For Your Amusement

Recalling the Rice Cups at Rockaway’s Playland While Rye Playland Revamps

Photo: Yun Cee Ng

Coney Island isn’t the only local amusement park due for a food makeover: Developers are vying to take over 83-year-old Rye Playland, which has been struggling in recent years to the tune of $32 million in debt. According to The Wall Street Journal, a nonprofit organization backed by Goldman Sachs and UBS financiers wants to spend $35 million to add year-round restaurants and ball fields to the park. This gets us to thinking about a Playland that didn’t make it after 83 years in business — Rockaway’s Playland in Queens. Check out NYC Shore (created by your humble editor during a fit of summer nostalgia last weekend) for a look at what you could eat on the boardwalk during the fifties and sixties, before Playland closed in 1985. Maybe a “Martin’s Corner” (hamburgers on Martin’s rolls!) is just what the surviving Playland needs?

Rockaway Boardwalk Bites of Yore [NYC Shore]
Picking New Game Plan For Ailing Rye Playland [WSJ]

Recalling the Rice Cups at Rockaway’s Playland While Rye Playland Revamps