Hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn and Cracker Jack: anyone who’s visited a ballpark from the turn of the century until around the 1980s had these staples to count on for food options, says Bennett Jacobstein, author of The Joy of Ballpark Food: From Hot Dogs to Haute Cuisine. These days, it’s ceviche in Miami or wild rice soup in Minnesota. “Even the humble hot dog takes on a haute cuisine feel with the Venom Dog in Arizona (a specially-crafted habanero sausage with black beans, pico de gallo and sour cream),” he says.
The new food offerings aren’t lost on Melissa Graham, a self-proclaimed huge baseball fan and founding executive director of Chicago-based Purple Asparagus, a non-profit organization that works to educate children, families and the community about eating good food. Her family had season tickets for the Chicago White Sox until her son’s sports schedule took over their lives.
“When we travel to other cities during baseball season, we always try to make it to a game,” says Graham. “I like to try the unusual offerings at the stadium, especially if there's a local specialty - I can get a hot dog anywhere.
Bennett Jacobstein, author of The Joy of Ballpark Food: From Hot Dogs to Haute Cuisine, says there... [+]
In Chicago, she’s partial to the Wow Bao stands at Cellular Field on the 100 Level. “The best ballpark concession stands, however? San Francisco,” she emphatically declares. “They had grass-fed tacos, a farm-to-table stand and Irish coffee. Miami was a close second. I loved the plantain nachos. I was surprised that the food at Yankee stadium wasn’t better, but I haven’t been to the new one yet.” {Spoiler alert: Yankee Stadium has a fresh mozzarella sandwich made with eggplant, cheese, tomato, fresh basil and house spicy dressing from Parm’s restaurant, says Jacobstein.}
According to his research, 12 new stadiums were built in the 1990s with space optimized for concessions as team owners viewed the expansion of food offerings as a potential source of increased revenue. The advent of numerous food and cooking shows on television in the 1980s fueled America’s interest in food and owners were capitalizing on demand for better offerings at the stadiums.
“Additionally, after the 1994 major league player strike, Major League Baseball (MLB) grasped at every opportunity to get fans back to the ballparks,” notes Jacobstein. Expanded food choices were among the ideas.
Now, almost all of the parks offer some haute cuisine on their menu boards, he says, but feels the most variety is in Seattle and San Francisco on the West Coast, St. Louis in the Midwest, and Baltimore, Washington, and the two New York stadiums on the East Coast.
“Safeco Field in Seattle offers vegan-steamed buns with fillings such as black vinegar-glazed Portobello mushrooms, green chili and cucumber salad, basil and siracha mayonnaise,” he recalls. “AT&T Park in San Francisco has not one, but two, versions of lamb sausage.”
Ask Jacobstein about any baseball park and he can recite the offerings like the back of his hand: “in the middle of the country, the Island Grill at Busch Stadium in St. Louis has three specialties: mahi mahi tacos, crab cake sliders with roasted red pepper remoulade; and a spicy shrimp hoagie sandwich with lemon-caper aioli; Camden Yards in Baltimore offers regional specialties including a soft-shell crab sandwich and Maryland crab soup; Nationals Park in Washington serves Middle Eastern specialties such as baba ghanoush and shawarma.”
Citi Field in New York makes both meat-lovers and vegetarians happy. Jacobstein says well-known meat purveyor Pat LaFrieda provides the original LaFrieda family recipe showcasing hand-cut 100% Black Angus seared filet mignon topped with Vermont Monterey Jack cheese and sweet caramelized onions served on a custom-made toasted French baguette at the stadium. Vegetarian and New Yorker Judy Antell prefers the sushi vegetarian tacos at the ballpark.
The breadth of vegetarian offerings was what surprised Jacobstein the most during his ‘research’.
“I knew there would be veggie dogs and salads, but I found items such as a roasted cauliflower sandwich in Washington’s National Park and a hickory-smoked soy riblet at Comerica Park in Detroit,” he says. “Even the salads had a flair, such as the California kale and avocado salad at San Diego’s Petco Park or the seaweed salad at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.”
Jacobstein and his wife traveled to each of the major league stadiums to investigate the variety of food offerings during the 2014 season in order to write the book which chronicles the history of the first hot dog at a ball game and ends with a culinary tour of all 30 major league ballparks
All royalties from the sale of The Joy of Ballpark Food are being donated to Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties of California.
