COVER STORY
VENTLESS COOKING STATIONS IN ACTION
Catering in executive boxes increasingly offer an a la carte menu as well as a big spread
catering clients elevate their food offer. When designing a stadium F&B set-up, she often combines these with ‘frictionless markets’ where fans can grab bottled beverages and pre-packaged food items, and checkout either at a manned POS station, a self-checkout or, if they’re pre-registered, they simply walk out and technology automatically charges their credit card. “As the cost for this technology has come down and the infrastructure requirements have become smaller, I’ve seen frictionless technology and self check-out really permeate the sports market in the US,” she says. “Operators are recognizing that they are seeing an uptick both in their per capita sales and customer satisfaction. “What we’re trying to do is come at it
from both angles. We’re paring back the cooked food offer and focusing on what can be done really well, but at the same time introducing more points of sale. In the last 20 years that I’ve been doing this, I’ve seen a gradual shift; over time, the number of points of sale has probably doubled.” Some operators are dividing their
facilities up into quadrants to ensure fans can be served more quickly. In some situations, this will mean four carbon copy F&B offers. “Te idea is that things are evenly distributed so that you don’t have to
leave your seat for very long ‒ you can just grab something and come back.” In other settings, where there is a mix of premium and general seats, each quad will look slightly different. “Operators need to look at the number and type of seats that are being serviced, analyze those metrics holistically and map out where people are sitting and what their patterns are, to make spaces as efficient as possible.” In premium areas, Sedej is seeing a
move away from self-contained suites to more communal areas, as well as bringing kitchens closer to guests. “Instead of just ordering once for the whole game, suite holders can add extra orders on demand. Te traditional big spread is not going to go away, but it’s being supplemented more now with an a la carte offer too.”
BRINGING STADIA ALIVE OUTSIDE GAME TIMES
Every sports arena’s calendar is different, but as a rule they won’t be serving food and drink to sports fans every day of the year. Reducing wastage is becoming a greater focus for stadia foodservice operators all over the world, with consultants from every region highlighting the shift from keg or draft beer to cans ‒ often craft beer ‒ to prevent any leftover beer going to waste.
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Little Caesars Arena in Detroit is home to the Detroit Red Wings ice hockey team and the Detroit Pistons basketball team. Each game can seat around 20,000 fans, but the stadium was missing out on huge revenue opportunities by leaving its concourse space empty. “It was a dead space, an open area, which fans were migrating through to get to their seats and use the restroom,” explains Scott Heim from Middleby.
They decided to remodel, turning previously unused spaces into ventless cooking stations, which allowed them to get more creative with their menus. “With the ventless Evo griddle on the front line, they can now cook anything from slider burgers to Asian bowls,” says Heim. Refrigeration flanks the griddle, which means that as fans walk past to get their beer and wine, they look over to their left or right and see food being cooked. “Immediately, you’ve got some really good impulse purchases,” he explains.
Some operators are paring back the cooked food offer and focusing on what can be done really well
Today, 80% of the cooking at the arena is carried out in ventless action stations operated by the stadium’s catering partners. Delaware North and Little Caesars hasn’t looked back. This is not just happening in Detroit, Heim says. “We have worked with stadiums all over the country to install these ventless action stations. Often what happens is that they carry out a test and then launch more and more every year because they see the ROI is fantastic.”
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