How The Beloved Churro Became A Disneyland Staple

Come the wild—presumably brightly clothed—summer of 1985, a new outdoor amphitheater was arriving at Disneyland. Called Videopolis (which later became Fantasyland Theatre), the concept was to be akin to a teen hangout that would vibe sort of like a nightclub…if it was inside Disneyland and for teenagers, so use your imagination here.

Jim Lowman headed up Fantasyland restaurants at the time, so he needed new eats for the coming attraction of Videopolis. Lowman went to the Long Beach Grand Prix that year, where he bought some churros, and, as all people do, enjoyed the hell out of them.

Realizing the beloved pastry would be killer for Videopolis, he reached out to the company, J&J Snack Foods, and struck up a deal to bring churros to Disneyland’s Videopolis. However, he didn’t want the six-inch churros he dug immensely at the race, since he figured it’d be the equivalent of two pieces of popcorn at an amusement park, so he asked the company to make the churros a foot-long.

The churros were an instant hit at Disneyland, even before Videopolis opened.

See, to test the snack’s draw, Lowman stationed a churro cart near the Mark Twain Riverboat exit. Rumor has it there were already more than two dozen people trailing the car before it even parked. When Videopolis opened two weeks later, with two churro carts inside, the doughy cinnamon madness couldn’t be contained! So new carts opened around the park.

And now it’s pretty much impossible to not eat a churro at Disneyland. Or state fairs. Or restaurants. Or home. Honestly, churros might have nicotine in them because damn.