Overland Trail Cafe, near Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, will introduce a new menu starting March 20, 2025, when it reopens. This menu will feature multiple crunchy snacks from a new corporate partnership with Doritos.
The new menu at Overland Trail Cafe will feature a new Doritos Loaded offer: this is three crunchy recipes developed by Disneyland Paris chefs in collaboration with Doritos. These combine indulgent toppings and bold flavors. Disneyland Promises that this new Frontierland specialty will be perfect for eating at any time of the day. They include:
- Plain Doritos, vegan chili, plant-based cheese (Nurishh), pickled red onions, and sweet corn – €10.
- Plain Doritos, Doritos cheddar-flavored sauce, tomato, onion, cilantro, and guacamole – €9.
- Plain Doritos, cheddar-piquillos beef sauce, crispy onions, tomato, onion, cilantro, and smoked chipotle powder – €10.
A New Character with a New Backstory
The name for the Overland Trail Cafe comes from one of the main roads linking the East and West of the United States. Walt Disney Imagineering Paris and Doritos teams also imagined a new character to help enrich the story of Frontierland. This character is the owner of the Overland Trail Cafe, a stagecoach mail carrier with a fire nature and a curious mind. During one of her trips through the frontier, she met a gold prospector who shared his meal with her. This was a simple and delicious snack of crispy, corn chips, in the shape of triangles. She was delighted by this delicious find and stocked up on the crisps. Sadly, on the road, the chips got mixed with the goods she was carrying. At first, she was disappointed. Ultimately she realized that the new combinations of flavors were really quite tasty! So she began to sell these creations to the inhabitants of Thunder Mesa and the Doritos Loaded recipes were born.
Multiple teams came together to bring this story to life in the park. Together, they created decorative elements that were developed and built in the Central Workshops of Disneyland Paris. These were then added to the exterior and interior of Overland Trail Cafe. This took carpenters, painters, prop makers, and prints to support this project and bring to life the vision and creative intention of the Imagineering and Doritos teams.
David Goebel, the Lead Concept Designer at Walt Disney Imagineering Paris shared, “We took great care in weaving our new character’s story into the rich mythology of Frontierland. As a larger-than-life trailblazer, she fits right into the colourful cast of characters who inhabit Thunder Mesa. As always, it was a true joy collaborating with the many talented artisans, craftspeople, and experts of all kinds who work behind the scenes at Disneyland Paris.”
Inspiration and Details
The new character is based on a combination of multiple real people and 19th-century dime novels that featured strong female heroines. The real-life people included Mary Fields, Annie Oakley, and Calamity Jane. Guests who check out the wooden billboard outside Overland Trail Cafe will find a map that shows the stagecoach driver’s travels. This is also a dime novel cover dedicated to her adventures, along with other mentions of the transportation company, the Thunder Mesa Express. Inside the Overland Trail Cafe, there are photos found of the owner along with the inhabitants of Thunder Mesa, including Ol’ Klondike, the famous gold prospector who introduced Doritos to her in the first place!
A New Collaboration
This collaboration marks the beginning of a new food and creative collaboration between Disneyland Paris and Doritos.
“The integration of the Doritos® brand at Overland Trail Cafe marks a new milestone in our alliance partnership with the brand, an Official Partner in the salty snack category. This project represents the culmination of a dynamic and creative collaboration between our respective teams, enhancing the Food & Beverage offering at Disneyland® Paris, to the delight of our guests.” said Karine Rougale, Director of Corporate Alliances & Partnerships at Disneyland Paris.
Shiri Kornowski, Senior Design Director at PepsiCo said, “Our team at PepsiCo Design & Innovation collaborated with Walt Disney Imagineering Paris to create a bold new female character: the owner of Overland Trail Cafe. We gave her a captivating narrative as a stagecoach driver that seamlessly fits into Frontierland’s Western Time Era, establishing the Overland Trail Cafe as the trading post for the legendary Doritos Loaded at Disneyland Paris. Guests will see our design influence as the adventurous culinary story unfolds at the Overland Trail Cafe.”
The Doritos and Disneyland Connection
Doritos were created at Casa de Fritos at Disneyland. Sponsored by Frito-Lay, the restaurant served Frito’s chips. At the end of each day, many tortillas were simply thrown away. In the early 1960s, a food salesman saw this. He suggested instead cutting them into triangles, deep frying them, and then seasoning them. This crunch snack was added to the menu and soon became quite popular. This led to them being sold regionally in 1964 and then nationally by 1966. Initially, it was the local recipe that was created at Disneyland. As the product grew in popularity, more flavors were developed. This includes the popular Nacho Cheese and Cool Ranch flavors in 1972 and 1986 respectively.
This new collaboration with Disneyland Paris and Doritos comes as Doritos are no longer sold at Disneyland in Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante. This is the current restaurant at the location where Casa de Fritos was. It does still serve chips. This continues on in its own way the legacy that continues at Disneyland Paris at Overland Trail Cafe.
What do you think of this new collaboration and the menu offerings that come from it? Are you excited to try it out? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
