Sunday Brunch: BoardWalk
Bakery Problems Solved!
by Reuben Gutierrez
28 April 2013
Author's Note: As a former Board Walk Bakery
cast member, there are hundreds of things to be excited about with
the new Bakery expansion. To fairly address all topics for
discussion, this article has been split into two parts, with part
one for you to enjoy
here!
Opening with the resort on July 1, 1996, the Board
Walk Bakery has an ever changing history, which while not
necessarily recorded for all of posterity, carried on through the
memories of its cast and frequent guests. As some of you may
remember, I had done my college program at the Board Walk Bakery,
part of the BoardWalk resort, themed to 1920's seaside escapes of
the New Jersey shore such as Atlantic City and Ocean City. I always
thought Disney's Casting team was clever in my placement as I was on
the program as a pastry student from Atlantic City's culinary
academy. During my program, I had the pleasure to mostly serve, and
at times bake the delicious treats, but I also got the chance to
meet some great people and learn about the dozens of changes the
bakery has seen over the years.

Here I am representing the real Atlantic City
Over time, the pastry chefs in charge change and
move from place to place, each adding their own specific tastes and
niches to the menu. In addition to chef's personal tastes, other
social matters such as the food, diet, and health concerns of the
new millennium caused things like Board Walk's infamous doughnuts to
fade away with time.
The food though is not the only thing to change with the bakery.
This past Friday, April 26th, 2013, the
Board Walk Bakery reopened after an expansive, major, and much
needed renovation.
The original Board Walk Bakery was primarily a kitchen, creating
desserts and baked goods for the restaurants on Disney's BoardWalk
and the guests staying at the BoardWalk Inn. A small corner of the
bakery was devoted to retail space in which bakery items were
displayed and sold for guests with barely enough room for at most
three or four families. Though inefficient and compressed for Disney
standards, this worked well in matching the theme of a bakery
storefront on the shoreline in a time when vacation crowds were not
nearly as large as they are today. As people, times, and attitudes
change, unfortunately theme was sacrificed in order to better
accommodate the Walt Disney World guests. Now, the bakery has been
enhanced by creating a new kitchen in the space previously occupied
by one half of the neighboring Arcade and reimagining the original
bakery to expand the guest accessible retail area threefold.

The original Board Walk Bakery, compared to the new one below

Notice there are now two entrances to the bakery
The new, left side entrance to the bakery takes
guests to now a long winding queue one would expect to find for a
theme park attraction. What was once the entire bakery kitchen is
now the queue and a brand new, enormous retail display case. The new
queue and just merely having space for one helps a lot with
controlling crowds as the bakery often had a line out the door,
sometimes blocking the walkway. The out-the-door line was often
deceptive since there wasn't much room inside to begin with, so now
less guests will be turned off by the apparent crowd. The new
display case fixes several things as well. With the longer counter,
more cast members can assist guests at one time and more food
options are made available. We'll get into the new food next week,
but for now, I'd like to conclude with a moment to appreciate the
efficiency the new entrance, queue, and counter create.


The second entrance on the right is the original
entrance to the bakery. This serves as an exit from the long queue
and registers and also as (a blatantly marked) an entrance to the
soda fountain for the resort refillable mug. While it used to be a
main entrance, it's reassignment as an exit and entrance for the new
soda fountain helps with the flow of guest traffic going in and out
of the bakery.


The new 'Bakery Fountain' fixes a lot of problems
the bakery and the entire resort had with the refillable
mugs. The Board Walk resort was conclusively the worst of the Disney
Deluxe resort hotels in providing a functional Quick Service
restaurant location (there essentially wasn't one) and maximizing
the guest's use of the refillable resort mug. While the majority of
the resorts featured a walk-up soda fountain guests could use at
their leisure (e.g. the Contempo Caf' has a large seating area with
multiple soda fountains), the Board Walk never had such a feature.
Guests could only refill their mugs themselves from the self-serve
coffee dispenser at Board Walk Joe's coffee stand across the way.
Otherwise, they received 'refill' by receiving a standard Disney
paper soda cup of their choice of beverage from a variety of
locations (such as the bakery) in the resort, thereby completely
negating the purpose and convenience of a refillable mug. I usually
directed guests across Crescent Lake to use the self-serve soda
fountain at the Beach Club's Marketplace. On top of that, the bakery
had a limited hot and cold beverage selection and no non-bottled
iced or sweet iced tea (which can be argued was thematic, as iced
tea is not quite as popular up North as it is down South). We
eventually did get freshly brewed iced tea a few months after I
started working there. Finally, with the bakery expansion, the
beautiful, new, inspiring, and guest self-serve soda and beverage
fountain includes all these things and more.

More choices and multiple fountains will surely please guests with
more selection and efficiency

Four Flavors of Iced Tea! As well as Hot Chocolate and Coffee
While the expansion has brought in many fixes to the
bakery, there are also a few losses. As with any small, quaint,
endearing establishment, the very purpose of an expansion causes all
those qualities to disappear. For one thing, one of the best parts
of the old BoardWalk Bakery was its intimate setting of the bakery
kitchen in such proximity to the guest. When I worked as pastry
cook, it was fantastic to be close to the guests in such a way that
they could see, hear, smell, and interact with everything around me.
As a cast member, it was great to chat with the pastry cooks and be
able to directly link them to the guests and the food we were
serving. The new bakery kitchen is in a completely separate space.
While still connected to the new retail space, it is out of view
when inside. Luckily, large windows allow guests strolling on the
Board Walk to peer in and see the bakers at work, though it is quite
a difference between the excitement of interacting with the bakers
in the old bakery and the walk-by bakers exhibit.

Still a window allows for other methods of
communication besides speech, as I had done this past Friday to see
some old friends and co-workers at my former Disney location. While
a lot was lost by separating the kitchen and the retail space, a lot
was gained by just the mere expansion. Cast Members strive to
achieve happiness for the guests and while the intimacy of the
original bakery was lost, I foresee more guest happiness and
satisfaction from an efficient bakery offering a wide selection of
food and beverage in an environment expected for a fantastic and
beautiful resort.
