"A Step in the Right Direction"

Should I just go ahead and start buying my clothes in a larger size?  I have a feeling I may need to after my next trip to Epcot.

There are some new food options coming to Epcot, and I for one am pretty excited.  Let’s take a look at what we’re getting:

1. Via Napoli, the new Italian Pizzeria in the Italy Pavilion will offer several authentic Neapolitan pizzas. As most Disney fans know, you have a better shot of finding a Michael Eisner tribute in Walt Disney World than you do a good pizza.  But Disney claims that’s all about to change. Famed Pizzaiolo Charlie Restivo will serve as executive chef, and ingredients will include Marzano tomatoes, Caputo flour, handmade fresh mozzarella, Parma Cotto, crumbled sausage, and water calibrated specifically to the pH found in Naples (the Florida water is usually the attributed culprit for the poor Disney pizza quality.  I swear they are serving Tombstones straight from the frozen foods section at Publix, but that’s just me).  Anyway, the three wood-burning ovens of Via Napoli will be named after the three active volcanoes in Italy –- Mount Etna, Mount Vesuvius and Stromboli.  Each oven will be sculpted with the “face of the volcano”, reflecting the gods associated with each volcano’s history and mythology.

2. Over in the Mexico Pavilion, La Cantina de San Angel will get a new look with 150 outdoor seats and 250 indoor seats. The restaurant (newly christened La Hacienda de San Angel) will open at 11 am every day with chicken and beef tacos, nachos, and churros. It will change to dinner at 4:00 and will switch from counter service to table service. The menu will include appetizers such as queso fundido; black bean soup; and a taco trio of rib eye, roasted chicken, and pork. For the main course, enjoy a mixed grill for two with flank steak, chicken, chorizo and veggies; roasted shrimp in pepper garlic broth; flank steak with spring onions; refried beans and cactus leaves; and grilled red snapper with roasted corn and cactus leaves. Dessert choices will feature chocolate churros, sweet tamales, and fruit empanadas.

Mostly though, I’m excited about:

3. Karamelle-Kuche (Caramel Kitchen) is a new shop that will be opening in the Epcot’s Germany Pavilion.  Taking the home of the current Glas und Porzellan this fall, the new shop will resemble an Old World German caramel shop. Among the offerings will be fresh caramel popcorn, caramel apples, and caramel-covered marshmallows, all handmade by cast members in the shop's show kitchen. This new store will be the world's only free-standing retail location for Storck, who are the makers of Werther's Original Candies. Because of this, some products will be available here that are not available anywhere else. Let me just tell you, I’m crazy for caramel.  I’ll choose caramel over chocolate any day of the week.  (Fortunately, we live in a society where I can generally choose caramel and chocolate, instead of caramel or chocolate!) Forget Le Cellier; I’ll be more than happy to have a caramel apple with a side of Caramel corn for dinner.  Apples and popcorn count as real food, don’t they?

Of course, Disney management still hasn’t addressed the embarrassment of a restaurant that is The Liberty Inn over in the America Pavilion, but I think Eglantine Price from Bedknobs and Broomsticks would agree that this is a “step in the right direction, after all”!

Are you as excited as I am to see these new food options added?  Or are you wishing they’d have kept the Hummel and Goebel shop it will be replacing?  Let me know over at http://www.facebook.com/disneygene!