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Staff members eat in the new Hershey Farm Restaurant, 240 Hartman Bridge Rd., in Strasburg Township, Wednesday, July 14, 2024. The kitchen staff has been practicing with making food in the new kitchen, and the food is then eaten by staff members.

 BLAINE SHAHAN | Staff Photographer

When the doors open Friday to the rebuilt restaurant at Hershey Farm Resort, customers of the longtime tourism destination will once again be able to enjoy an unlimited supply of ham balls, fried chicken, buttered noodles and other traditional Pennsylvania Dutch fare.

While the food at the smorgasbord will be familiar, the new Hershey Farm restaurant building has been reimagined with a streamlined layout, new cafe, new food items and more space nearly 50 years after the original opening of what was a top tourist draw until it was completely destroyed in a January 2023 fire.

Gone is the warren of connected low-slung buildings and small waiting areas that created bottlenecks for the busloads of tourists who arrived for meals at the restaurant next to Sight & Sound Theatres, itself a top tourist destination. Now, Hershey Farm’s restaurant features wide entryways, tall ceilings, a larger smorgasbord and a new, internal connection to the adjacent hotel.

“There’s a lot of open areas where the public is so they can disperse,” said Deryl Stoltzfus, co-owner of the Hershey Farm Resort at 240 Hartman Bridge Road in Strasburg Township. “We put through a large volume of people, but I don’t want people to feel like they’re on top of one another. That really was the big goal of the design and the layout.”

The extra elbow room begins with the large, glassed-in foyer off which are the bakery and a retail shop as well as the entrance to the main smorgasbord. Stoltzfus said a secondary waiting area for the smorgasbord is now larger than the one that previously served the entire complex.

The main foyer has a glassed-in vestibule some 34 feet high, and a walkway finished off with pavers that help create the feeling of a shop-lined streetscape. On Wednesday, workers were installing the final pavers in what still looked like an active construction zone.

“We’ve been so locked in on getting open, I don’t know if we’ve allowed it to settle in that we’re almost there just because there’s so many things to get done,” Stoltzfus said during a Wednesday morning tour of the building.

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With total seating for nearly 600, the new restaurant at Hershey Farm actually has slightly less capacity than the old one, although it is designed to do a better job handling big crowds. A 120-seat dining room for large groups getting family-style meals now has its own entrance and dedicated bathrooms.

On a second level is Café 23, is a 100-seat cafe with a patio which serves lighter fare that is reminiscent of what was offered at a Hershey Farm Café that previously operated at Tanger Outlets.

“When you stay with us, it’s unlikely you’re going to eat buffet three times a day,” Stoltzfus said. “You’re going to want something lighter.”

One side of Café 23 has a direct, inside connection to Hershey Farm’s main hotel whose guests previously had to walk outside to reach the restaurant and their complimentary smorgasbord breakfast.

“That is a big deal,” Stoltzfus said of the new internal connection. ”Hotel guests getting the breakfast buffet, had to go outside before - but not anymore.”

A look at the new Hershey Farm Resort

Bigger and better smorgasbord

The Hershey Farm restaurant is still centered on the 400-seat smorgasbord dining room which has a food line that has nearly doubled in size.

Separate islands for desserts and a soup/salad/bread bar sit near the zigzagged main buffet line which ends with a grill station. In the center of the smorgasbord area is an enclosed server station that is a hub for employees getting drink refills or making coffee.

“The idea with the buffet, with the layout, is, again, spread people out,” Stoltzfus said. “There is no start or stop point. Wherever you’re seated you can go wherever you want on the buffet.”

While retaining its previous lineup of Pennsylvania Dutch food that includes chicken pot pie, mashed potatoes and whoopie pies, the smorgasbord has some new items, such as pizza, garlic knots and chicken Monterey as well as some new desserts.

“All of the classics, we’re still doing. It’s what made us popular. But we have now an opportunity to put out different, new food,” Stoltzfus said.

READ: Fire at Hershey Farm squeezes other tourist-friendly Lancaster County restaurants; 'Where are all the buses going to go?'

Like the rest of the new building, the smorgasbord dining room has white walls, clapboard, wood accents and gray stone walls and floorings that create what Stoltzfus describes as a modern farmhouse aesthetic.

Stoltzfus said the overall design of the new restaurant is consistent with some renovations made to the restaurant before the fire when the former red exterior was painted white and given black accents.

“We wanted something that was fresh and new but still felt like a farm. And we felt like we did that,” Stoltzfus said. “I’m thrilled with how it came out.”

The main dining room also has large windows that afford views of the 23-acre Hershey Farm complex, which includes a pond.

New Hershey Farm Restaurant set for opening [photos]

History of a tourist landmark

In 1975, Edwin and Emma Hershey, who had helped open Good ‘N Plenty Restaurant in 1969, opened Hershey Farm as a farmhouse that featured an Amish house tour and had a gift shop. Two years later they added a 50-seat restaurant and eventually converted the original house into a small motel. The current inn at the southern end of the property was built in 1988.

Hershey Farm restaurant catered to tourists with Lancaster County meat-and-potato dishes served family style at communal tables. The Hersheys, who remained part owners of Good ‘N Plenty until 1981, sold Hershey Farm in 1996 to Tom Zeager, who had previously managed the restaurant and hotel for them.

The Jan. 10, 2023, fire at Hershey Farm started when a worker repairing a section of the roof accidentally ignited some roofing material. The flames quickly spread throughout the restaurant and gift shop building at the center of the Strasburg Township complex. At the time, the restaurant and hotel were closed for the season.

No one was hurt in the fire, but the blaze resulted in a total loss of the restaurant building, which was leveled.

In addition to Stoltzfus, Hershey Farm is owned by Tom Zeager’s son, Clair, as well as Brian Ludwig. While proceeds from insurance coverage helped pay for much of the rebuilding, Stoltzfus said the three owners have made a significant additional investment in the project to create what they hope will be the new legacy for Hershey Farm.

“This is our forever home,” Stoltzfus said. “This will hopefully be like the Hershey Farm legacy, if you will. That’s what we hope.”

Stoltzfus declined to discuss any financial aspects of the rebuilding project that the owners had originally hoped to wrap up in mid-May. Some long lead times for equipment and general delays in construction led to that hoped-for opening being pushed back, Stoltzfus said.

But even with a year and a half having passed since the fire, Stoltzfus said most of the restaurant’s 170 employees are ones that worked there before the fire, something he said should help Hershey Farm pick up right where it left off when customers return Friday. While the workforce fluctuates, Hershey Farm had around 140 employees before the fire, nearly all of whom have returned.

“Fortunately, because a lot of the people that were here before are coming back, they know what they’re doing,” Stoltzfus said. “Our staff is so excited.”

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