2021 Bay Baseball Bites in Review
With the 2021 baseball season at a close and the two teams that I have been a bit of a foodie at their ballparks this season have not been playing for past couple weeks (the Giants) or a few weeks now (the A’s). Even though I now have a ballpark-sized hole in my heart for the next few months I thought it would be fun to look back on all of the fun food that I got to try on both sides of the bay this season.
San Francisco Giants
My 2021 baseball season started at Oracle Park on June 20th, which was 630 days since the last MLB game that I had gone to (let’s not forget the fan-less & shortened 2020 season and the fact that most ballparks did not have fans at the start of the 2021 season.) I have already written about this but coming from Seattle Mariners fan experience, the San Francisco Giants food experience feels lacking. There is a lot of repetition in the concourse (too many Doggie Diners.) You can hunt for special and unique foods in this ballpark but you truly have to hunt since most of the unique offerings are only located in one place in the ballpark and they are a rarity to begin with. Additionally, it just costs you a very pretty penny to dine anywhere in this ballpark.
I went to five games at Oracle Park this season so I did not get too many chances to try the food offerings here (or at least not as many as I did in Oakland) but I do feel like I was able to try out a good and varied sampling of Oracle Park’s food. Are there a few things that I wish I had tried this year? Yes, but that is what next year is for (and also hopefully more new and interesting things are added to menu that I will have to try as well.)
Oakland Athletics
My first time ever visiting the Coliseum was on July 4th, 2021 and I ended up attending seven games there this season. I wasn’t sure what to expect from my first visit to the Coliseum but I quickly fell in love with the ballpark (even with all of its old quirks.) I didn’t end up spending too much time trying out the food options from the different stands within the ballpark and instead focused on really taking in the food truck scene on Championship Plaza. The food trucks are such a value add to this ballpark experience. The food trucks bring in partnerships and connections with the greater Bay Area food scene plus significantly add to food variety of what you can eat while you enjoy the ballgame (which the variety that these food trucks provide is so important when you go to multiple baseball games a year.)
I was able to visit six food trucks out of the approximately twenty that had visited this ballpark throughout the season. There are definitely a few food trucks that visited the ballpark that I am sad that I missed out on (such as Roadside Rotisserie, Cousin’s Maine Lobster Truck, Square Pizza Truck, Crazy Empanadas) because our schedules and/or my appetite didn’t match up. I will just have to catch them back on Championship Plaza next year or track them down in the offseason as they cruise around town.
Favorite Food Rankings
It is now time for the rankings of the food experiences at each ballpark in the Bay this season. I am consciously not pitting these two ballparks against one another because that isn’t fair to either of them because the experiences at each park are just so different from one another. I thoroughly enjoy going to games at both of these ballparks but I come away with different feelings and experiences from each organization.
Ranking of foods tried at the San Francisco Giants’ Oracle Park 2021
Corn Dog & Tots (from the Organic Coup)
Bay Bridge Sandwich
Ghirardelli Sundae
Fried Chicken Sandwich (from the Organic Coup)
Notes on my San Francisco ratings:
The top spot went to the Corn Dog & Tots from the Organic Coup because it took a classic food and brought it to an elevated & extra tasty level. For you to eat a corn dog and it to be memorable, that is high praise and that is why this got the top spot.
In second, the Bay Bridge Sandwich takes this place because it is a solidly good sandwich (even if you were to take it out of the ballpark setting I believe this sandwich could hold its own.) Plus as I have said previously about this sandwich, it truly is a sleeper hit.
The Ghirardelli Sundae is an absolute classic (plus great ingredients and it is so rich & decadent) that it solidly gets on the podium.
Lastly, the Fried Chicken Sandwich from the Organic Coup rounds out my list because it isn’t as noteworthy as the others in the competition and has to live up to its $17 price tag (which it doesn’t do.)
Rankings of foods tried at the Oakland Athletics Coliseum 2021
Food Truck Division
Fried Chicken Sandwich from Southern Comfort Kitchen
Chicken Combo Plate from iLava Hawaiian Barbecue
Fastball Sliders from Curveball Slider Truck
Grilled Pork Bahn Mi Sandwich from Treats By The Bay
Strawnana Sunrise from Smoothielicious
Dessert Division
Mini Helmet of Ice Cream (from the ballpark ice cream stand on the main concourse underneath the Treehouse)
Dole Whip (from the Treats By The Bay food truck)
Cupcakes (from Marley’s Treats food truck)
Notes on my Oakland rating process:
I intentionally excluded mixing in my one experience of getting an entrée from a ballpark food vendor (TLC Chicken) in with my food truck food rankings. It doesn’t seem fair to compare a food truck to a traditional ballpark vendor because the way those entities can operate and then offer customers is so different from one another.
There is a dessert division here because the desserts that I got to have at the Coliseum really shined and needed a moment for themselves to be appreciated separately from the main courses of food that get most of the attention. I did mix ballpark vendors and food trucks here since my experiences here were a bit more balanced and I felt that I could provide a more holistic view to the desserts category.
Additionally, the mini helmet of ice cream in part gets high marks because of it just existing as an option at the ballpark. I searched high and low (and even reached out on Twitter) trying to track down a mini helmet of ice cream on the other side of the Bay this season and it was non-existent. Not being able to get a mini helmet of ice cream at a ballpark is still so baffling to me since they are such fun and collectable items. Until I had begun my mission to get a Giants mini helmet of ice cream this season I had not been to a ballpark (Major or Minor League) that left this item off of the menu.
I hope you have enjoyed following along with my foodie adventures at Oracle Park and the Coliseum this year!
I cannot wait to get back to the ballpark next season and taste more of what each ballpark has to offer. (Is it too soon to start counting down to Opening Day?)
Thank you for following along and see you at the ballpark next year!
#baybaseballbites