On any given day from April 1 through mid-September, you may encounter a long line of backed up traffic on the inside lane of Presque Isle Drive at the entrance to Presque Isle State Park.
While the park enjoys more than 4,000,000 visitors each year, the hold-up is not traffic entering the park, it’s motorists lined up, sometimes for an hour or more, to grab some grub from Sara’s Restaurant, an iconic seasonal Erie eatery that offers standard fast-food fare, like hot dogs (they only serves Smith’s, thank you!), burgers, chicken sandwiches, curly fries, onion rings and more, cooked fresh.
Sara’s started as an ice cream shoppe, and it offers lots of options for ice cream lovers — from regular cones to milkshakes and sundaes to peanut butter frozen yogurt to their famous orange-sherbert-and-vanilla twist cones.
The restaurant decor is colorful and fun with bright red picnic tables, striped awnings, fun photo opp backdrops and a 1950s drive-in diner vibe.
Sara’s is kid-, family-, stroller-, and, yes, dog-friendly (outdoors/patio for the doggos, please), though — as noted earlier — it’s a popular place and often crowded. While the menu may not knock your socks off (it’s good, but it’s standard burgers-and-fries type food), Sara’s a must-stop for many visitors and residents, alike, when they visit Presque Isle.
A few insider tips:
Don’t wait in the drive-through. You’ll get your food quicker if you walk into the restaurant.
If you’re only getting ice cream, order at the ice cream window, don’t go to the main counter.
The restrooms are in a separate building behind the restaurant. Look for the signs and be careful crossing the drive-through traffic.
The curly fries are worth every calorie as are the Smith’s hot dogs, the only dogs you’re likely to find in the Erie area. (If it’s not Smith’s, Erieites aren’t eating it.)
It can be hard to get in and out of the parking lot at Sara’s. Park at the nearest vista and walk or ride a bike back — it’s about a half mile.
If you don’t want to walk or bike in, hit Sara’s on the way into the park, or drive into the park a bit, and turn around. It can be quite hard to cross traffic to head back up Peninsula Drive and nearly impossible on busy weekends.
Don’t forget your coupons. Erieties LOVE coupons! In the Erie area, Sara’s coupons are delivered in ValPak in the mail, but you can also get them online.
Learn more about Sara’s and the story behind the restaurant at their website. Follow them on Facebook.
P.S. Erie Apparel is your destination for cool Erie-centric shirts like this Smith’s one! They have lots of Ts that pay tribute to Sara’s, too, such as a fun one about getting “twisted” at Sara’s.
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