Theme park thrills
Theme Park Thrills in Staffordshire
Rollercoaster dining
Potty idea
Waiters are redundant at Alton Towers’ new restaurant where meals arrive by rollercoaster. Diners sit around the base of this monster fairground attraction which fills the entire restaurant. The fun comes in watching their orders helter-skelter along a 1,300ft track, doing two loop-the-loops before dropping 26ft the height of two double-decker buses – along a tornado spiral to their table. And it’s not fast food, although dishes travel at the speed Mo Farah won Olympic Gold on a route equivalent to a full-size athletics track. Proper entrées and desserts include lamb shank and Eton Mess (a safe choice, given that it looks a mess to start with) but apparently dishes really do arrive at the correct table hot, intact and without the gravy slopped. It works by straps, gravity, centrifugal force and a lot of prepping in pots. Every table has its own number and track so meals don’t go astray. “It’s a little bit more detailed than a normal restaurant,” says Executive Head Chef Dan Wilbraham, clearly a master of understatement. “First we cook the food, and then there’s a process where it needs to go into the stainless steel pot into the dispatch area, which is then launched down a track.” Each pot travels 173 miles a week and it seems that half of Britain is doing the same, to get to Staffordshire and experience this loopy attraction. Open to ticket holders all day and the general public at night when the park closes, it’s proving such a popular adult entertainment it can even be booked for corporate events. i www.altontowers.com
ESSENTIALMAGAZINE.COM OCTOBER 2016 / 129
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9/22/16 12:40 PM