YE ORDER’S UP!
Here’s what’ on the menu at the Ohio Renaissance Festival this year. Prices range from $3-7 for each item. *indicates items that are new this year.
Appetizers
Cheesy Fries
Greek Salad
Stuffed Spuds
Soft Pretzels
Fried Pickles
Entrees
Giant Roasted Turkey Legs
Hamburgers
Bread Bowl Stews including Mac & Cheese*, Chili, Beef Stew, Salad
Half Pound Hot Dogs
Pork Tenderloin
BBQ Pork Sandwiches
Steak-on-a-Stake
Pizza Slices
Brats
Fish & Chips
Buffalo Chicken & Fries
Chicken & Fries
Scotch Eggs
Roasted Corn on the Cob
Buffalo Chicken Dip & Chips*
Desserts
Apple Dumplings
Carrot Cake
Cheesecake
Berry Cobbler
Strawberry Shortcake
Cotton Candy
Chocolate Sundae
Roasted Nuts
Caramel Apples
Funnel Cakes
Kettle Corn
Beverages
Coffees
Teas
Pepsi
Diet Pepsi
Mountain Dew
Sierra Mist
Dr. Pepper
Hot Chocolate
Slushies
Water
Valley Vineyards
Mead
Guinness
Smithwick’s
Harp
Woodchuck Hard Cider
Bud Light
Bass
Stella Artois
Yuengling Lager *
Yuengling Light *
Lime-a-Rita
Wine
How to go
When: Sept. 1-Oct. 21 on Saturdays and Sundays
Where: For GPS, use 10542 East SR 73, Waynesville. The festival is located between I-71 and I-75 on Ohio 73 in Harveysburg.
Cost: $19.99 ages 13 and older, $9.99 ages 5-12. Buy tickets at Kroger or online at renfestival.com and save $3 off adult and $1 off children's tickets.
Special deals: 4-Person Discount Combo Ticket Package for $100 is the best deal for those looking to spend the day. It gets you four admissions, four entrees, four soft drinks, four frozen ice creams, four coupons for 10 percent off the purchase of a souvenir.
New attractions: "This year we'll have the KamiKaze FireFlies, a duo that will amaze audiences with juggling, fire breathing, and the grand finale of making a bologna sandwich with an interesting utensil … feet," said Cheryl Bucholtz, vice president of marketing for the Ohio Renaissance Festival. "We'll also have the Knights of Valour jousting troupe, led by Shane Adams who was the executive producer and host of 'Full Metal Jousting.' The Rogues of Rafferty are a duo performing traditional Irish tunes."
Special dates: Sept. 8-9: Irish Festival weekend
Sept. 15-16: Pirates weekend
Sept. 22-23: Barbarian Invasion Weekend
Sept. 29-30: Romance Weekend
Oct. 6-7: Highland Weekend
Oct. 13-14: Oktoberfest Weekend
Oct. 20-21: Holiday Marketplace Weekend
More info: (513) 897-7000 or renfestival.com
Chris Cavender’s take on The Renaissance Festival menu
Bestsellers
Turkey Legs
Bread Bowls
Steak on a Stake
Most unusual items
Haggis
Meat pies
Scotch eggs (hardboiled egg wrapped in sausage and baked)
Cavender’s personal favorites
Scotch eggs
Haggis
5 things you may not know about The Ohio Renaissance Festival
1. The festival sells nearly 40,000 turkey legs each season.
2. This festival is the fourth largest in the country based on length of season and attendance.
3. 15,000 skewers are used for Steak-on-a-Stake each season.
4. More than 500 tons of turkey legs have been consumed to date.
5. 14 tons of dirt are used in the Mudde Show’s Muditorium each year.
There’s no arguing the Ohio Renaissance Festival is a major undertaking with more than 200,000 guests expected to attend the 16th century-themed attraction over the course of 18 days.
Preparing and serving food for such an event is as daunting as one might imagine. Last year 35,000 turkey legs alone were sold, said Cheryl Bucholtz, vice president of marketing for the Ohio Renaissance Festival.
Chris Cavender has worked as the festival’s food and beverage director for the last 15 years. Cavender, who has been the executive chef at Jay’s Seafood Restaurant in Dayton for the last 2½ years, has the monumental task each year of leading 100 employees working in seven food buildings scattered around the 30-acre fair site as well as supervising the bars, carts and beverage buildings. He estimates each week the festival is open that his crew will serve around 15,000 pounds of food to famished attendees.
“We do more business in that amount of time (18 days) than most restaurants do in a year,” said Cavender, who works his regular job as usual during the week.
The festival began 23 years ago when owner Peter Carroll visited the Maryland Renaissance Festival with a friend and decided to open something similar in Georgia and then Ohio. It has continued to grow larger with each passing year with the food service growing right along side it.
Cavender, who has been with the festival for a majority of its span, has been consistently refining the menu to look for ingredients close to home.
“Probably the one thing many people don’t realize is that we buy locally — and by local I mean in Ohio and surrounding states,” said Cavender. “From a quality standpoint I spend a lot of time tasting and meeting manufacturers — I like to know where the food is coming from and meeting the people who are making what we are serving.”
Main suppliers are Queensgate Food Service in Cincinnati, Bowman Landes in New Carlisle and Glier’s in Covington, Ky., with a few things coming from outside states including Indiana (fresh apple cider), Michigan (meat pies) and Oregon (haggis).
“Having been an executive chef since 1988, I’ve been inside all of the time, so having the opportunity to work outside and doing something completely different from what I normally do is a nice change of pace,” Cavender said. “I’ve taken a lot of time to find the best quality for the price that we are charging for the food. … Our prices are people-friendly — still a little bit below the market, so it makes it a good value.”
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