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Kennywood, Idlewild pumpkin spice up fall-themed menu items

WEST MIFFLIN — Now you can get your pumpkin spice fix at Kennywood!

Fall festivities at both Kennywood and Idlewild parks are enhanced this year with the addition of special seasonal food items.

For visitors to Kennywood’s Phantom Fall Fest, that includes a pumpkin spice-flavored funnel cake and cheesecake, along with turkey legs, grilled corn on the cob, sweet potato fries, kielbasa and sauerkraut, eyeball cupcakes and scary ice cream cones.

At Idlewild’s Halloboo! days, there are s’mores, caramel apples and cotton candy in orange and green.

Adult visitors to both the West Mifflin and Ligonier Township parks also can quaff a seasonal beer or hard cider, while those at Kennywood can sip a mixed drink from a spooky blood bag or syringe. The cocktails have a mixture of rum and/or vodka in lemon, lime or orange flavors.

Featured at Kennywood are Hacker-Pschoor Original Oktoberfest, Jacks Hard Cider and Erie Johnny Rails Pumpkin Ale.

Idlewild is serving Angry Orchard, Guinness Ale, Brewdog Elvis Juice and Blockhouse Pumpkin Ale, along with an apple cider shandy in a cinnamon sugar-rimmed glass.

This is the first foray into a specific fall food lineup at the parks, said Nick Paradise, director of corporate communications for parks owner, Palace Entertainment

“We’ve previously served small items like cider and hot chocolate, but we wanted to make food a unique attraction as part of the fall season,” Paradise said. “We thought, let’s make the food attraction part of the theme.”

The new food features are meant to enhance standard offerings at the parks, not to replace old favorites, he added.

“These new items are meant to appeal to our more adventurous eaters,” he said. “They’ll find some of the others, like the Potato Patch fries, largely untouched.”

Kennywood visitors will find the turkey legs at the midway stand near the Jackrabbit roller coaster, and other items in small booths around that area and the Lagoon.

Specialties are being served in the Autumn Harvest area of Idlewild.

The fall treats will be available through the end of Phantom Fall Fest and Halloboo!, on Oct. 31.

“That’s the end of the season for Idlewild, but Kennywood will be back in action a few weeks later for Holiday Lights,” Paradise said.

The plan is for more seasonal and themed food attractions in the future, he said.