Winner Winner Knott’s Chicken-To-Go Dinner

When Knott’s announced that they would be opening their Chicken-To-Go last week, the craving for fried chicken hit HARD and I knew that Mrs. Cordelia Knott’s crispy morsels of heaven were calling my name. Plus, with it being Mother’s Day weekend, we wanted to get a surprise chicken dinner and some goodies for a friend-in-quarantine who hasn’t left her house since March. While we were there, we got our first taste of what a possible California theme park reopening could look like. There was a lot that Knott’s was doing right, but there were also a few kinks that need to be worked out. Let’s take a look

Chicken-To-Go

Knott’s announced they would reopen their Chicken-To-Go on May 5 and it had a tremendous response. They were testing a mobile order option in addition to doing their usual takeout service. In theory, the mobile ordering system is the ideal way to get your fried chicken fix. However, the ability to actually find a pickup time proved unfruitful in our attempt, so we opted to pick up our dinners in-person for carryout. 

For our visit, Knott’s had parking for the Marketplace structured to enter from the hotel side of the resort only. 

After parking and walking over, the first thing you’ll notice is that the vast majority of the stores are shuttered and curtained off from prying eyes.

You’ll be able to see the lines for fried chicken and the bakery from a good distance away. This was one of the things about our trip that had us scratching our heads. Why were there two lines and why wasn’t there signage to alert guests which line was for what?

It turns out that there were separate lines for fried chicken and the bakery, and if you wanted something from each section of the shared restaurant space you would need to wait in both lines. There was a lot of confusion and some unhappy people who had mistakenly gotten in the wrong line.

As you pass by the entrance to Chicken-To-Go there’s a large, brightly colored poster mandating that guests must wear a face mask for entry and reminding guests to keep a 6-foot distance between others while waiting.

When we visited, the queue for fried chicken pushed back to the entrance of the banquet space of Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant. This was partially caused by the number of people in line, and also how far spaced out people were throughout the process. Some segments of the queue had socially distancing better figured out than others.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the best at gauging distance. When I visit my local grocery, I’m reliant on the spaces marked out on the ground. In Knott’s case, they only used markers for a short stretch of the line closest to the shop, the remainder of the guests had to figure out the spacing on their own. In some cases, it worked out pretty well. But in others not so much…

While in line, we saw carts of mobile ordered fried chicken being wheeled out to the Marketplace parking lot. This stood out as strange for a number of reasons. First, that’s a long trek between the eatery and the parked cars. Secondly, the whole main entry to Knott’s (Grand Avenue) was blocked off. To increase efficiency, they could have had curbside pick-up customers park literally “curbside” in front of the restaurant at the pickup time instead of having employees making trips back and forth to the parking lot all day.

We waited about 80 minutes in the to-go line. The smells wafting through the doorway was making us salivate. Word of warning, you should definitely eat a little something to tide you over before getting in line. 

An employee admits people inside to order on a limited basis; guests must wear a facemask in order to enter. Hanging plexiglass sheets have been installed between the food counter and the workers to serve as an additional precaution.

By limiting the number of people inside the space at any given time, it’s easy to stay 6 feet away from other guests.

The menu is a somewhat limited version of what you could get before. You can order buckets of fried chicken, fried chicken a la carte, and plenty of sides. And if you’re in the mood for pie (or freshly baked bread) you can add that to any order of chicken.

Chicken-To-Go shares the same operating space as the bakery and has a similarly limited operating capacity. We were initially planning on picking up a cake and a handful of cookies in addition to our fried chicken order. However, after waiting a full 90 minutes from getting in line until we had our chicken in hand, we couldn’t stand waiting in another long line. In my opinion, if you’re going to wait in line for chicken you should be allowed to order from the bakery as well, given it’s literally in the same space. 

The Bakery display case had plenty of Knott’s quintessential boysenberry and apple pies. These were heavy hitters and frequently had to be restocked with freshly baked replacements. 

Many popular items were sold out by 4pm. 

Finally, we had our chicken dinners and pies bagged up and we were ready to roll out and drop off our Mother’s Day surprise. 

Berry Market

After grabbing our food, we took a quick pitstop into the Berry Market to pick up a few extra items for our Mother’s Day goodie bag (we were specifically looking for the new Premium Boysenberry Preserves!). But the Berry Market was also where Knott’s really got the whole reopening thing down right. They have one-way traffic set up, and when the store gets too busy a queue will form outside the store to maintain adequate distance. Sanitized baskets are located next to the door, and you’re ready to shop for boysenberry goodness in all forms.

One of the new items this season are the Premium Boysenberry Preserves. I HIGHLY recommend trying it out. It’s like eating the filling out of a boysenberry pie straight from a jar. It’s absolutely delicious. 

With that said, the standard Knott’s preserves are every bit as delicious as before their new friend came to town.

The other new items that caught Dusty’s eye were the line of bacon jams. Although they aren’t a Knott’s product, they sure sound delectable.

You can also find an assortment of baking mixes packaged in cute patterned fabric bags alongside the amazingly kitschy rooster decor your kitchen needs.

If you’re not able to make it to Knott’s right now, their online marketplace is open for business. Many of the items offered in the physical store are able to be shipped directly to you. So, now’s the time to try the Premium Preserves! For more theme park goodies you can enjoy at home, check out the article below.

Five Iconic Theme Park Favorites You Can Get at Home!

For now, the jungle bathrooms located within the shop are closed to guests.

When it came to checkout, Knott’s had implemented an interesting update to their procedure. They had converted the process into largely self-checkout with an employee to walk guests through the transaction. Guests scan and bag their own products while the employee finalizes the transaction and takes the empty basket behind the counter for sanitization. The employee can also grab candies from the case to add to your order if so desired (try the Boysenberry Toffee if they’ve got it!).

Our Thoughts

Overall, Knott’s is doing a lot of things right for a limited reopening of a few shops. They’re asking guests to be responsible and accountable for wearing face masks and maintaining their distance, mobile ordering is a viable option, and their staff are friendly and approachable, even while wearing masks of their own. 

The Berry Market really demonstrated how Knott’s could adapt to the current situation. Utilizing procedures like one-way traffic, limited capacity, and guided self-checkout are logical steps to reopen the park safely. 

However, there are a few things that could use some improvement. On an obvious note, there needs to be signage and more employees outside to direct guests to which line they should be in. Additionally, more 6-foot spaced markers are needed for people to adhere to social distancing guidelines. And some sort of announcement should be continually played reminding guests to keep their distance and wear their masks. There were simply too many guests who were either standing at close range and/or without masks on.  

We hope to see a few more things open around the Knott’s Marketplace and see how they enhance the crowd-flow procedures. They’re really going to need to step that up before making more services available. 

Knott’s Marketplace Ghost Town

Although there are three storefronts open at the Knott’s Marketplace, everything else is closed for the time being. There are no sit-down restaurants operating at this time, and Knott’s assortment of giftshops aren’t “essential” enough to reopen just yet. 

A barricade is set up to prevent guests from going further than Build-A-Bear. We’re interested to see how crowds will react when the non-essential businesses reopen at Knott’s. 

As much as I miss going to my favorite theme parks, the somewhat uncomfortable feeling I had when getting in that long line for chicken made me realize just how hard it’s going to be to get all guests to participate in the steps to keeping everyone safe in a theme park setting. If ALL guests were all as concerned with keeping their distance and wearing their masks, or Knott’s had been more proactive in making them do so, perhaps I’d have felt differently. 

For now, I’m going to wait at least a couple of weeks for Knott’s to refine things a bit and then check it out again. I wouldn’t wait an hour and a half again in a line like that for fried chicken. But if I could breeze in and out quickly, or the curbside pick-up could be simplified, I’d be back for sure.