There are lots of things that can greatly enhance a ballpark visit.
Seeing your favorite team win. Sharing some quality time with friends. Getting an autograph or snagging a baseball. Having an unexpected interaction with a player.
While I enjoy all of the above, I’m constantly on a quest to seek out unique and delicious ballpark fare whenever I attend a ballgame. If you’ve been following my adventures for a while, there’s a good chance you know this about me.
I’ve done some large-scale food rankings in the past, but I want to start breaking down the best things I eat each season as part of the off-season content I create.
Admittedly, 2023 wasn’t exactly a banner year for ballpark eats. Some of the ballpark meals I ate fit into the “fine, but not overly exciting” category. I even ate one vegetarian dish (gasp!) that wasn’t very well executed. There have certainly been seasons in which the overall quality of the ballpark fare I’ve eaten has been more memorable. In fact, I’d say that the best thing I ate on my travels this past summer wasn’t at a ballpark at all — it was a barbecue meal at the world-famous Skylight Inn in Ayden, N.C. If you know, you know.
But I did eat some tasty fare at games in 2023, and after some serious analysis of each ballpark meal I consumed, here’s how the rankings look.
Honorable Mention: Super Nachos at Atrium Health Ballpark
In alignment with their name, the nachos that I enjoyed at a Kannapolis Cannon Ballers game in May were indeed super. I’ve eaten nachos at lots of ballparks over the years, and I’d rank this dish as one of the best I’ve encountered. The concession cart had lots of different topping options, and I chose everything that was available — taco beef, lettuce, cheese, pickled jalapenos, queso, salsa, and sour cream. The sour cream bottle erupted a little as the server squeezed it, which you may have suspected upon seeing the image below, but the excess creaminess simply helped to keep each bite moist. These nachos were on par with what you’d get at a sports bar, which is better than most ballpark nachos.
3. Chopped Brisket Bowl at Truist Field
I’m always on the lookout for good barbecue at ballparks, and have been fortunate to find it in several locations. One of the better barbecue dishes I’ve had in recent years came in Charlotte in May. The ballpark has a barbecue concession stand on the third base concourse that offers all sorts of tantalizing fare. I chose the Chopped Brisket Bowl because brisket is my favorite type of barbecue, hands down. The dish featured a serving of chopped brisket with green onions and pickled jalapenos, with sides of coleslaw and macaroni and cheese — two of my favorite barbecue sides. Each element of the dish was as good as I hoped it would be. My chief criticism of this meal was that the container wasn’t as full as it could’ve been. (This is something that you’ll likely notice in the photo below.) If it had been a little more heaped up, which I think would’ve been fair for $15, I’d have likely ranked the meal a bit higher.
2. Chicago Hot Dog at Wrigley Field
The Windy City is synonymous with all sorts of fare, but Chicago-style hot dogs are always the first thing I think about. When I visited Chicago’s Guaranteed Rate Field in 2022, I made sure to order a hot dog. During an April game at Wrigley Field this season, I knew I had to order it again. While the ordering process was downright bizarre – the cashier handed me a poppyseed bun and all-beef frank and told me to assemble my own hot dog — the end result was really good. I had fun carefully laying out the individual ingredients in somewhat of a photogenic manner: Green relish, yellow mustard, celery salt, diced onions, sport peppers, tomato slices, and a dill pickle spear. The volume of toppings makes this type of hot dog a bit of a challenge to eat, but the variety of flavors and textures makes the mess worth it.
1. Poutine Hot Dog at Rogers Centre
The Poutine Hot Dog at Rogers Centre made a lot of waves on social media when it was announced prior to the start of the season, and I knew I’d be trying it when I visited Toronto in April. (In fact, I ran a social media poll about this topic. Ninety-four percent of respondents, who evidently care little about my cardiovascular health, said I should order it.) Honestly, I didn’t expect much out of it, and was surprised to enjoy it as much as I did. The gravy had good flavor, the bun somehow wasn’t as soggy as I worried it might be, and the cheese curds were fresh. The French fries, which are mostly hidden in my picture below, were cut into bite-sized pieces that made them manageable to eat. I recommended this meal to a handful of people over the course of the season, and the overwhelming response I received back was the same as what I’d found — it was better than expected.
Are you interested in seeing a breakdown of my favorite all-time ballpark fare? Or a series of posts looking at my year-by-year favorites? Or other food-related content? Let me know!