“When you can dream it, you are able to do it.” ~Development employee (singular) who’s constructing the Cake Bake Store on the BoardWalk at Walt Disney World when requested if the restaurant and bakery may open earlier than Villains Land at Magic Kingdom debuts in 2030.
I’m kidding, after all. Not solely did he not say that, however I really noticed as many as three (3!!!) building employees concurrently on-site on the Cake Bake Store over the course of the final week. Not solely that, however I noticed seen progress taking form between my visits to the BoardWalk as I took breaks from the 2024 EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition to take a look at the undertaking.
I assume now that building has concluded on Blue Ribbon Corn Canine, the opposite colossal building undertaking at BoardWalk, assets have been reallocated to expedite the Cake Bake Store. If it solely took like a yr to repurpose a waterside kiosk, they need to be capable to end the conversion this restaurant by 2030–piece of cake!
By way of primary background for individuals who haven’t been following this multi-year saga, the Cake Bake Store by Gwendolyn Rogers is a brand new desk service restaurant at Walt Disney World that truly ought to open in 2024. (For actual this time.) It’ll provide sit-down eating and a bakery, changing ESPN Membership on the BoardWalk.
The Cake Bake Store Restaurant will function each savory and dessert menus, together with afternoon tea service, in a whimsical environment that enhances the magic of the idyllic appeal of Disney’s BoardWalk Inn that visitors know and love. This new idea will serve up storybook candy treats and dreamy desserts, as The Cake Bake Store by Gwendolyn Rogers makes a “seaside splash” at Disney’s BoardWalk.
(All through this publish are building images I took over the past week of August and first week of September 2024.)
Along with building progress, we have now a brand new growth on the Cake Bake Store, which filed one other new allow to start work on putting in the restaurant’s kitchen throughout the final couple of weeks. That is one among a number of building permits that’ve been served up in an effort to mainly rebuild ESPN Membership over the course of the final couple years.
The development allow for the kitchen lists Johnson Lancaster and Associates, Inc. because the contractor. That is, unsurprisingly, a top-rated meals service contractor famend for its experience within the subject of business kitchen design, building, and renovation. The corporate caters to a broad spectrum of purchasers which contains restaurant house owners, quick meals chains, and catering companies throughout the USA. They’ve completed enterprise prior to now with each Common and Walt Disney World.
I don’t know the way lengthy a business kitchen usually takes to put in, however it most likely doesn’t matter since nothing is regular in regards to the Cake Bake Store. Even assuming a traditional industrial kitchen may very well be accomplished in a couple of weeks, it may take a couple of months or a yr on this undertaking. When the Cake Bake Store introduced they’d open in a yr, I believe they meant a canine yr.
Earlier this yr, the Cake Bake Store began hiring. I expressed shock at that growth on the time, because it urged (primarily based on normal lead occasions for different Walt Disney World eating places) that the Cake Bake Store can be open by June. Clearly, that didn’t occur otherwise you wouldn’t be studying this publish.
On the time, I pegged the opening someday between October 2024 and Spring 2025 primarily based on progress up till that time and the idea it’d proceed at the same tempo. I can not overstate simply how slowly work has progressed. It’s going to finish up taking about the identical period of time to reimagine ESPN Membership into Cake Bake Store because it did to construct EPCOT Middle!
The Cake Bake Store by Gwendolyn Rogers was beforehand slated to open final yr, earlier than updating its official web site to early 2024, then simply 2024. Now merely says that it’s “Coming Quickly.” How quickly might be a matter of perspective. When you’re going from the daybreak of recorded time, Cake Bake Store debuting alongside Villains Land in 2030 continues to be fairly quickly! It’s all relative.
Joking apart, between the most recent developments with hiring and permits, paired with my observations of building progress, I’m now much more comfy predicting that Cake Bake Store really will open in 2024.
I nonetheless suppose the early finish of the vary is someday in October. With that being a month away and work nonetheless being completed to the outside, it looks as if a secure wager that the restaurant gained’t open this month. Even someday in October (which means anytime between Walt Disney World’s anniversary and Halloween) can be a reasonably aggressive timeframe for a undertaking that has been something however aggressive.
The later vary of that “someday in 2024” prediction would clearly be New 12 months’s Eve, which is the final day of the calendar yr. Given every part we’ve seen (or not) within the final two years with this building undertaking, that’s the perfect wager. Nicely really, the true greatest wager might be the opening slipping into 2025.
Nonetheless, at the same time as somebody who has turned the Cake Bake Store right into a punchline, I’m far more bullish. Though I believe each effort shall be made to get it completed by October and conference/group occasions season, my exact prediction is that the Cake Bake Store opens by mid-November 2024.
The explanations for my newfound confidence within the opening timeline are twofold. First, there’s stupidity. I haven’t discovered my lesson with this undertaking and am foolishly pondering this time shall be completely different.
Second, I spent an inordinate period of time watching work over the past week, and it truly is transferring in an expeditious method. The truth is, that is the quickest I’ve ever seen building occur on this undertaking. It now seems prefer it’s being constructed by sloths as a substitute of snails!
It’s not quick quick, like Epic Universe, however it’s a tempo not seen earlier than with the Cake Bake Store.
It looks as if there’s a brand new sense of urgency, and with that, I’d hazard a guess that there’s additionally a robust need to get this restaurant open throughout the peak quarter of the yr. (Remember the fact that it is a third occasion undertaking–which means that they dictate the development schedule, but in addition that they’ve been paying lease to Disney this complete time. That may’t be low-cost!)
I assume we will see what occurs, however that’s my prediction: that Cake Bake Store opens between October and December 2024, with the most certainly goal proper in the midst of that vary, in mid-November. In fact something is feasible, however I actually don’t suppose it’ll get delayed once more into 2025.
For individuals who haven’t adopted this undertaking carefully, the Cake Bake Store building has in some way moved even slower than CommuniCore Corridor in EPCOT. It’s spectacular, in its personal form of unhappy method.
Within the Cake Bake Store’s “protection” (form of), this has been far more than a easy conversion. The construction of the previous ESPN Membership was been taken right down to the studs, and the cupola atop the constructing was fully rebuilt. Though it’ll find yourself wanting pretty just like what it changed, a whole lot of work was put into remodeling and remaking the venu.
Nonetheless, that doesn’t absolutely clarify the torpid tempo of labor. Had been this a traditional undertaking in regular occasions, it will’ve opened final yr. But it surely wasn’t. It’s my understanding that there have been a number of points getting it completed. The massive one was labor shortages for building initiatives in Central Florida.
One other was the mandatory prerequisite of finishing a brand new 31,200-square-foot business bakery in Osceola County. The offsite bakery is crucial to supporting the Cake Bake Store, and is the one solution to produce the quantity of baked items obligatory for the restaurant whereas ensures high quality. The BoardWalk restaurant kitchen will focus solely on the savory menu objects.
The Cake Bake Store is greatest identified for its colossal 3-layer muffins, every of which takes as much as six hours to finish as a result of they’re all hand-stacked, hand-decorated and hand-cut. The Cake Bake Store sells 12 varieties every day. Because of the variety of muffins, anticipated quantity of the BoardWalk location, and labor-intensive nature of the desserts, the business bakery was obligatory. It’s our understanding that they first targeted assets on the business bakery, and now consideration has been redirected to the BoardWalk restaurant.
Truthfully, listening to about that colossal business bakery provides me a little bit of pause and makes me concern that the Cake Bake Store has overextended. That story instantly jogged my memory of Ample Hills, which took on an amazing debt load to construct a colossal manufacturing house that was method larger than wanted. That dragged down their total enterprise, and led to the closure of the BoardWalk location–and eventual chapter.
Hopefully the one parallel right here is the situation at BoardWalk. From every part we’ve heard, the Cake Bake Store’s present eating places in Indianapolis are money-printing machines, and it looks as if this shall be a smash success. However on the identical time, simply because the merchandise are dear doesn’t imply the enterprise is worthwhile. Particularly if there’s an amazing debt load from taking 2+ years to construct a restaurant and business bakery.
In any case, hopefully building continues on the present clip and the Cake Bake Store opens in Fall 2024. We will’t wait to eat right here!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What’s your predicted opening date/month/yr for the Cake Bake Store by Gwendolyn Rogers? Am I loopy to suppose it may open as early as subsequent month…or in 2024, in any respect? Excited for this new bakery and restaurant or will you miss ESPN Membership? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Different ideas or issues? Any questions we can assist you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even whenever you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!
