Laissez les bon temps rouler! Disney just announced the official opening date of Tiana’s Palace restaurant in Disneyland Park is September 7, 2023! This reimagined quick-service style restaurant is inspired by the one Princess Tiana created in the beloved Walt Disney Animation Studios film, “The Princess and the Frog.”
The Tiana’s Palace restaurant opening will mark the next step in bringing more of Princess Tiana’s stories to life in New Orleans Square, which began with Eudora’s Chic Boutique featuring Tiana’s Gourmet Secrets last year and will continue with the opening of the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attraction in 2024. We are so thrilled to expand upon Princess Tiana’s story, pay homage to the cuisine of the Crescent City, and welcome guests into Tiana’s Palace in just a few short weeks!
There will be so many elegant yet subtle details throughout the restaurant that offer fun hints at Tiana’s rich past in New Orleans. Below the lit marquee that reads “Tiana’s Palace” hanging above a metallic gold balcony, is an emerald green wrought iron railing and awnings dyed in yellow and green, reminiscent of Tiana’s beautiful formal ball gown. You will be surrounded by the colors of Mardi Gras as you sit at yellow tabletops, on warm vanilla-colored chairs with green seats, in the shade of yellow and green umbrellas.
Disney Imagineers also took inspiration from the film for the interior of the restaurant, which includes a large mural of the bayou. You will also see other references to Tiana’s story – lilies represented on numerous signs, plaques, and light fixtures, frog porcelains, cookbooks Tiana has collected on little shelves, and her father’s favorite gumbo spoon proudly on display. You’ll also want to watch for the letters from her father and neighbors on display, alongside a childhood photo of Tiana.
Did you know? The design of Tiana’s Palace from the Disney Animation film “The Princess and the Frog” was inspired by the French Market Restaurant – the former restaurant in this space – in New Orleans Square at Disneyland Park. In the film, Disney Animation artists added a wheelhouse and two smokestacks to give Tiana’s restaurant an iconic silhouette, so when the time came to bring Tiana’s Palace to life at Disneyland, Disney Imagineers made those identical additions to create the honest Tiana’s Palace, making this a full circle moment!
