One of the biggest changes is the addition of three food carts. Natasha Green, Marketing Manager for SUU Dining Services, said that carts were ordered for last season, but they didn’t arrive until the February after the Festival ended. She said the carts looked awful, so they were sent back and reordered for this season.
The first cart is called “Shakespeare Table,” and it has a rotating menu. Chefs cook up everything from tacos to turkey legs to bangers and mash.
The final cart, “Ye Olde Fro Yo” sells frozen yogurt. It offers two flavors and ten topping options.
Green said that Dogs of Verona has been doing the best, but the other two carts are close behind it in sales.
Going forward, SUU Dining Services is considering switching out frozen yogurt for ice cream, and they’re considering adding a fall-themed pastry.
According to Green, the two most sold items at the Festival are tarts and water. In the opening month of this season, over 18,000 tarts were sold.
In the past, Annette Damavandi, the Head Baker for SUU Dining Services, and her team of bakers worked on traditional flavors, such as lemon, raspberry, summer berry and apple.
This season, they introduced three new flavors: lemon cream cheese, oreo and smore. Damavandi said she thought about the children who went to the Greenshow with their parents when she came up with the idea for the new flavors.
Damavandi said that finalizing the recipe for the tarts took some time.
When the lemon cream cheese flavor was introduced, there was a little bit of controversy. Some people wanted to keep the original lemon flavor and some wanted to go with the new one, but in the end, the Festival directors allowed both to be made. Damavandi said that the new version of the lemon tart, her favorite of all the flavors, usually outsells the old one.
Damavandi goes into work every day to continue the tradition of snacks at the Festival.