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Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Sep 28, 2011

Buy me some peanuts… and pulled pork sliders with a local craft beer on the side?

No doubt about it, when it comes to concessions we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto—and we mean no disrespect to that great state in the middle of the country. Like all American diners, sports fans, moviegoers and other entertainment buffs have become more sophisticated in their demands, and the old model for concessions is falling by the wayside.

And this certainly spells opportunities for chefs, restaurateurs, and others in the food and beverage biz who are hungry for additional sales and ways to expand their brand recognition.

• In San Francisco’s AT&T Park and other big baseball stadiums, fans can get a glass of wine to go with their hot dogs, thanks to vintner-sponsored wine bars and other by-the-glass programs

• Movie theaters are now becoming destinations for dinner and a movie. At Lincoln Center in New York City, for instance, Indie Food & Wine offers up organic veggie dogs and artisanal chocolate courtesy of the folks who own the hip local ’inoteca restaurant group. There’s popcorn, yes, but it’s truffled Indie Food & Wine at Lincoln Center

• Meanwhile, Nighthawk Cinema in trendy Williamsburg, Brooklyn, offers burgers, smoked brisket sandwiches, and drinks in your seat, thanks to a Prohibition-era law that’s finally being overturned. Care for a Southern Vacation (Old Forester with mint, lemonade and orange bitters) to wash down that viewing of “The Help”?

• Matt Del Regno, new executive chef at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Ohio, where foodservice is provided by Levy Restaurants of Chicago, manages all the concessions at the facility, including clubs, the VIP Lounge, and tailgate catering

• Following the pattern developed at the Mets’ new Citi Field complex—where Danny Meyer famously headed up the development of concessions—management at the giant Madison Square Garden have brought in prominent local chefs like Drew Nieporent and Jean-Georges Vongerichten to prepare such specialties as lobster rolls and hand-carved prime rib