A Friday Visit With Jim Korkis: The Backstory of Yak & Yeti

By Dave Shute

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians and author of Jim’s Gems in The easy Guide, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

THE BACKSTORY OF YAK & YETI AT DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM

By Jim Korkis

The Yak & Yeti table-service restaurant offers Pan-Asian cuisine in the Asia section of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Disney’s Imagineers designed for it an elaborate and intriguing backstory to blend into the Asia area.

According to the Imagineers, the restaurant is situated at the base of Mt. Everest in the small village of Anandapur, near a highly traveled road used by tourists, researchers, pilgrims, and traders. Its origin? Well, a wealthy merchant from Anandapur, Arjun, fell on hard times. As a result, he converted his regal home into a fine hotel and restaurant hoping to be able to make a living from these travelers.

The original two story stone house, painted purple, was built in June 1924. As unexpected success came to Arjun’s new enterprise he continued to expand the building haphazardly including adding an authentic Indian marble pavilion on one end and allowing the original garden and patio to become part of the interior of the restaurant. In the lush garden adjacent to the pavilion is a collection of rare and revered lingam stones.

That success may be in part because Arjun wisely placed a statue of Ganesha, the Hindu deity known to be a “remover of obstacles” that looks like a red elephant, in the lobby.

The hotel is the kind of boutique hotel that wealthier adventure travelers might seek out in India. While they rest at the hotel during their journeys, the owner and other families reside there as well. Details include luggage at a check-in desk and signage for rooms and hotel guests.

The décor as well as the furniture is an amalgamation of mismatched artifacts Arjun and his family have collected over their years of travel in Southeast Asia.

Those artifacts displayed prominently throughout Yak & Yeti are authentic and were gathered from around Southeast Asia by Schussler Creative, the group responsible for designing the location for Landry’s Restaurants, who owns and operates Yak and Yeti. (Landry’s also owns and operates the Rainforest Café and T-Rex Restaurant.)

The theming for Yak &Yeti is more subtle and subdued than at those two restaurants but no less effective and immersive. Because it “originally” was a dwelling, the dining area is spread over the several small rooms of a house rather than just one large space, making it a more intimate experience.

All the work was done in association with Walt Disney Imagineering so that it blended with the existing mythology that had been created for the area. There are statues, ceremonial costumes, puppets, bowls, vases, antique furnishings, cabinets filled with knickknacks and much more.

Some items were fabricated to help tell the story, like the portrait of the current rajah and his wife that also appears elsewhere in Anandapur, including in the buildings of Himalayan Escapes Tours & Expeditions.

Pictures of the royal couple are required by law to be posted by businesses. They would be purchased from the government, making the portraits both a business license and tax. While the couple is fictional, the practice was real in areas that Imagineers studied.

“Detail is there to make you believe in the reality of the story you’re immersed in,” stated Imagineer Joe Rohde.

Yak & Yeti opened November 14, 2007 and is the only non-Disney restaurant inside the park.

“The sights, sounds and energy of this novel dining destination will transport guests to another culture,” said Marty Sherman, Landry’s General Manager. “The moment diners arrive at Yak & Yeti, they will feel like they’ve stepped into an authentic Himalayan village. It is a place to immerse yourself in a culture that is mysterious, exotic and exciting.”

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Thanks, Jim. My sister and my dad and I ate at Yak & Yeti earlier this year…I’ve got to get that review posted!  But my sister and I loved it, my dad was less keen on his curry. (My sister and I tasted it and thought it was great…)

Come back next Friday for even more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including The Vault of Walt, Who’s Afraid of the Song of the South?, and The Book of Mouse, and his contributions to The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit, all published by Theme Park Press.

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