Baseball's Back! Citi Field Preview: Food Shootout (Part I)

Last weekend, my cousin Shari emailed me to ask me if I wanted to come to a Citi Field opening preview / Mets workout on Sunday morning @ 930a. They have a ticket package (last year, it was the "Jose Jose Jose"), so they got this offer. Normally, anything at that time on a Sunday morning would give me pause, but thought it would be a good time to check out the new park, and see what the Mets were up to, and spend some time with my cousin outside, and without all the extended family. And did I mention the site survey? this was before all the news reports offering the rundown of the Citi Field / Yankee Stadium offerings.

Now, it's kind of interesting to note that somehow, my family is made up of Mets fans. Not really sure how that happened. My dad and his brothers were from Queens originally, but not Flushing, and were about 18 when the Mets arrived. But, part of the fam moved to Brooklyn, and we moved to Manhattan, but we all ended up as Mets fans. And we're not an especially sporty-centric family. Shari married a Philly-area guy who went to school in Boston, and they went to Fenway the night they were engaged (funny things you learn about your family while walking around a ballpark). He became a Mets fan, and shares her season's ticket package. Her brother and his son are Mets fans. His son is probably a bigger, more knowledgeable fan than all of us, at all of six years old. And that's a compliment. The kid does his own color commentary when playing Wii MLB 2K8. And well. Anyway,to close out this part of the rant, my sister married a Mets fan, and my Sweetie is one too. However, ALL of my friends are Yankees fans.

Now, I'm not much of a sports nut, but I know where my loyalties lie. Mets, Giants, Rangers, Knicks, Federer/Nadal/Connors. Always have been that way. Not that I'm the most well-spoken about the subjects -- but I am about food. Thus, the Citi Field - Yankee Stadium Shootout. Strangely enough, when I’m at a ballpark, I only really want a hot dog and a beer – maybe some Cracker Jacks -- just because it’s the right thing to do (which is what I got -- look left). The combined food service operations at both stadiums encompass what might be the equivalent of 20 or 30 non-stadium restaurant openings, highbrow and otherwise. Now, I could go into all the clubs and ridiculous stuff like that (I will in the sequel to this post), but I’m not going to be taking advantage of all those amenities anytime soon, so I don’t care. Also, I’m there for a baseball game – not to eat overpriced food in a lounge.



Let's break it down...

Hot Dogs
Citi Field: Nathan’s Yankees: Nathan's / Hebrew National

Access
Citi Field: Walk-around all levels possible. Yankees: Restricted by level

Burger
Citi Field: Shake Shack Yankees: Johnny Rocket’s

Barbecue
Citi Field: Blue Smoke Yankees: Brother Jimmy’s

Old School NYC
Citi Field: Gabila’s Knishes Yankees: Mike’s Deli of Arthur Ave

"Ethnic" NYC
Citi Field: Verano Taqueria (Tabla/Floyd Cardoz)
Yankees: Asian Noodle Bowl

High-End
Citi Field: Fish from Dave Pasternack Yankees: Meats from Lobel’s

Mets win, 5-2.

And I didn't even consider the fact that there's a Hard Rock Cafe on site... Seriously?

(more to come...)