That’s what Patti Green, the marketing director in the West for Levy Restaurants, explained to me. (Levy Restaurants takes care of arena fare for about 100 locations around the nation, including Staples and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and Chase Field, US Airways Center and Dodge Theatre in Phoenix.)
Green said many of the stadiums offer a chef’s harvest selection in their restaurants, such as Staples’ Lexus Club, which focuses on “natural, locally-grown and organic ingredients, things they would maybe find at a farmer’s market.”
“We really take great care in making sure that at all of our locations we have a selection of options for people looking for healthier choices or the lifestyle they have,” Green said.
Dodger Stadium has what Green called a “healthy cart” where specialties like an oven-roasted turkey wrap, a grilled vegetable wrap, hummus, fruit salad and apples can be found.
She said it was very popular last season in its first year, so they’re adding another cart.
“With it being LA they seem to be very conscious there of what they eat,” Green said.
Closer to Tucson, Chase Field – the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks – serves veggie dogs and plans are in the works to offer grilled chicken tenders with a fresh fruit cup and vegetables on the kids menu so children don’t have to eat the usual hot dog, fries and soda.
Levy Restaurants started out as a restaurant company, so Green said it aims to serve its customers with a variety of options just as if it were a physical restaurant without a stadium attached to it.
“We look at it the same way when you come into a sporting event,” she said. “It’s not just about who’s playing on the court or on the field, it is the overall experience, and we do recognize there are people that have differences, be it dietary needs or want a healthier lifestyle. A lot of people are very into green and local sustainable options as well, so we just work to make sure to try to offer those.”
When asked about her take on UA concessions manager Brett Brestel’s comments concerning people not caring as much about eating healthy at a game as they do the rest of the week, Green did not completely disagree.
“For us it’s just about offering the options,” she said. “We understand we have a lot of different people from a lot of different walks of life. Some people want beer and brats and some people might not.”Stadium food has always gotten a bad rap for being unhealthy, something the newly-instituted “healthy cart” aims to counterbalance.
Nobody’s asking ballparks and arenas to become Whole Foods, but it’s nice that at least the consumers have the choice of if they want the dog and a beer or something like a grilled vegetable wrap at pro arenas staffed by Levy Restaurants – even if the majority of the options are often quite unhealthy as I learned during my investigation.
“We want to try to cater for all of our fans and not the select group,” Green said. “Our goal is anybody who comes into one of our venues has options and is happy with the options and recognizes we’re trying to provide them something above and beyond what their expectations might be.”
Although college arenas like McKale Center sell food to smaller audiences than those Levy Restaurants offers meals to, the company’s commitment to providing healthy options proves it can be done.
It might hurt the profit margin a bit, but I wouldn’t be surprised if healthier food sells well in McKale – and Arizona Stadium for that matter – next to the pretzels, nachos and hot dogs it would be going up against.
As America becomes more health conscious, McKale should take a look at making its concession stands go green, at least a little bit.
No comments:
Post a Comment