Behind The Top-Ranked New York Mets Food Scene

The Adam Richman lineup of burgers served at Citi Field in New York City for the Mets.

New York Mets

Citi Field’s Mr. Met chocolate whoopie pie proved so popular, he’s been joined by Mrs. Met (Mr. Met on one side and Mrs. Met on the other). But it’s more than an oversized whoopie pie placing Citi Field’s food lineup at the top of the sport. The New York Mets and Aramark team to routinely earn Citi Field top marks, ranked as the best stadium food by outlets across the country.

“I think it is because of the variety we offer everyone,” Evan Karoutsos, Aramark general manager for Citi Field, tells me. “We try to have something for everyone’s palate.”

The Mets take a three-pronged approach to their concession lineup, offering up collaborations with celebrity chefs and collaboration with partners, giving fans a taste of Queens (which also encourages the fans to try brick and mortar restaurants outside the stadium) and creating proprietary brands only found at the ballpark.

Tara Napoli, senior director of hospitality for the Mets, tells me that approach enables the team to push the envelope of what’s offered and keeps the menu changing through the season to ensure fans want to try something new.

“It is a combination of our own internal concepts with external concepts,” Karoutsos says. And it’s ever-changing. “We try to incorporate things from outside in the neighborhood but also take pride in our culinary team. They are very proud of what they do here and try to come up with their own spin on concepts. I think their passion and the recognition we’ve received have people wanting to work with us and one of the things we love to do is collaborate.”

The switches happen throughout the season. The Mets offer a Napoli’s signature square pizza with a rotating partner offering a fresh perspective on toppings—a recent collaboration with Seoul Bird created a Korean fried chicken, kimchi, mozzarella, spicy Kewpie mayo and scallions pizza—and there’s a rotating egg roll served based on the opponent for each series. “It is a fun way to bring a different cuisine to the ballpark,” Napoli says, adding that the egg roll comes in a limited quantity for each game and is often the first stop on food tours.

For collaborations, the Mets, when they opened in 2009, were the first to bring Shake Shack into the stadium (it’s still one of the most popular items in the venue) and the team now partners with Adam Richman for an Adam’s Classic burger, available with one, two, three or four Pat LaFrieda burger patties (a bell rings if someone opts for the home run burger of four patties).

Karoutsos says they work with a vendor to bring top-flight Greek food into the venue, halal food, tacos, noodles and oodles more (like Wok n’ Roll’s cookies and cream egg roll and Willets Point Brewery’s liege waffles topped with apple pie). “We have so much to offer,” he says. The team spends the offseason working with partners and their own team to come up with recipes, ideas and concepts and once the season starts, 95% of all food is produced in-house.

The proprietary concepts help give Citi Field an edge. The team created its own Big Apple Blend Seasoning—tasted on the Swingin’ Wings and more—and may one day become a take-home item. The hot pastrami on rye is another Citi Field specialty, with the stadium’s own pastrami hand-carved and served on rye bread with deli mustard. The sandwich has proven so popular, the Mets had to up its number of locations during the postseason (one previous game a fan came to the stadium and ordered 65 of the pastrami sandwiches to take back to a barbecue). The Citi Field specials continue, with an Aramark proprietary cotton candy, Spun, and even a home run chocolate-covered apple.

“We enjoy,” Karoutsos says, “working with people to bring something new every single season to Citi Field.” Mr. and Mrs. Met approve.

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