Food Review, and Fun in the Concourse

Like Scott, I was asked to join the fun of opening day in the Tribe’s new Social Suite. Rather than repeat the same stuff over again, I thought I’d offer a review of the new food items that food services provided for us in the suite. (Sorry gang, we were told the free food was strictly an opening day thing.)

There were several items to choose from, but for my taste one stood out far above the others. The Food Network now has a little station at the park, and the steak sandwich they offered up was tremendous. The steak wasn’t shaved like some steak sandwiches, it was a bit thicker but not too hard to take a bite of. It was cooked to a nice medium, and had this amazing sauerkraut-slaw. Don’t let the topping scare you away if you aren’t a big sauerkraut fan. It wasn’t overpowering at all. The roll was outstanding as well. A very nice crusty bread. Couldn’t recommend more highly. I felt sorry for my Lenten brethren. The Food Network area is on the Gate A side of the park (left field entrance) a couple sections from the gate.

The Indians also offered a new chicken and waffles sandwich. It was breaded chicken in between two quarter waffles. The whole chicken and waffle thing is apparently quite southern, but is usually a breakfast item I believe. From what I’ve seen, syrup or gravy is traditionally poured over top. These could have used something like that. Obviously you don’t want to walk around with a sandwich covered in gravy or syrup however. Some type of sauce is needed to make this one a success. The chicken is good. The waffles are decent. Together? Meh.

My second favorite of the items we were given was the pork wings. Yes, pork wings. These pieces of baked (or braised?) pork were cooked in a sort of Caribbean/buffalo sauce and were fantastic. They had a kick to them, but not so much that they couldn’t be eaten by those with heat sensitivity issues. (I regularly get my wings mild and I thought these were perfect.) Again, highly recommended.

There was a fish sandwich offering, that I don’t believe was new. I think it was purposely put there for those who couldn’t eat the other meat options on Friday. I didn’t partake of the fish, but was told it was a good sandwich. Nothing to write home about, nothing to complain about.

There was also a foot long hot dog, which I have to say didn’t even look appealing. In their defense, they had been turning on that little machine for probably 3 hours by the time I looked towards them. The foot longs themselves weren’t new, but they were showcasing some new toppings for the dogs, everything from fruit salsa to a tomato/feta looking mixture.

My wife and I ventured out of the suite to go to the team shop. While we were waiting in line to get in the team shop, (yes, there was a line to get in- but it moved quite quickly) we saw a woman exit the team shop with a guide dog. Being dog people we watched the beautiful golden retriever work. The lady went right from the team shop to the little souvenir stand in order to buy the dog a gift. I little plush ‘onion’ character. She gave it to the dog on the spot. There stood the dog with this plush toy in its mouth delicately holding it as if unsure what to do with it. I fully expected the woman to take it back and place it in a bag, but no. The dog walked away with it in its mouth.

After securing my new hat and an opening day pin for mom, we set out for my wife’s favorite ballpark snack- the script I pretzel. Guess what? No more script I pretzels. They have gone back to the old standard soft pretzels. A hearty boooo in your general direction pretzel decision making guy!

Headed back to the suite my wife noticed something hanging on a pole that just stopped us in our tracks. Hilarious. Perhaps you’ve seen the Lionel Ritchie poster before, but it was new to us. The text above Lionel’s face says “Hello?” and the sentence right underneath says “Is it me you’re looking for?”. Awesome. Upon closer inspection, the pre-cut slips of paper underneath are the rest of the lyrics.

Thanks again to the Indians, and especially Rob and Curtis for sending the invitation our way.