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<p><b>New page</b></p><div>'''Hungry Bear Restaurant''' was the name, from 1977 to 2024, of a counter-service restaurant in the western corner of [[Disneyland Park]] in Anaheim, California, in the land now called [[Bayou Country]]. Set on a two-level rustic terrace overlooking the [[Rivers of America]], it began in 1972 as the Golden Bear Lodge, spent nearly five decades as the Hungry Bear Restaurant serving American counter-service food, and reopened in October 2024 — after a Country Bears retheme — as the '''Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree''', the name it carries today.<br />
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== History ==<br />
The restaurant opened on September 24, 1972, as the Golden Bear Lodge, in the new land of Bear Country, the home of the [[Country Bear Jamboree]] attraction.<ref name="wiki">{{cite web |title=Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree |publisher=Wikipedia |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry_Bear_Restaurant}}</ref> Bear Country was Disneyland's smallest and most deliberately rustic land, and the lodge-style restaurant, built beside the river at the far end of it, was its only substantial dining location.<br />
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In 1977 the restaurant reopened under the name Hungry Bear Restaurant, the name it would keep for 47 years.<ref name="wiki" /> The land around it changed names — Bear Country became Critter Country in 1988, when Splash Mountain was built alongside — but the restaurant changed little, settling in as the quiet, spacious eating place at the back of the park. Its terraces watched a procession of river traffic go by: the [[Mark Twain Riverboat]], the [[Sailing Ship Columbia]] and, for many years, the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes launching from a dock below.<br />
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In July 2024 the Hungry Bear Restaurant closed for a reimagining tied to the transformation of Critter Country into [[Bayou Country]] for the arrival of [[Tiana's Bayou Adventure]].<ref name="duchess">{{cite web |title=Hungry Bear Restaurant: Critter Country |publisher=Duchess of Disneyland |url=https://duchessofdisneyland.com/park-history/the-hungry-bear-restaurant/}}</ref> It reopened on October 25, 2024, as the Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree, themed to the Country Bears — Disneyland's own Country Bear Jamboree having closed in 2001, the new theme drew on the characters and on the Country Bear Musical Jamboree show then playing at [[Magic Kingdom]].<ref name="laughingplace">{{cite web |title=Opening Date Revealed for the Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree at Disneyland |publisher=Laughing Place |url=https://www.laughingplace.com/w/disney-parks/hungry-bear-barbecue-jamboree-opening-date/}}</ref> Weeks later, in November 2024, the surrounding land officially took the Bayou Country name.<br />
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== Setting ==<br />
The restaurant stands next to [[The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh]], at the point where the land's path turns toward the river. It is a two-storey lodge-style building, and almost all of its seating is outside, spread across covered terraces on both levels.<ref name="wiki" /> The upper and lower patios look out over the [[Rivers of America]] toward [[Tom Sawyer Island]], which has long made it one of the most peaceful places in the park to eat — removed from the crowds, shaded by trees, and quiet apart from the riverboats and the birds the seating attracts.<br />
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The 2024 retheme kept the building and its terraces but layered Country Bears detail through them: portraits of the show's bears, references to the bears' supposed tours of America's great music halls, and Ursus H. Bear billed as the restaurant's official "grill master."<ref name="touristblog">{{cite web |title=Opening Date & Full Menu for Country Bear Jamboree Restaurant |publisher=Disney Tourist Blog |url=https://www.disneytouristblog.com/full-menu-hungry-bear-bbq-country-bear-jamboree-restaurant/}}</ref> A soundtrack of the Country Bears' songs plays while guests eat; the bears themselves do not appear, and it is not a character dining location.<br />
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== Cuisine ==<br />
For most of its life the Hungry Bear served straightforward American counter-service fare — burgers, sandwiches, chicken tenders and salads — of a kind suited to its out-of-the-way, family picnic atmosphere, with funnel cake fries among its long-standing sweet items. The menu changed seasonally and for park festivals, but the formula stayed deliberately simple.<br />
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The 2024 Barbecue Jamboree menu was a wholesale change, built around house-smoked barbecue presented as the regional dishes the Country Bears had gathered on tour. Its centrepiece is a smoked barbecue combo platter — a choice of two meats from pork spareribs, pulled pork, sausage link and beef brisket, served with baked beans, house slaw, white bread and pickles — alongside a barbecue pulled pork sandwich, a smoked beef brisket sandwich, a burger topped with pulled pork, and a plant-based corn ribs plate, most served with beer-battered fries.<ref name="touristblog" /> Desserts and drinks followed the theme with items such as banana pudding and funnel cake fries.<br />
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== See also ==<br />
* [[Bayou Country]]<br />
* [[Country Bear Jamboree]]<br />
* [[Tiana's Bayou Adventure]]<br />
* [[Rivers of America]]<br />
* [[Disneyland Park]]<br />
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== References ==<br />
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[[Category:Restaurants]]<br />
[[Category:Disneyland Park]]<br />
[[Category:1972 establishments in California]]</div>Admin