“In case you can dream it, you are able to do it.” ~Building 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!!!) development 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 mission.
I assume now that development has concluded on Blue Ribbon Corn Canine, the opposite colossal development mission at BoardWalk, sources 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 of 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 characteristic each savory and dessert menus, together with afternoon tea service, in a whimsical ambiance that enhances the magic of the idyllic attraction of Disney’s BoardWalk Inn that company 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 submit are development images I took over the past week of August and first week of September 2024.)
Along with development 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 in every of a number of development permits that’ve been served up to be able 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 economic kitchen design, development, and renovation. The corporate caters to a broad spectrum of shoppers which includes restaurant house owners, quick meals chains, and catering companies throughout america. They’ve performed enterprise up to now with each Common and Walt Disney World.
I don’t understand how lengthy a industrial kitchen usually takes to put in, nevertheless it in all probability doesn’t matter since nothing is regular concerning the Cake Bake Store. Even assuming a standard industrial kitchen may very well be accomplished in just a few weeks, it may take just a few months or a yr on this mission. 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 prompt (based mostly on normal lead occasions for different Walt Disney World eating places) that the Cake Bake Store could be open by June. Clearly, that didn’t occur otherwise you wouldn’t be studying this submit.
On the time, I pegged the opening someday between October 2024 and Spring 2025 based mostly 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. In case 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 newest developments with hiring and permits, paired with my observations of development progress, I’m now much more comfy predicting that Cake Bake Store really will open in 2024.
I nonetheless assume the early finish of the vary is someday in October. With that being a month away and work nonetheless being performed to the outside, it looks like a protected wager that the restaurant gained’t open this month. Even someday in October (which means anytime between Walt Disney World’s anniversary and Halloween) could be a reasonably aggressive timeframe for a mission 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 all the things we’ve seen (or not) within the final two years with this development mission, that’s the very best wager. Properly really, the true finest wager might be the opening slipping into 2025.
Nevertheless, at the same time as somebody who has turned the Cake Bake Store right into a punchline, I’m far more bullish. Regardless that I believe each effort might be made to get it performed 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 realized my lesson with this mission and am foolishly pondering this time might be totally different.
Second, I spent an inordinate period of time watching work over the past week, and it truly is transferring in an expeditious method. In reality, that is the quickest I’ve ever seen development occur on this mission. It now seems prefer it’s being constructed by sloths as a substitute of snails!
It’s not quick quick, like Epic Universe, nevertheless it’s a tempo not seen earlier than with the Cake Bake Store.
It looks like there’s a brand new sense of urgency, and with that, I’d hazard a guess that there’s additionally a robust want to get this restaurant open in the course of the peak quarter of the yr. (Take into account that it is a third celebration mission–which means that they dictate the development schedule, but in addition that they’ve been paying hire 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 almost definitely goal proper in the midst of that vary, in mid-November. In fact something is feasible, however I actually don’t assume it’ll get delayed once more into 2025.
For individuals who haven’t adopted this mission intently, the Cake Bake Store development has someway moved even slower than CommuniCore Corridor in EPCOT. It’s spectacular, in its personal kind of unhappy method.
Within the Cake Bake Store’s “protection” (kind of), this has been far more than a easy conversion. The construction of the previous ESPN Membership was been taken all the way down to the studs, and the cupola atop the constructing was totally rebuilt. Regardless that it’ll find yourself trying pretty just like what it changed, lots of work was put into reworking and remaking the venu.
Nonetheless, that doesn’t absolutely clarify the torpid tempo of labor. Had been this a standard mission in regular occasions, it could’ve opened final yr. However it wasn’t. It’s my understanding that there have been a number of points getting it completed. The large one was labor shortages for development initiatives in Central Florida.
One other was the mandatory prerequisite of finishing a brand new 31,200-square-foot industrial bakery in Osceola County. The offsite bakery is crucial to supporting the Cake Bake Store, and is the one method to produce the amount of baked items vital for the restaurant whereas ensures high quality. The BoardWalk restaurant kitchen will focus solely on the savory menu objects.
The Cake Bake Store is finest 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. As a result of variety of muffins, anticipated quantity of the BoardWalk location, and labor-intensive nature of the desserts, the industrial bakery was vital. It’s our understanding that they first centered sources on the industrial bakery, and now consideration has been redirected to the BoardWalk restaurant.
Actually, listening to about that colossal industrial bakery offers 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 incredible debt load to construct a colossal manufacturing house that was method larger than wanted. That dragged down their complete 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 all the things we’ve heard, the Cake Bake Store’s present eating places in Indianapolis are money-printing machines, and it looks like this might be a smash success. However on the similar time, simply because the merchandise are dear doesn’t imply the enterprise is worthwhile. Particularly if there’s an incredible debt load from taking 2+ years to construct a restaurant and industrial bakery.
In any case, hopefully development continues on the present clip and the Cake Bake Store opens in Fall 2024. We are able to’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 assume 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 considerations? Any questions we might help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even if you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
