Spring Ballpark Food Roundup

I’m sure it’s different for different types of sports fans, but this time of year I get to thinking about stadium and ballpark food. Yes, I follow that classic American summer pastime, professional baseball. Opening day has now come and past (Cubs win!), and the stories of updates to ballpark food are hitting the airwaves.

Around my neck of the sporting world, the “big news” was mainly that, in the wake of Sara Lee’s bow out of the kosher meats market (bye-bye Best’s Kosher), the dogs at the Cell (formerly Comiskey, where the White Sox call home on Chicago’s South Side) will now be Vienna Beef (and the company president is a Cubs fan ... horrors!). Personally, I’m indifferent to what happens with the dogs at either Chicago ballpark. Since Wrigley stopped selling Hebrew National a couple of years ago, I just stopped caring. What would get me excited? Secure a Hot Doug’s kiosk in the confines of Wrigley (and watch the lines start forming).

Chicago did announce some changes at the parks, and things look a bit more interesting on the South Side than the North (well, at lest in terms of food ... I like the build your own burrito option). And looks like there’s never a dull moment at New York’s parks, as noted in today’s Times. That Mexican stand, with pork carnitas and corn slathered with cheese and mayo, is now firmly on my radar. Camden Yards has some new twists in the works, and Royals fans can dig into a “steak on a stick” while taking in the game. All that’s missing is a novelty vino helmet that provides hands-free Cabernet quaffing.

But although I’m always happy to dabble, in the end, I already know that I’ll just stick with a dog—and as Chicago dog as they can get it—and an ice-cold, fully kraeusened Old Style when I hit the bleachers this summer.