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| Chef's Showcase |
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| State-Of-The-Art Stadium Dining
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Executive chef: Andy Tenaglia
.300 Club catering company name: Well Bread
Other responsibilities: all of the stadium's concession stands, more than 15; carts and
vendors; in-suite dining; the .300 Club
Foodservice philosophy: scratch-driven, popular stadium fare, with attention to local foods
Names of some concession stands: Thirst Base, On Deck Deli, Home Sweet Home, Most Valuable
Pizza - MVP, get it? - Grounds Crew, Hey Baker Baker, Catchatore's Italian, Big B's Diner, Cactus League
Nachos, Brat Boys
Year Miller Park opened: 2001
Home team: The Milwaukee Brewers
Number of seats in stadium: 43,000
Number of people in suites: 1400
Number of seats in .300 Club: 300
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What can a chef do to enhance the stadium dining experience? - Questions & Answers
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What a terrific idea to brand all the different concession stands. Are they unique to Miller Park?
I can't really take credit for all of that. Our first operations manager came up with most of those ideas,
and yes, they are our own miniconcepts.
The idea was to create different destinations within the stadium. Although I oversee all of them, each is
run as a separate little restaurant. The workers are even in special uniforms to help reinforce the themed
concepts.
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You mean there's no central commissary kitchen that fuels them?
No, not at all. Each stand essentially takes care of itself and has its own equipment - prep area, sinks,
refrigeration and so on. Because we're a brand-new stadium, it was designed with that sort of flexibility
and autonomy in mind.
We do have a central area for baking and some other large-scale preparation and storage, but basically
everything else is separate.
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Wait a minute. You do your own baking?
Just about everything is made in-house or at least baked in-house, from pizza dough to desserts. We don't do
the hot-dog buns of course, and we order in artisan bread from a local bakery for the private .300 Club, but
the rest of it we try to do here. We make our own cinnamon rolls, for example, which are definitely a
signature. And yes, we even hand-dip the caramel apples. We may not make cookie dough from scratch, but we
bake all the cookies fresh.
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What are some other house specialties?
Naturally, we serve brats, because that's typical Milwaukee and corned beef sandwiches. We also offer what
we call a North Woods Pike sandwich and a portabella mushroom burger, two sort of unusual items.
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Why bother with all that? Don't ballpark guests just want basic hot dogs and hamburgers?
Some sure do, so we offer those sorts of more basic foods, too. But our goal is to add value to the guest
baseball experience and distinguish ourselves not only from other stadiums but also from our customers'
other possible dining choices. We think that's one way to help make us more memorable when it comes to
choosing possible entertainment activities.
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What's the .300 Club like?
Well about 70 percent of our business during games is off the buffet. That's sort of what's expected, and
customers really like it. But because I'm so keen on scratch food prepared to order, I've worked hard to
translate as much of that as possible to the buffet.
For example, we fabricate all our own meat cuts instead of purchasing preportioned. I just think it makes a
difference in terms of moisture, and it also allows us to control some of the aging. The soups, stocks and
sauces are all ours.
I know that there are a lot of high-quality convenience products out there. But if we make our own chicken
cordon bleu, for example, I know that the customer won't be served the exact same item at a hotel banquet
event some day. My version may not look perfect. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee it won't, but that's
the homemade impact that guests remember.
It's the same idea with the burger, which is very popular in the bar. It's a bison burger, with melted
cheese, on a toasted and buttered bun. The thinking is that you can get a regular burger anywhere in the
stadium. So if you're going to enjoy the private club experience, we may as well provide something totally
different.
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What foods might appear on a typical .300 Club buffet?
There always will be two carved items: one premium meat and one secondary. We'll set up a pasta station and
some sauced entrées though we'll usually make them sautéed and not necessarily stewed or braised. There will
be a variety of sides and salads of course. And then we serve a large selection of breads and rolls, with
olive oils and spreads. Desserts are all served à la carte.
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What's the fare like for those lucky enough to see the game from a suite?
The menus offer everything from sushi - which is not extremely popular - to very typical-ballpark fare,
which is. One of the most-ordered items is our sausage sampler, which includes a selection of Polish and
Italian sausages and, of course, brats. Chicken wings and tenderloins are also big hits in the suites. Our
pickled vegetable platter provides a familiar twist on the crudités idea, but we also have those, too.
One of the challenges is to get suite guests to try ordering new things. They tend to get in the habit of
their usual food and eat the same thing every game.
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What are some of your other challenges?
Baseball isn't year-round, so we have to worry about the pacing and staffing just like other seasonal
businesses. The .300 Club is open for special events all year, and we're booked for parties every week.
Miller Park has been open only for two years, so we're busy establishing our regular clientele and our
reputation as a great place to eat even when there's not a baseball game going on.
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The park must be state-of-the art, eh?
Yes, it's fantastic, especially in terms of the foodservice facilities. Because I've been with the company
for a while, I was lucky enough to see the stadium being built. I feel fortunate to be able to accomplish
our goals of cooking most things ourselves. It's important for all of our crew to take pride in the food we
produce and stand behind it. That's what makes the job meaningful.
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