Take Me Out To The Ball Game These Days There Is More On The Menu Than Hot Dogs And Cracker Jack
The seats are rigid and uncomfortable. The service can be impersonal (after all, you’re vying for attention with thousands of other customers). The waiters holler their menus, and have even been known to throw food at you.
But, boy, it’s tough to top the atmosphere at Spokane’s biggest outdoor eatery, the baseball stadium that is summer home to the Spokane Indians.
Where else can you nosh on a grilled red-hot while watching a woman in a Scotch-tape suit dive into a kiddie pool filled with fake money? Or have your meal interrupted by a “wave?”
Some people go to the ballpark to drink in the intoxicating rhythm of our national pastime. Others go to drink, period. I go to chow down.
Fortunately, the menu at Seafirst Stadium has come a long way from the days of popcorn, peanuts and Cracker Jack. A variety of vendors provide an interesting mix of ethnic and traditional American cuisine. There’s no Hard Rock Cafe with a view here like at the Toronto SkyDome, but this IS the minor leagues, after all.
During a recent Spokane Indians game, our party of three started a multi-course dining extravaganza with a nice assortment of appetizers. The pretzels ($1.50) were baked to a deep golden hue, yet were still soft and chewy. A generous dollop of French’s mustard was the perfect complement to the pretzels’ rustic toastiness. (However, being cholesterol-challenged, I decided to pass on the gooey melted cheese that is another dipping option.)
An order of hot chicken wings from Pizza Pipeline was sauced with a suitably spicy-tangy mixture, but it’s clear these birds never got off the ground, considering all the flab on their appendages. And where were the celery sticks and blue cheese dressing that makes this dish a classic? Well, what can you expect for $3?
We refreshed our palates with a salad course. The greens ($3) from Pizza Pipeline were cold and crisp, served with tiny packages of bacon bits and seasoned croutons - thoughtful touches. But don’t forget your pocket knife. It took several minutes and some sharp incisors to pierce the plastic packet that contained the creamy ranch dressing.
A fruit salad from The Grill was top-drawer. Generous chunks of strawberries, cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon and kiwi were fresh and sweet. The ripe mixture perfectly captured everything that’s right about summer. It was also the bargain of the evening at $1.50.
Our pasta course was a plateful of thin, stir-fried noodles from the Side Wok. I heard a few fellow diners grumbling about the price of the Oriental-style fare, but $4 seems a reasonable price to pay for an alternative to hot dogs. The noodles contained crunchy bits of carrots and cabbage, and I found one tiny piece of broccoli. The mixture was smothered in a slightly sweet teryaki sauce.
Don’t leave the Side Wok without loading up on the hot chili oil. It adds a fiery kick to the dish, which gives diners a dandy excuse to indulge in a cold one.
One note about the selection of brewski: I can hardly believe the folks in the cheap seats don’t have access to the best taps at the park. Microbrews such as Widmer Hefeweizen are available only to the elitists in their cushy skyboxes, while the masses have to choose from pedestrian suds like Bud Light and Coors. The selection of bottled beers, which include Henry’s and the non-alcoholic O’Doul’s, is a bit more upscale.
The effervescent hoppiness of my Labatt’s melded magically with my main course, a gently grilled chicken breast sandwich served with a tangy barbecue sauce. The Grill, which also offers fire-roasted, foot-long franks, bratwurst and burgers, deftly demonstrated why the lines are always anguishingly long at its stand.
The meat was seasoned with care and properly cooked. It was still moist, even though it was late in the sixth inning before I got around to ordering it. It was garnished with a crisp dill spear. The slightly sweet dressing on my side of potato salad provided the perfect contrast to the smoky flavor of the meat. The whole thing cost under $5. What a deal.
My dining companion swooned over his roasted Longhorn Barbecue weenie. The dogs at the Indians games are major league quality because they’re grilled, not boiled or steamed. And condiment options include not only freshly chopped onions and relish, but tangy sauerkraut. Now, that’s impressive.
We topped off our four-star feast with a classic - Cracker Jack. The crispy popped corn was a fitting backdrop for the pleasantly bitter caramel coating. Now, if they’d just banish the peanuts, they might have something there.
A special tip for anyone hitting the park on 50-cent feast night (the next one is Friday night): the lines are excruciatingly long.
Not to worry. Just take a seat and one of those hollering waiters will be around to serve you - as long as your order isn’t much fancier than a beer and a hot dog.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Staff illustration