Garlic Fries, Brother Jimmy’s headline NYS food options
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Over in Queens, CitiField is turning into an epicurean delight. While the Mets have unveiled Nathan’s hot dogs, Shake Shack and a whole raft of Danny Meyer/Blue Smoke options, the Yanks have been largely silent on the dining at New Yankee Stadium.
Today, they lifted that curtain to unveil a wide array of dining options for patrons of the Yankee Experience. The Yankees, through their Legends Hospitality group, are bringing back what the team is calling “traditional favorites.” I won’t judge you if you consider a lukewarm, overpriced piece of congealed cheese pizza from Famous Famiglia traditional or a favorite.
Meanwhile, the new offerings are mostly predictable, if a little disappointing. Brother Jimmy’s BBQ seems to be the headliner, and the delis will now offer Boar’s Head sandwiches. I’m not quite sure why the Yanks are promoting Garlic Fries, something they call “a staple of West Coast ballparks” when New York City itself offers far better food options, but that’s the way it is. (The full list is available after the jump.)
As part of their continued push to make the new ballpark affordable, the team is continuing to offer a $3 hot a dog, a $3 soda and a $6 beer. Everything from the old ballpark will cost the same as it did last year with the team’s preparing for a plethora of promotional items. The team has hired 4000 union workers to staff these concession booths, and they plan to donate leftover edible food to charity.
All in all, I’m a bit underwhelmed by the concession options. Items such as the Highlanders’ traditional food — a pushcart hot dog vendor with sauerkraut and onions — aren’t that compelling, and the sushi choices, noodle bowls and Tommy Bahamas drinks are what I would expect from stadiums in Phoenix or Denver. The local flare seems missing, and as much as I hate to admit it, it seems as though the Mets did a far better job stocking their new home than the Yanks did.
Traditional Favorites:
- Bazzini nuts
- Carl’s Steaks
- Carvel Ice Cream
- Cracker Jack
- Famous Famiglia Pizza
- French’s Mustard
- Hebrew National
- Heinz Ketchup
- Mike’s Arthur Avenue Italian Deli, featuring zeppoli and antipasto
- Nathan’s Famous, serving hot dogs in natural casing
- New York Pretzel
- Premio Sausage, serving grilled coiled sausages
- Poland Spring Water
- Tyson chicken
- Utz Potato Chips
Stadium Debuts:
- Boar’s Head made-to-order deli sandwich stand, including soups and salads
- Brother Jimmy’s BBQ
- Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee
- Highlanders traditional ballpark food with a New York flair, including hot dogs with sauerkraut and “pushcart” onions
- Johnny Rockets
- Lobel’s of New York
- Moe’s Southwest Grill
- Otis Spunkmeyer
- Pepsi Cola Products, including Lipton Iced Tea, Tropicana Lemonade and Gatorade
- Tommy Bahama’s Bar serving mixed drinks
- Turkey Hill Ice Cream
New Cuisine:
- Garlic Fries stand, a staple of West Coast ballparks
- Latin Corner, serving hot-pressed Cuban sandwiches, nachos and burritos
- Noodle Bowls stand with other Asian-inspired items
- Soy Kitchen sushi and salads
- Triple Play Grill, offering beef and chicken sliders, and Lobel’s steak sandwiches
Healthy Alternatives and Specialty Items:
- Melissa’s, a traditional farmers market, carrying fresh fruits and vegetables
- Various Glatt Kosher options
Child-Friendly Options
- The Big Apple stand, offering candy, caramel and chocolate-dipped apples
- Dale and Thomas popcorn stand
- Kids Cart with school-lunch favorites and smaller-portion items, such as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, milk, small hot dogs and Kozy Shack Pudding
70 Comments»
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The Mason Williams Watch
I agree. When Grand Central station blows away your food options, you need to go back to the drawing board.
It’s a ball game bro not a dining experience!
The Mets have to do that because they need the casual consumer to come to the stadium in September when they’re out of it!
Give me some beer, a hot dog, some napkins and I’m good for at least 13 innings. Actually, scratch the napkins, I’ll rough it.
Doesn’t quite work that way, Drew. The Yanks tore down a stadium — with history — that did a damn fine job of just giving people a beer, a hot dog and a ballgame. They built a $2 billion stadium to give people a Yankee Experience, and if this is the food they came up with, they aren’t really delivering.
I understand, I’m just so damn anxious to see some baseball. At this point I’m not worried about the food. After a few games though, I can see your point.
You really need to cool it with the old stadium melodrama, it’s getting to reach Abraham-ARod proportions.
It’s not melodrama. It’s a fact. The Yanks are opening up this stadium as part of an Experience. That’s the team’s own word for it. These food options aren’t that much of an experience. But thanks for the feedback.
I know it’s fact and I know this stadium wont ever wholly replace the original, but one chilly fry more or less shouldn’t make us envy the Met’s offerings. Sometimes the new stadium is made to seem as this complete and inadequate failure without it ever been played in. I think so far its kind of dapper, maybe it needs breaking in time for things to gel. But there is too much negativity surrounding it on RAB at times.
Getting Abraham’d means you probably should chill a bit on the glory of the old stadium. If that isnt a sign I dont know what is.
I’m sure there are plenty of people out there that love this food menu and all the variety. Just because you don’t think its good doesn’t mean its not.
Coming from you, Bo/Grant, that means next to nothing. Considering how many people seem to agree with me in this thread, I’ll be sure to completely ignore your bipolar comments, as always.
I agree they need more local food. For example in Seattle, you can buy like fresh grilled salmon steaks. NY should have like Canoles, pasta dishes, and bagels.
Lets try to give some suggestions for better choices for traditional ballpark fare. Here’s mine:
Pizza-Two Boots (various loc)
Hot Dogs-?? (Need some help, not a big hot dog guy)
Fries-Belgian Frites (east villiage)
American Fare-Vynl Diner (various loc)
. . . and guys, its 2009. Get some ethnic choices in the mix.
-Monster Sushi (various loc)
-Greenfield Churrascaria (various loc)
-Omonia Pasrty shop (Astoria)
Pizza you could do a number of ways. Joe’s on Bleecker St for starters. Hot Dogs I’d just go with grilled Nathan’s. Those are the best. I like your fries suggestion.
As for ethnic food, bring in dumplings from Joe’s Shanghai or something similar. Just get creative.
Nathan’s Hot Dogs is a NO-BRAINER. Here are some of my suggestions:
Steak Sandwiches made with PETER LUGER steak sauce
JOHN’S BLEECKER STREET pizza – good call Ben
Anything associated with BOBBY FLAY (he was a guest on Center Stage for Christ Sake)
JUNIORS – desserts and BBQ
Brooklyn Brewery/Blue Point – beer
They did the right thing with the Deli, the local Bronx place.
Famous Rays in right field, and Famous Original Rays in left!
Peter Luger steak sauce would be clutch.
If the Mets have Shake Shack, counter with Paul’s Burgers or Corner Bistro Burgers
Make sure you get a bib for the Corner Bistro burger.
McSorely’s beer as an alternate to Brooklyn Brewery
As long as a grumpy Irish curmudgeon is serving it to you and throws sawdust at your feet…
YES PLEASE!!!!
Good call on Bobby Flay. He’s a huge Yankee fan.
But Flay’s food is HUGELY under-whelming and he caters to tourists, with his grand scheme bullshit. I know this is an opinion, but in the scheme of chefs he doesnt rank anywhere near the top.
Gray’s papaya hot dogs would have been great. I agree on John’s pizza, or Grimaldis. Corner Bistro is just that a corner bistro they would never agree, but my my would that be fantastic.
I am a fan on the boars head deli, I saw one of these at the Jet Blue terminal recently was pretty good, and quick. But yea, they could have had better options, brother jimmys will hopefully provide nice wings, but then again no place to clean off after I look like a slob eating them.
Ciao Bella Ice Cream
How about some good Mexican food. Real tacos and fajitas, not from Taco Bell.
I thought they were going to have a fancy restaurant too, do one of those restaurants listed fall into that category?
“Real tacos and fajitas, not from Taco Bell.”
I think you hurt Tacoby Bellsbury feelings!
If only Burritoville was still in business!!!
Good thing I’m not going to be pregaming and cooking some hot dogs and steak on my own grill before the game.
They should definitely offer a dish called “The New York Mets Special” and it could have the slogan “Guaranteed to make you choke!”
That will go over big in court when somebody ACTUALLY chokes on it.
How’d you like to be the Yankee lawyer on THAT case?
Any lawyer (or non-lawyer) could handle the case because all they would have to do is answer the phone call (or open the letter) from MLB Properties advising the Yankees to cease and desist, which would quickly dispose of the issue.
I gotta say that I’m completely jealous of Citifield having a Shake Shack even though I never go past the hot dog/soda combo at a game if I dont get a bite to eat beforehand.
Best Pizza in the city is:
Two Boots.
Mmmmm….love me some Two Boots.
Patsy-Grimaldi’s under the Brooklyn Bridge on old fulton
Both listed above are awesome, but with the lines that form outside of Patsy’s. I’ll take 2boots
Don Fillipo’s BBQ or Pesto chicken slices for all you UES’ers.
As for the stadium food as long as i can get a Carls Cheese steak and some fries i cant really complain. If i want Blue Smoke ill go to the restaurant, im sure the prices will be the same but not sure about the quality. Shake shake on the other hand would be amazing.
Didnt they forget the Hard Rock restaurant that was widely discussed?
Sorry glanced by the full dining section and didnt see the Hard rock place
Di Fara and Lucali (a worthy successor to Di Fara)
John’s of Bleecker St.
Johns is the best. Hands down
Any idea how long these commitments are for? Maybe they can upgrade the options that dont do too well in a few years…Either way, I dont care too much. You get food/ beer at a ballgame, you know your going to get ripped off, and with the food you know it won’t be all that good no matter what. I agree with what you said, it seems the Mets did better and thats whatever but at the same time, they picked up Delgado’s option and we went out and dropped 180mil on Tex. I care much more about the baseball side of it and focus my energy on that. So I’ll take lousy food and Tex over slightly less lousy food and Delgado any day of the week.
I won’t judge you if you consider a lukewarm, overpriced piece of congealed cheese pizza from Famous Famiglia traditional or a favorite.
IETC
I’m sorry, but the fact that the Mets have a Shake Shack blows everything any stadium on this planet can offer.
“blows everything”
AWAY
blows everything any stadium on this planet can offer AWAY!
Heh, thanks.
The Mets figure they better keep the fans happily fed to keep them from killing each other or themselves after yet another shocking meltdown.
WTF, MOES IN YANKEE STADIUM?!?!?!
is that good or bad?
amazingly good.
Moe’s over Chipotle? That’s weak.
A couple of Chipotle are opening up nearby (we have to moes in the area) Is Chipotle good? I am planning on going once it opens up.
Chipotle’s even weaker, neither are any good
I’ve never been, but i’ve heard good things about both
i don’t know, some of this stuff sounds pretty good.
in the old stadium, if i felt like waiting on line for half an inning, i’d get the chicken fingers/fries. if not, just hot dogs from the vendors. that’s about it. the food court took forever. the nachos were terrible. burgers were terrible.
cuban sandwiches? steak sandwiches? sliders? even Johnny Rockets makes pretty good burgers.
i guess i’ll wait until the stadium actually opens to declare it a failure, but this sounds like a 1000% improvement, even if it falls a little short to CitiField’s food.
also, $6 beers? that’s not bad at all.
One thing that isn’t mentioned in any of the comments is the increase in the amount of cooking space in the new stadium. The chicken finger and fries at the old stadium were soggy and most likely microwaved. The food was nowhere near fresh and frankly old. Nothing could beat shake shack, but the number of options, grill space, and open concourses make it leaps and bounds abovve the old stadium. Also, qdoba is better than noes and chipotle
Boar’s Head, FTW!
I admit I’m not a connoisseur of ballpark food, but most of this stuff at least seems appetizing. Where is the list for Mets’ concessions that is so superior?
That Danny Meyer food at Citi Field sounds pretty legit. I would be jealous except that I’ll be watching the Yankees instead of the Mets, so I’ll be ok. Plus, I’m usually too cheap to spring for ballpark food anyway.
I know it’s fact and I know this stadium wont ever wholly replace the original, but one chilly fry more or less shouldn’t make us envy the Met’s offerings. Sometimes the new stadium is made to seem as this complete and inadequate failure without it ever been played in. I think so far its kind of dapper, maybe it needs breaking in time for things to gel. But there is too much negativity surrounding it on RAB at times.
Sorry, forgot to add great post! Can’t wait to see your next post!
Thanks. I’ll be sure to paint everything though unrealistic rose colored glasses for you from now on. Sorry for offering my own opinion on my website. How dare I.
I love Carvel. And I hope it’s still sold in those cute souvenir batting helmets. As for the rest of the food, I’ll keep bringing my own deli sandwich from Artie’s on Broadway. Too bad Shake Shack picked the wrong stadium.
“The Yankees continue to offer exceptional value on food and merchandise. They are offering a $3 hot dog, a $3 soft drink and a $6 beer.
Yeah…wait…what?!? Continue to offer? Is that a 1/2 a hotdog from last year and 2/3′s of a beer? I seem to remember hot dogs running $5.50-$6.50 and beers were $8.50 for 16 oz and $9.50 for Bud/Bud Light draught. I want to know where they’ve been hiding this cheaper beer from me? I’ll drink Natty Light in a paper cup…fine with me.
If the $6 Bud/Bud Lights are 20 ounces, that’s a major price reduction! But I’ll believe it when I see it.
By the way, whatever happened to the little hole in the wall on River Avenue next to Stan’s that sold $5 Hot Italian Sausage w/ Peppers & Onions? That was the best place for food anywhere around the stadium.
Yeah there was one in the right field bleacher section, as far to the right as possible. That place was tastey!
I don’t go to Yankee Stadium (new or old) for the food. I go for the baseball. For some people the food is a big deal and that is fine. I could not care less about the food.
Last year I went to 5 games and bought 1 hot dog, and even that was only because my girlfriend was getting a little whiney. I can’t afford to eat or drink in the stadium so It makes no difference to me what they serve, although If theres any truth to $6 beer I may just buy one.
by the way, anybody know which dining option is obstructing the view of 600 bleacher seats?
Guys, I lived on the west coast for a bit and the best part of going to the game (besides when the Yankees were in town) were the garlic fries! You are gong to love them if done right. YUUUUUMMMMMMMM!
-Scott
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