well-known attractions. Dining is no longer a pit stop to refuel between rides or innings; it’s an opportunity to immerse guests into the experience, and has created new revenue streams across the industry.

The food and drink concessions at the Boardwalk are largely run by two longstanding entities: The Santa Cruz Seaside Company, which formed in 1915 and owns the Boardwalk, operates around a dozen dining locations. Whiting’s Foods, a family-owned company that has been a concessionaire at the Boardwalk for more than 70 years, operates 25 dining spots and is a tenant of the Seaside Company. Marini’s at the Beach is the third food and drink concessionaire, offering candy at one location, and several others offer merchandise. (A lease of a fourth concessionaire, Twisselman’s Enterprise, which operated Hot Dog on a Stick, was terminated in 2023 after 90 years, and the Seaside Company took over operations.)

Over the past few years, Whiting’s Foods and the Seaside Company have worked to make food part of the fun by blending new diverse dining options alongside the Tater Twists and salt-water taffy. At the same time, they’ve made a conscious shift away from premade and frozen ingredients and toward fresh and homemade foods. Many new items are made or cooked to order in front of guests. Swirling crepes, grilling brisket over live coals and twisting pretzels both showcase the freshness of the product and give diners a show. 

Like at more international destinations, consumer tastes are driving the shift in Santa Cruz. For the past 20 years, cooking shows, chefs and restaurants have become part of America’s entertainment culture, and now people expect more out of their dining options, said Ken Whiting, co-owner of Whiting’s Foods. “People’s expectations are higher than hot dogs and hamburgers,” he said. “They’re more educated about food, trends and different styles of cooking.” 

Seaside Company Vice President Omid Aminifard pointed out that the Boardwalk is an open-gate park and people are allowed to bring in their own food and beverages, so the concessions need to be eye-catching and affordable enough to tempt visitors. “We hope that when they try our food they won’t want to bring their own,” he said. 

The cotton candy and fried Oreo cookies aren’t going anywhere, but visitors can experience a new era of Boardwalk cuisine with unexpected savory and sweet treats that range from glazed tofu rice bowls to Cajun seafood boils. 

A small wave of fresh takes on Boardwalk concessions launched this spring. Flavors of India, the Boardwalk’s first Indian food kiosk from Whiting’s Foods, opened in May and serves colorful and customizable tikka masala, butter chicken and curry. Hang Ten’ders is a Seaside Company-owned kiosk focused on – you guessed it – chicken tenders prepared via pressure fryers that cook each hand-battered breast from the inside out to ensure a juicy interior. Each piece can – and, in the opinion of this writer, should – be dipped, Nashville-style, into a scorching spice-infused oil. 

In June, inside the Casino Arcade, Whiting’s Foods updated an existing ice cream stand into Cool Zone, where guests can dream up their perfect ice cream, from the custardy base to flavors and candy mix-ins, and watch as it’s frozen before their eyes in a dramatic cloud of nitrogen. On the other side of the hall of blinging video games, the Seaside Company added a Dungeness crab sandwich to the menu of Seaside Fish & Chowder, a fish bowl-esque seafood joint facing the beach. The deceptively simple sandwich – just crab meat seasoned with Old Bay, lemon zest and parsley, and two slices of tomato on griddled garlic butter-brushed bread – was meticulously workshopped over months, said food and beverage director Everard Simonpillai. 

The move toward more diverse food options has been building for years. In 2018, both the Seaside Company and Whiting’s Foods made their first big lurch into modernizing the food options. That year, Whiting’s Foods hired a chef and began a focused effort to move away from a “freezer to fryer” pipeline and precooked meats. They began grilling carne asada and chicken to order, smoked many of their meats to improve flavor, and added vertical broilers, stacked with glistening al pastor. Rather than reheating food in the back, they brought food preparation to the front. “Guests can see it and smell it. People eat with their eyes,” said Jeff Whiting, vice president and general manager of Whiting’s Foods. 

Also in 2018, the Seaside Company opened the Cruzin’ Crêpes kiosk with fresh crepes folded around sweet and savory fillings, açai bowls topped with granola and fresh fruit and boba teas. Around the same time, the Cajun Shrimp Boil was added to the menu at Beachside BBQ. Tin-foil packages filled with prawns, boiled potatoes, corn on the cob, peppers and andouille sausage are cooked to order on a smoking grill in front of the Fireball roller coaster. Last summer, the company launched a slow-cooked tri-tip sandwich at the same kiosk, stuffed with fork-tender smoked meat, coleslaw and tangy barbecue sauce. 

After the quesabirria tacos made a splash at the annual Boardwalk Fiesta en la Playa last year, Whiting’s Foods decided to offer them permanently at Beach Tacos & Nachos next to the bumper cars. Mexican food has become a top seller, said Jeff Whiting. “They see the vertical broiler, and they see us cutting the pastor off and going right into a taco,” he said. 

Collectively, this might seem like a seismic shift, but the concessionaires are constantly retooling their menus, said Ken Whiting; what guests might perceive as abrupt deviations from the norm is the result of a continuum of changes to match consumer desires. At different points in the Boardwalk’s history, quintessential items like waffle cones and churros were a novelty. Deep-fried Twinkies were once a hit, but their star has dimmed substantially over the past few years. Once unknown compared to major brands like Budweiser, craft beer from Santa Cruz County breweries has been available throughout the park for a decade. 

A report published last year and presented to the 2024 International Association of Amusement Parks Expo predicted that revenue from food and beverage sales will nearly double over the next 10 years. At regional parks like the Boardwalk, sales increased 17.6% between 2021 and 2023, despite fluctuating attendance numbers. The study showed that millennials and Generation Alpha are willing to seek out and pay for food experiences. 

“There was a time when healthy didn’t work,” said Margie Whiting Sisk, co-owner of Whiting’s Foods and Ken Whiting’s sister, who remembers failing to get frozen yogurt to take off. “Everyone wanted ice cream dipped in chocolate.” But these days, the average amusement park visitor prioritizes innovation, variety and quality.

Flavors of India exemplifies this transition. Once the deep-fried Twinkies were removed – and the still-popular deep-fried Oreos were moved next door to Tiki Hut Treats – Whiting’s Foods considered what could fill the space. “We dove into our demographics, and asked, what ethnic group isn’t being represented? Indian food was one that we thought could be successful,” said Ken Whiting. “It has vegan and vegetarian options, and there’s not a lot of those in the park. Those who have any kind of dietary restrictions can actually get something gluten-free besides an Icee.” 

Both the Seaside Company and Whiting’s Foods have invested in improving cooking methods and ingredients, even on products that are widely available – and therefore, often assumed to be – frozen, like pretzels and chicken tenders. Earlier this year, the Seaside Company leveled up the soft pretzels at Boardwalk Pretzel Factory to a hand-rolled, chewy and fragrant treat with a partnership with Ben’s Pretzels, a national franchise. Guests can view skilled concessionaires rolling and twisting every pretzel to order through a window, then dipping each one in a baking soda mixture for classic golden crust.

The fried chicken at Hang Ten’ders is another example. “There are hundreds of frozen chicken tenders on the market, but we took the opportunity to make our offering better” by breading each piece by hand in a homemade mix of flour and seasonings, and frying it in top-of-the-line pressure cooker fryers that use less oil, said Seaside food and beverage director Simonpillai. At this location, as with many throughout the park, the sauces, meat and other ingredients are prepped daily on site. Even the lemonade is simply made from juice squeezed daily, sugar and water; the strawberry lemonade is made with Driscoll’s berries.

Despite the new options, many visitors will always reach for a nostalgic treat. “The longest line on the Boardwalk is the funnel cake,” said Margie Whiting Sisk. “We could never get rid of those, or the dipped ice cream cones. They’re not just here to eat because they’re hungry; it’s part of the entertainment.”

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.