By Charly SHELTON

With all California theme parks closed to visitors, the industry is taking a massive hit. Disney is reportedly losing over $1 billion per month while the parks are closed. And while Disney and Universal Studios have reopened their major shopping districts, like Downtown Disney and CityWalk, to sustain itself Knott’s Berry Farm has only had the chicken-to-go from the Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant and a couple of stores selling Knott’s groceries and gifts. But once outdoor-only dining was approved for the state, Knott’s decided to join in a big way by offering Taste of Calico.

The Taste of Calico is a food festival taking place right now in the Ghost Town section of the theme park and is the perfect way to take off the no-theme-parks edge without having a full theme park visit during the pandemic.

The food festival is exclusively food and shopping, which are currently allowed by the state. All the food service is provided from windows or festival booths. Guests take their food to any number of outdoor tables added for this event. All of the rides are closed and much of the park is roped off, giving visitors a peek at the empty area but no walking access outside of the Ghost Town and Calico Park, where the stage resides. Tasting cards are $25 and provide admission to the event with five tasting coupons to be used at any of the seven locations around Ghost Town. This is a very similar system to the annual Boysenberry Festival tasting card, except there is no park admission fee beyond the purchase of a tasting card.

One other difference from the Boysenberry Fest that makes this even more of a sweet deal – full size portions are served. At the Boysenberry Fest, guests receive taster-sized portions of each of the boysenberry foods: a mini sausage on a roll, six chips with a dollop of boysenberry dip, a half cup of stew, mini churros, etc. Not at Taste of Calico. Five tastings would not go a long way to fill up someone for the day, but five average-sized theme park meals are almost too much to get through.

The boysenberry sausage is a full link on a hoagie bun, served with boysenberry ketchup. Steak chili with a boysenberry cornbread muffin is a moderate sized bowl, like a cup of chili at a restaurant. Even the smaller portions offer an abundance of food, like the pastrami sandwich on a pretzel bun with boysenberry mustard. It’s a little smaller, served on a dinner roll-sized bun, but it’s overloaded with pastrami and comes with a huge side of potato chips. At the same booth, the homemade chips take a starring role when paired with onion dip, which I believe is the best in show.

Then there’s the ludicrously gigantic offerings, like the boysenberry jam sugar Cookiewich – not just one giant-sized, crispy, theme park novelty Instagram-worthy purple sugar cookie the size of a small dinner plate, but two of those cookies. And sandwiched between them is enough boysenberry soft serve to stop a train robbery with the sheer awe of the thing. The whole Cookiewich is rolled in chocolate chips on the edges and served with a spoon because there’s no way a human mouth can just open up and take a clean bite without sending the extra ice cream down the shirt. It’s fantastic, it’s sugary, it’s the perfect thing to cool off at an outdoor food festival in July set in an old west town.

Taste of Calico is on Fridays through Sundays currently at Knott’s Berry Farm. The response has been so overwhelming to this event that it has been extended two more weekends and now runs this weekend to a sold out crowd, as well as July 31 – Aug. 2, and Aug. 7 – 9. Tickets are going fast, with the first two weekends already sold out. Get yours at Knotts.com and don’t miss out on this unique, fantastic and very 2020 event.

  Charly Shelton