Beyond Shake Shack: Citi Field’s Culinary Clubhouse

Following are Citi Field food and beverage updates as of April 8, 2011 for the upcoming season:

• Keith’s Grill, a kiosk tucked into the left outfield corner by section 131, is dedicated to the $10 Gold Glove Burger. Apparently prepared just the way Mr. Mustache likes ‘em, it’s a 6-oz. Brooklyn Burger topped with cheddar, tomato, lettuce, two dill pickles, raw onions, mayo, “extra ketchup on top” and mustard on the bottom of a sesame seed bun.
• If you’d rather have your mustard with sliced, smoked meat, Citi Field also boasts an entire concession stand devoted to hot pastrami on rye and knishes on the field level, behind section 135.
• On a less meaty and more depressing note, the custom Brooklyn Brewery selections at each of the Danny Meyer-run concessions have been replaced by Budweiser- and Miller-owned “premium” beers. Instead of Shackmeister Ale at Shake Shack, we now get Goose Island Summertime; Stella Artois for Blue Smoke Ale; Leinenkugel’s Honey Weiss instead of Blanche de Queens at Box Frites; and Leinie’s Sunset Wheat replacing Brooklyn Sabroso at El Verano Taqueria.
  
  Goose Island and Leinenkugel’s, despite their corporate ownership, are fine Midwestern brews. But that’s the thing: they hail from Chicago and Chippewa Falls, respectively, and while I throw back my share of 312 and Green Line any time I’m at Southport Lanes, I want to drink a New York brew while I drown my sorrows as a Mets fan.

  Part of the reason the Citi Field food and beverage program stood apart from other ballparks was the involvement of New York chefs and offering of locally made, locally owned items. Now that the Shake Shack machine is rolling into Nationals Park and likely beyond, it’s inevitable that operations will be streamlined, but at a character-losing cost. I’m sorry to see the Brooklyn Brewery choices go.

• Speaking of locally made: the Café Hanover Korean fried chicken stand, by the way, is still going strong in the World’s Fare Market, and is still crispy as ever. Freshly fried and sauced to order, this is one of the more underrated food options at the ballpark.

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April 5, 2010

As no baseball fan needs to be reminded, today is Opening Day 2010, and I’m ready to get on the 7 train with the orange-and-blue masses to make the hunger-inducing trip out to Citi Field.

Although I’ve never memorized ERAs or correctly identified a player on the Texas Rangers beyond A-Rod, I’ve always been drawn to the tradition and pace of baseball. All the cities I’ve lived in have been baseball towns to an extent with endearing underdog teams, so it’s a good thing I married a Mets fan.

Due to Dan’s patient and all-consuming obsession, over the past decade, the Mets have come to feel like my team, and Shea Stadium (and slowly but surely, the new park that Danielle calls Debits Field) have come to feel like home in New York. The wholesome goofiness of having a man whose head is an oversized baseball helps a lot too.

But you know me. I’d be lying if I said the food at Citi Field had nothing to do with my affection for the new stadium. Shake Shack, Blue Smoke, the Belgian fries stand Box Frites, El Verano Taqueria (cheffed by Tabla’s Floyd Cardoz), Dave Pasternack’s fish shack Catch of the Day, Daruma sushi and Mama’s of Corona sandwiches at World’s Fare Market…. If you were at all familiar with the prison-cafeteria options at Shea, you would know that even beyond my minor hero worship of Union Square Hospitality Group, Citi Field is a step up.

I ate my fill of all of the above a few weeks ago at the Mets All-Star preview lunch at Citi Field’s Caesars Club, one of the many eating areas that were formerly available only to high-paying ticket holders but are now opening up to fans with cheaper seats—a recession-appropriate concession on the part of the management for the disappointing ticket sales in the latter part of last season, no doubt.

During his presentation at the preview, Mets EVP Dave Howard more or less admitted that food was one of the few highlights of the opening year. With all of the Mets big sluggers sidelined by injury in 2009 but Cardoz, Pasternack, Danny Meyer, and Drew Nieporent powering through with solid food wins, how could it not be?

Luckily for those of us who appreciate a good basket of fries as much as an in-the-park homer, life as a Mets fan just got a little better. According to Cardoz, “The food is going to be better, if that’s even possible,” but he has no solution for the lines—they’ll be just as long.

How is it going to be better? Let me count the ways:

• 

  Daruma sushi at Citi Field

  As part of the Mets’ acknowledgment that Queens is the most ethnically (and culinarily diverse) community in the U.S., they’ve made a concerted effort to bring in lots of local vendors. Along with the aforementioned Daruma (yes, this is quality sushi. At a ballpark. Not just for Seattle!) and Mama’s of Corona, they’re now offering Café Hanover Korean fried chicken that is just as crispy-skinned and juicy as the stuff I get at Bon Chon on 32nd St.
• Shake Shack adds a strawberry shake to the roster this year, although truth be told, I’ll probably still be sampling the local brews made by Brooklyn Brewery for each of the vendors in Meyerland. I love me some Shack custard, but I kind of love my Blue Smoke Ale more.
• Box Frites gets—are you ready for this?—Disco Frites, smothered in gravy, cheddar, and curds. They’re also adding garlic parmesan fries, which have a well-rounded garlic sauce option, but which I think will be even more killer (possible, Floyd?) with the existing smoked bacon sauce. This is what I’m making a beeline for at today’s game, and I’ll report back with the results.
• You can now get a Maker’s Mark and Ginger at Blue Smoke. Nothing groundbreaking, but it will taste damn good with that pulled pork sandwich.
• I’ve always thought it was hilarious that the Mets had an official pudding, but the honorable Kozy Shack is now opening a gluten-free stand at the World’s Fare Market. I’m lucky enough to be able to eat whatever I damn well want, but with so many friends who need to watch these things, it seems like a step in the right direction. Plus, PUDDING.
• Nieporent’s Acela Club—Drew Nieporent’s white-tablecloth option inside the park, and now a place where basically anyone with a Promenade Club-level ticket can go—is keeping the wildly popular mac and cheese with pancetta on the menu (they’re not stupid), and are bringing on Peking duck buns with cucumber and scallion. Tasty enough that you’ll want to eat a half dozen, but small enough so you can eat half a dozen and not feel like a complete pig. Or half a pig.


Peking duck buns at Citi Field's Acela Club

Oh, and in case you were wondering which vendor is Mets announcer and former first baseman Keith Hernandez’s favorite, the answer can finally be revealed: he likes El Verano Taqueria so much that Floyd Cardoz said he hooks Keith up with as many tacos as he wants. No word on whether Keith will repay the favor with mustache-growing lessons.

More from Good. Food. Stories.:

• Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Yet Again
• The Origins of C.C.’s Culinary Cluelessness
• Good Luck Pork and Sauerkraut

Tagged as: acela club, baseball, blue smoke, box frites, citi field, el verano taqueria, korean fried chicken, mets, Shake Shack, sushi