Food, fun highlights Frontier Festival

Editor's note: Justin Dietz is a Register correspondent representing CPFoodBlog.com and @CPFoodBlog on Twitter. SANDUSKY — What started as a small celebration of beers and barbeque has grown into the annual tradition at Cedar Point, now known as the Frontier Festival. Starting this Thursday, and running daily through June 19, Frontier Town will be transformed into a celebration centered around family fun, specialty beverages and a food menu that is centered around the townfolks' celebration of the cherry. Access to Frontier Festival is included with the price of admission to Cedar Point and gets you special live entertainment offerings, local artisans offering handmade creations, family crafts and games fitting for a cherry jubilee. Of course, guests still have access to ride favorites in the area including the Cedar Creek Mine Ride, Maverick, Wave Swinger, SkyHawk and Steel Vengeance. If you have visited Cedar Point, particularly this year, you will hear a pretty common theme. The food scene has been stepped up pretty substantially with the introduction of the new Farmhouse Kitchen & Grill. For those guests with a dining plan, they have quickly realized they can be dining on sliced wood-fired steak with herb pesto, artisan linguiça sausage and spiced grilled chicken drumsticks all season long — not to mention all the amazing side dishes. The chefs have once again been busy crafting a menu for the Frontier Festival that is fitting for a king. While the theme of the festival is cherry, many of the menu items have such a tiny influence from the fruit, you may not even notice its flavor. The menu incorporates the park's in-house barbeque techniques with a variety of summer favorites that should suit a wide palate of guests. Perhaps you may want to start your day with some dry-rubbed, smoked chicken wings. Then you realize as the day starts to warm, you should try out one of the latest Thirsty Dog Brewing beverages. After grabbing a lap on Maverick, you decide to test your heat tolerance with the Gochujang glazed pork ribs paired with a panzanella salad. Then, while enjoying a stage show, you cap the night with a cherry cola cupcake. Anytime guests visit their local county fair, part of the fun is going outside of your comfort zone and trying some of the really crazy menu items. That is where guests are going to want to try the new glazed donut bacon cheeseburger topped with a cherry onion jam. It may look weird, but just wait until you try the combination of flavors, as they pair surprisingly well. As a reminder, Cedar Point is cashless, therefore, guests will need to purchase tasting cards to enjoy the Frontier Festival: $40 gets guests six tasting items or $60 a card for 10 items. The Frontier Festival runs daily from 2-8 p.m. with food and beverage service ending at 7:30. To see the complete menu for the 2022 Cedar Point Frontier Festival, check out the article on the CPFoodBlog.