Tip Tuesday: ESPN Club

Welcome to another Tip Tuesday!

This week, I wanted to highlight an often overlooked dining option at Walt Disney World that may be the closest thing to nirvana for sports fans - the ESPN Club!

Located on the far eastern side of the boardwalk (closest to Epcot) is the ESPN Club.  This is a restaurant and bar that serves your typical sports bar fare from nachos to buffalo wings to hot dogs and hamburgers.  There are three sections - the SportsCentral main dining area, the Sidelines Bar and the Yard, which is a gift shop and arcade.

What makes this very different from your hometown sports bar is this little thing called ESPN.  That's right - the restaurant is a show.  Often the cast members will have camera going inside and will interview guests about sports topics.  The live events take place at different times, so you never know when you might find yourself on camera.  Sometimes sports celebrities will stop by, so keep your camera handy.

Beyond the live events, the ESPN Club is a fantastic place to catch the game, and watch another game, and another game and yet another game.  In all the ESPN Club has more than 100 monitors displaying more than 30 different channels.  In the center of the SportsCentral room is a 108-square-foot screen!  Talk about real-life sports!

I've spent many an afternoon watching baseball, football and soccer at the ESPN Club -- and I'm not alone.  On days when major sporting events are taking place, be prepared for a long wait. 

Why the wait?  Well, the ESPN Club doesn't take ADR's (Advance Dining Reservations).  Yep - all walk-ups.  Locals will flock to the ESPN Club on gameday, so it's not unusual to have a wait time of more than an hour (and sometimes a lot more than an hour) to get a table in either the SportsCentral room or the Sidelines Bar.

Here's a little tip -- the bar has seating areas too.  Being a bar, it's bar-style seating with smaller tables, but you can still order from the complete menu.  If the line for the SportsCentral room is pretty long, see if you can get a table at the bar - often the line's much shorter.  There are plenty of televisions there as well -- just not the jumbo screen.

The ESPN Club is a fun place for lunch or dinner even when there's not a huge game on.  We've often been able to walk right in for an early lunch around 11:30 a.m. or noon. 

One other tidbit about the ESPN Club -- no takeouts.  So if you're staying at the Boardwalk, unfortunately you won't be able to get a basket of dingers to take back to the room.  Sorry.

After lunch or dinner - take a moment to browse the Yard for some ESPN merchandise (though the selection is pretty limited -- if you really want ESPN stuff, I suggest the Clubhouse over at ESPN Wide World of Sports).

So check out the ESPN Club on your next trip - it's a great place to catch the game!

Tip Tuesday: Boardwalk at night

Welcome to another Tip Tuesday!

Recently, I've been talking about all the fantastic things to do at the different Disney parks at night. However, there's also lots happening at Walt Disney World outside the parks as well. Best of all, some of it is free!

Along the boardwalk outside the Boardwalk Resort at night, street performers come out several times during the evening to give impromptu performances. While we were at the Boardwalk in December 2010, one cast member was performing several magic tricks, working with cards or doing memory tricks. Another was doing some small acrobatic acts. Of course each performer will pull various audience members to help with the magic acts or acrobatic stunts.

There doesn't appear to be any set time for when performances take place. Cast members just show up, set up shop and start interacting with guests as the pass by. Within a few minutes a small crowd gathers and soon gets much larger. Most of the time, they set up on the boardwalk near the entrance to the Boardwalk resort itself. I happened to catch both performers a few times. They will do their show, which is around 15 minutes, and then pack up. About 15-30 minutes later, they set up again in a new location along the boardwalk. This happens during the evening hours between sunset and the start of Illuminations.

Watch for yourself on Blip.tv. (I tried to embed the video, but it keeps coming as an "unplayable" error. Very odd.)

I happened to meet the magician as he was setting up and we had a few moments to talk about the mechanics of some simple hand magic. The cast member was very helpful and as other people started to watch, he moved right into his performance.

Beyond the boardwalk performers, the Boardwalk offers a great deal of nightlife options including Jellyrolls, which is a dueling piano bar (there usually is a cover charge and this is a 21 and older only bar) and the Atlantic Dance Hall, where you can dance the night away.

Then there's the ESPN Club, where you can sit back and watch a game (or two, or three) on multiple big screen TV's. The ESPN Club doesn't take reservations, so if you want to dine there, be ready to stand in line for a while.

The boardwalk also has a game center where you can try your hand a some traditional boardwalk games of chance to possibly win prizes. These are your typical midway games including basketball shooting, softball toss, water gun horse races and more. The games can get expensive (at least $5 to play), but it's a fun way to experience the boardwalk atmosphere.

Of course the boardwalk is lit up in lights all year round and is beautiful to see and walk around. It's a beautiful sight from the Yacht and Beach Club across Crescent Lake and makes a pretty evening picture.

Make time to visit the boardwalk during your next trip to Walt Disney World, it's a great way to get away from the parks for a bit and enjoy some different parks of Disney!

Kouzzina officially opens

Chef Cat Cora and Disney today celebrated the grand opening of Kouzzina by Cat Cora, an exciting new family dining restaurant at Disney’s BoardWalk at Walt Disney World Resort.

This is the first table-service restaurant for the celebrity chef, featuring a menu of Mediterranean-style cuisine that pays tribute to the Cora family’s Greek roots.

Owned and operated by Disney and open daily for breakfast and dinner with seating for about 200 guests, the new restaurant features “time-honored recipes passed down from my ancestors, as well as my favorite Greek and Mediterranean dishes that my family loves,” Cora says.

As a Mississippi native born to a family of Greek restaurateurs, Cora grew up immersed in two different and flavorful cultures, and has taken from that unique background the kitchen “know-how” handed down through generations. The cuisine at Kouzzina (Greek for “kitchen” and pronounced “koo-zee-nah”) showcases Mediterranean cuisine and Chef Cora’s philosophy to create simple yet sensational meals.

The restaurant’s spacious interior features an open kitchen, wooden tables and chairs and a walk-up pizza window for casual dining at outdoor tables on the boardwalk. Breakfast specialties include Kouzzina’s signature blend of press-pot coffee and an icy Greek frappé with coffee, milk and natural sugar. Sweet choices include steel-cut cinnamon oatmeal, blueberry orange granola pancakes and Greek-style yogurt with fresh fruit and house-made granola. Savory breakfast creations include turkey-sweet potato hash with two eggs and arugula salad; the stacked Kouzzina breakfast with two poached eggs, kalamata olive toast, artichoke spread, sweet potato hash and bacon or chicken sausage; and spinach-tomato-feta scrambled eggs.

For dinner, Cora’s hand-selected beverage menu includes “Cat’s Ouzo-tini,” Mediterranean sangria and her own wine label, Coranation, featuring California wines. Starters include crisp calamari, goat cheese-stuffed grape leaves, spinach pie and Spiro’s Greek Salad. Entrées range from cinnamon stewed chicken to traditional whole fish and a char-grilled lamb burger, with sides such as chilled salt-roasted beets, smashed garlic-fried potatoes, sautéed brussel sprouts and herbed orzo with Greek olive oil and Kasseri cheese. A traditional baklava and dense, rich, chocolate budino are dessert favorites.

Cora began working with Disney in 2008 by creating a Disney Video on Demand series to showcase ways to help families develop more healthy eating habits. The first and only female Iron Chef on Food Network’s hit show “Iron Chef America,” Cora is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York. She also is executive chef for Bon Appétit magazine. In addition to hosting the instructional cooking demonstrations for Disney Video on Demand, Cora has been a featured chef at the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival and at Disney’s California Food & Wine Festival at Disneyland Resort.

Cat Cora's Kouzzina opens August 15

The newest restaurant to come to Walt Disney World will open August 15.

Kouzzina (which is Greek for "kitchen" - very appropriate) will feature different Greek and Mediterranean dishes. The new restaurant takes the place where Spoodles was located at the Boardwalk Resort.

Created by Iron Chef Cat Cora (the only female Iron Chef), Kouzzina will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner menus.

You can check out more about Kouzzina on the Walt Disney World Web site, including menus.

Spoodles closing at Boardwark - Cat Cora to open new restaurant

From a Disney news release:

Chef Cat Cora and Disney are joining together to open an exciting new family dining restaurant at Disney’s BoardWalk Resort. Kouzzina by Cat Cora will feature a menu of Mediterranean-style cuisine that pays tribute to the chef’s Greek roots.

The restaurant, to be owned and operated by Disney, is scheduled to open by fall 2009 in the space currently occupied by Spoodles.

“I am pleased to welcome Cat Cora and her engaging new concept for Kouzzina to the Walt Disney World Resort,” said Jay Rasulo, chairman, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. “This collaboration between Cat and Disney represents a significant step in our ongoing commitment to offer unique culinary experiences and choices for our guests.”

As a Mississippi native born to a family of Greek restaurateurs, Cora grew up immersed in two different and flavorful cultures , and has taken from that unique background the kitchen “know-how” handed down through generations. The cuisine at Kouzzina (Greek for “kitchen” and pronounced “koo-zee-nah”) will showcase Mediterranean cuisine and Chef Cora’s philosophy to create simple yet sensational meals.

Cora said that the new restaurant will feature “time-honored recipes passed down from my ancestors, as well as my favorite Greek and Mediterranean dishes that my family loves.”

She began working with Disney in 2008 by creating a Disney Video on Demand series to showcase ways to help families develop more healthy eating habits. “I’m extremely excited about this latest extension of my relationship with Disney,” she said. “Together, we’re going to develop a truly amazing contemporary Mediterranean restaurant.”

The first and only female Iron Chef on Food Network's hit show “Iron Chef America,” Cora is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York. She also is Executive Chef for Bon Appétit magazine. In addition to hosting the instructional cooking demonstrations for Disney Video on Demand, Cora has been a featured chef at the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival and at Disney’s California Food & Wine Festival at Disneyland Resort.