2 min read General Cubs Information

The Hungry Fan

By Tim Sheridan
February 17, 2007

My original plan was to “take one for the team” and be the guinea pig for all of you planning a trip to Hohokam Stadium this spring, with an emphasis on the word– pig. I was invited to an open house last night at Hohokam to show off the Cubs improved spring training digs and sample some of the ballpark’s new cuisine. My covert plan was to taste as many different types of food as possible and then report to you on my findings, a difficult job but someone needed to do it. However upon arrival and viewing the many food choices I was overwhelmed and quickly scratched my Kobayashi inspired plans.

Having dispensed with the binge eating scheme I needed to at least sample something, which turned out to be Pizzaiolo’s pepperoni and sausage pizza. In my opinion it was pretty tasty for ballpark pizza with the sausage leaning a little to the spicy side, (which I like) plenty of cheese, flavorful sauce, with a medium size/style crust. I also received glowing reports on the Philly Cheese Steak sandwich (it looked huge and delicious) and the Big Pat Burger (named after Dwight (Pat) Patterson) was reported to be a big winner by those who tried it. Check out my blog from Dec. 22, 2006 for a stadium map with vendor names and locations. I noticed most concession food prices seemed to be in the $5 to $7.50 area. Some sample prices from the Hot Dog Nation concession: Chi-Town Dog $6, Arizona Fajitas Dog $6, Brat with Kraut $6, Cincinnati Chili Sky Dog $6, Red-Hot Chicago Dog $5 and Nachos Grande $5. Beer looks to range form $5 to $7.50 with the higher price being for imports.

I think you will be in for a pleasant surprise at Hohokam this spring as the Stadium has gone from a generic minimalist food concept to an eclectic upscale gourmet environment, courtesy of Ovations Food Service. In other words Hohokam now offers what most parks already had, and it’s about time! Ovations, the new concessionaire spent $1 million to improve concession stands and added another Cubs souvenir shop as well as redesigning the old souvenir shop. Add to that the Hohokam organization spending $500,000 to install digital panels in the main scoreboard as well as two new auxiliary scoreboards, and it appears Cubbie fans now have the spring training ballpark they deserve.

What it looked like last spring