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A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: The Secret History of Churros



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 SECRET ORIGIN OF CHURROS

By Jim Korkis

In the January 5, 2003 episode of The Simpsons (Season 14, Episode 298 “Special Edna”), Homer escapes Epcot to get into the Magic Kingdom and asks for one churro from a vendor that costs fourteen dollars.

In real life, the fried dough pastry still costs a hefty $3.50 considering it is made with just inexpensive dough, sugar and cinnamon.

Churros are much more prevalent in California’s Disneyland but can also be found at Walt Disney World in locations like the Cantina de San Angel at the Epcot Mexico pavilion and the food court at Coronado Springs Resort among other places.

In 1985, the man responsible for food and beverage in Disneyland’s Fantasyland was Jim Lowman. With the scheduled opening of a new dance location for young people called Videopolis, he needed to bring in something new and unique to offer them.

That same year he attended the Long Beach Grand Prix event and saw his first churro booth and that all that was needed was a small warming oven. Snooping around, he found an empty box from J & J Snack Foods. The treat seemed popular, inexpensive, easy to produce and something out-of-the-ordinary.

He later phoned the company to see if they might be interested in working with Disneyland. However, to make the churro a unique Disneyland churro and to increase the price that they could be sold for to hungry teenagers, Lowman insisted that they enlarge the size from six inches to twelve inches.

Lowman decided to do a little test before Videopolis opened. He felt the treat would theme in with Frontierland and its Mexican food influences so he stationed a small cart by the exit of the Mark Twain Riverboat. Even as the cart was rolling to that location, it was followed by at least thirty people who were entranced by the smell.

Just at that one temporary location, sales were constant for the next two weeks straight. When Videopolis opened, two churro carts were placed there and again, became so popular that the carts were expanded to other areas.

Originally the warming ovens, like the traditional one that Lowman first saw, were propane powered and that created a problem. Because of the popularity of the treat, even with six full propane tanks in each cart, they would run out, often by midday and had to be replaced. Of course, propone is also explosive.

By the end of the first summer, the propane was replaced with electricity. The carts became part of Disneyland’s Outdoor Vending Team, the same group that sells popcorn and ice cream around the park.

When asked about the seemingly exorbitant price for a little bit of cinnamon and sugar like a doughnut, Lowman, who has been working at Disneyland for fifty years, proposes that guests get so many things for free like fireworks, clean restrooms and live entertainment that those items have to be paid for in other ways.

“It’s either low food prices and pay to watch shows and watch entertainment, or higher food prices so that all of that can be wrapped up into one,” he told an interviewer in 2015.

He is constantly on the look-out for new food items including the barbecue foods and skewers he brought to Bengal Barbecue located near the Indiana Jones attraction at Disneyland.

“That’s the fun of restaurant management,” Lowman said, “You can look at county fairs, you can look at different restaurants, you can look at what’s sold in grocery stores and think, ‘How can that translate to my business?’”

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim!  And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, and The Vault of Walt: Volume 4, and his contributions to The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit, all published by Theme Park Press.
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1 comment

1 Steve From MilitaryDisneyTips.com - YourFirstVisit.net Military Moderator { 10.22.16 at 1:16 pm }

I long for the original Churros they used to serve at WDW back in the day…

I do not remember when the switch was, but the old ones were larger in diameter and light and fluffy.

The new ones are much narrower and much more dense. Just not the same thing. Never get them anymore.

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