A Mac and Cheese Shack At The Fredericton Lighthouse? Of Course It’s A Good Idea
FREDERICTON – Frederictonians can now enjoy a summer comfort treat at the Lighthouse.
The Mac and Cheese Shack opened three weeks ago and offers mac and cheese with a little twist: a variety of equally yummy toppings.
The managers, Chris Cornhill and Matt MacKenzie, said the idea came in a discussion. But why mac and cheese?
“Do you like mac and cheese?” MacKenzie asked me when we chatted last week at the Lighthouse.
“Oh yeah!” I blurted out. I saw his point.
“It’s the exact thing!” said MacKenzie, who is also executive chef at Fredericton’s Crowne Plaza. “How many people are you going to talk to that are going to [say], ‘you know what man, I hate mac and cheese’?”
“I think if you do that you’re probably not from this Earth,” added Cornhill, who is the food and beverage manager at the hotel.
Their mac and cheese options include pulled pork, cheeseburger, bacon, vegetarian, plain mac and cheese, and ‘Macarito,’ which is mac and cheese with Doritos and toppings. It also sells ice-cream.
“We just kind of want to have fun with it, really,” said Cornhill.
The April flood slowed down the opening process.
“We had to basically clean this place from top to bottom before we could open,” said Cornhill. “Make it nice again.”
Now that the shack is up and running, its treats have been well-received, they say. The shack sold 80 pounds of macaroni the day it opened.
The food is cooked at the Crowne Plaza’s restaurant and shipped through the path with a trolley. At the shack, the food is reheated.
It isn’t the first time the Lighthouse sells food. The Crowne Plaza has had a 10-year lease on the building since 2014 and has sold barbecue, craft beer, and ice-cream before.
This time, they wanted to try something new.
“It’s always really, ‘what do you put on here that makes it different for people?’” said Cornhill. “We could have…burgers, but everywhere has burgers.”
They are open from Thursday to Sunday, but are looking at opening seven days a week “once tourist season gets in full swing.”
People can go to the top of the Lighthouse and look at a small museum by paying a $2 donation that goes to the Fredericton SPCA.
“[It] encourages people to come up the lighthouse and give some money to a good cause,” said Cornhill. “It’s a nice little story to tell.”
They plan to run the place until Labour Day. Depending on how it goes, they may go into the fall.
“This is a real summer location,” said Cornhill