Eat'n Park facts for kids
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A restaurant in Pittsburgh
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| Private | |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Founded | June 6, 1949 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States |
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| Headquarters |
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United States
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Number of locations
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57 stores (2022) |
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Area served
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Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia |
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Key people
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| Products | Breakfast foods, burgers, sandwiches, chicken, seafood, salads, appetizers, combos, kids' meals and desserts |
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Number of employees
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10,000+ (2021) |
| Parent | Eat'n Park Hospitality Group, Inc. |
Eat'n Park is a popular restaurant chain. It started in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Today, it has 59 locations across Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The chain is famous for its special Smiley Cookies. Their motto is "the place for smiles."
Contents
How Eat'n Park Started
In the late 1940s, two friends, Larry Hatch and Bill Peters, worked at Isaly's Restaurants in Pittsburgh. Larry saw a cool drive-in restaurant called Frisch's Big Boy in Cincinnati. He and Bill thought it was a great idea!
They decided to open their own Big Boy restaurants in Pittsburgh. They made a deal to use the Big Boy name for 25 years. Their new restaurants would be called Eat'n Park.
The very first Eat'n Park opened on June 5, 1949. It was a drive-in restaurant where you could eat in your car. It had 13 spots for cars and 10 "carhops" to bring food to you. It was called "Pittsburgh's First Modern Eat-in-your-Car Food Service."
Growing Across States
Eat'n Park grew quickly! By 1956, there were 11 locations. By 1973, there were 40 Eat'n Park restaurants. After their deal with Big Boy ended, Eat'n Park started opening restaurants in Ohio and West Virginia. At one point, they had over 75 restaurants!
Eat'n Park and the Big Mac
Did you know Eat'n Park played a small part in the creation of the Big Mac? A McDonald's owner in Pittsburgh, Jim Delligatti, invented the Big Mac. He wanted to create a burger that could compete with the popular Big Boy hamburger that Eat'n Park was selling. The Big Mac first sold for only 45 cents in 1967!
The Famous Smiley Cookie
In 1974, Eat'n Park stopped being part of Big Boy. This allowed them to grow even more. They expanded into new areas like Cleveland and Youngstown in Ohio, and Morgantown and Wheeling in West Virginia.
A super important part of Eat'n Park's story is the Smiley Cookie. In 1986, Eat'n Park added bakeries to its restaurants. That's when they started making the Smiley Cookie! It came from a small bakery called Warner's Bakery. The cookie became so loved that it's now part of the Eat'n Park logo. Other restaurants even tried to make similar cookies, but the Smiley Cookie is special.
In 2011, Eat'n Park won an award called the "Achievement of Excellence" from the American Culinary Federation. This shows how good their food is! Since 2013, Eat'n Park has also sponsored the fun YouTube series Pittsburgh Dad.
Other Places to Eat
Eat'n Park also has other types of restaurants. One of their successful ideas is Hello Bistro. This is a more modern, fast-casual restaurant. It focuses on gourmet burgers and salads. Hello Bistro still sells prepackaged Smiley Cookies and the same ranch dressing as Eat'n Park. They are planning to open more Hello Bistro locations.
Eat'n Park Hospitality Group
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| Private | |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Founded | 2010 |
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U.S
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Key people
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Jeff Broadhurst, (CEO) Mercy Senchur, (COO) Richard Liebscher (SVP) |
| Revenue |  US$750 million (2021) |
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Eat'n Park is part of a bigger company called Eat'n Park Hospitality Group. This group runs different food service businesses. They even won a big award in 2011 from the National Restaurant Association!
Smoking Policy
Eat'n Park was one of the first restaurant chains to ban smoking. They stopped allowing smoking in all their restaurants on May 30, 2007. This was even before Pennsylvania made a statewide law about smoking in public places.
The Christmas Commercial
There's a special Christmas tradition in the Pittsburgh area: an animated Eat'n Park commercial. It shows a little Christmas star named Sparkle trying to get to the top of a Christmas tree. The tree bends over to help the star reach the top. This commercial first aired in 1982 to help raise money for Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
People loved it so much that Eat'n Park has shown it every year since late November. It's believed to be the longest-running Christmas commercial in the United States! You can even buy merchandise based on the ad during the holidays.
Images for kids
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An Eat'n Park sign.
