Safeco Dogs

[col klink]

I'm taking off for the first game of the season against the Big Hurt and the Chicago White Sox.

I consider it sacrilege *not* to get a healthily garnished Polish dog at a ball game.  I certainly won't be one to break tradition today and mine will have lots of mustard, onions, and sauerkraut.

However, going to one of the spring training games this weekend, I noticed there are a lot of different food stands at Safeco, there's even a sushi stand!

With all of the diversity there, what do you all enjoy at the ballpark?

[Blue Heron]

col klink, sorry I can't help you out with food suggestions, as  I haven't been to a Mariner game in years.  However, Mr. Heron has taken me on a couple of tours (when the stadium was empty) as his engineering co. designed Safeco Field, and he helped design the retractable roof.  If you see those shiny diagonal dampers (shock absorbers) on the roof, those are his design.   He also had some equipment set up in the control room, so I got to see the amazing array of switches and panels that control the stadium lights, roof and who knows what else (and I controlled any impulses to operate any of them :p  )  If I were to go to a game, I think I would try your idea of stopping for a banh mi on the way, or maybe some of Kau Kau's take out barbeque pork or duck in the International District.  If you try anything, let us know how it was.

[mamster]

The only time I went to Safeco, I think I must have already had dinner, because I just ate a bunch of peanuts.  So I'm curious.

BH, is Kau Kau the best place for BBQ pork and ducks in the neighborhood?

[Fat Guy]

I was at Shea today, and was thinking about all the other ballparks I've been to. Of all the ones I've visited, Shea has the worst food. How is that possible? Why am I bringing this up on this board? Well, whatever the reasons, you people out there should be thankful for what you have available.

[Blue Heron]

I'm surprised to say that Kau Kau is the only place I've checked out for take out Chinese barbequed pork & duck (their five spice chicken is also very good), so I'm not sure if it's 'the' best, but it sure is good, and cheap.  I found out about it early on (maybe 15 years ago).  I've never eaten in the restaurant part, always bought from the take out window inside.  He chops it up in front of you and packs it to go.  The extra five-spice(?) sauce in the little pastic cup is really good, too.  I'd love to get the recipe for that.

I have fond memories of Shea stadium, as that's where I had my first legal beer at age 18 (and I kept the plastic cup as a souvenier through my youth).  It would be another 3 years before I had another legal drink, in WA state.

col klink, I think I read Seattle Supersmoke smoked poultry/meats is at Safeco field.  Did you see them?  

For those of you that eat peanuts at the stadium... do you throw the shells on the floor like everyone else, or do you pack them to throw away?  I can't imagine throwing shells on the floor.  It must feel quite liberating as long as it's ok?  Is it ok or do people just do it?     ps...  Is THE "peanut man" (I forget his name) still there tossing peanuts?  He's such a nice guy.  I knew him tossing peanuts maybe 15 years ago at the Kingdome.

[LaurieA-B]

Normally I can't imagine throwing trash on any floor, and I get after the kids at school if they leave trash around.  The one time I went to Safeco Field, however, I think we threw our peanut shells at the kids in front of us.  Why would we do such a thing?  My memory cannot provide the answer.  Maybe they were annoying.

[mamster]

Shaw, shouldn't you be using your time to come up with appropriate taunts for when the Mariners play in NY?  Like, "Our hot dogs can beat up your sushi," or something?

[col klink]

Despite the M's losing yesterday, it was a blast to be there.  I was in section 346 (the nose-bleed, boondocks section) and as such, had the best seats in the house for when the A6E's flew overhead.  Another beautiful moment was when the whole crowd booed commissioner Bud Selig before handing out the commissioner's historical significance award.

But back to food, the concession stand didn't have any Polish dogs so I had a pretty good, if small, Hebrew National.  But the small stature of the dog allowed for plenty of mustard, kraut, onions and relish (which later said hello to my pants).  A very satisfying endeavor.  Baseball is back and (most) everything is right in the world.

Also by my section was a bar-b-que stand.  Luckily I did see someone try to eat what looked like a pulled pork sandwich otherwise I wouldn't know what their food looked like.  I didn't feel the need to try it though.  However, the garlic fries looked very good (below, on the 100 level) and I imagine myself trying some later in the season.

Of course there was plenty of pizza, ice cream and horribly overpriced beer.  Apparently this year they've add a lot of Asian food at the request of the fans I'm probably sure.  There's a Chinese stand around home plate and near the bullpen at street level there is the aforementioned hand-made fresh sushi.  Though I see no reason to eat sushi there when you can go to Azuma only 15 minutes away (walking) in the ID where you can be in and out in a half-hour if you play your cards right.  Granted there is the novelty of ordering sushi at the ballpark that is hard to argue with.  Oh yeah, somewhere in Safeco (pronounced Sa-feee-co) is a granola stand with tofu dogs and granola.  Is Seattle still a granola city?  I thought we grew out of that when grunge died.

If you'd like more of the expensive food service, by all means go to the Hit-It-Here cafe where you can get a good view from above left field and you can have a wait staff serve you hamburgers, oysters and other nice brewpub fare and charge you an extra 20%.  We went there on Saturday because it was a little too chilly in the stands.  The biggest drawback is it's completely closed off and you loose the "crowd" feel.  But there's also an outside service area.  Neat, but overpriced.  The Hit-It-Here is about being seen at a sporting event.  I'm there for the game and the atmosphere and as such fail to see the lure of it.

FYI, if you'd like to have a few drinks at the ballpark but don't feel like paying $6.50 for a Red Hook or a Doc Otis (yeah heartburn!), I suggest bringing a flask.  They're easy to conceal and I consider them a lifesaver.  Just order a pop to dump it in (this case: bourbon and 7-up) and you're good to go.

-baseball loving souse.

[David]

However, the garlic fries looked very good (below, on the 100 level) and I imagine myself trying some later in the season.

I had the garlic fries last year at Safeco a few times. They are excellent (if you like garlic :p). Just make sure the Mariners' fans around you don't mind the smell of garlic too much. :p

Also, they're serving the same garlic fries at area Kidd Valley restaurants now (but they're not nearly as good, as the Kidd Valley staff doesn't properly spread the garlic throughout the fries).

[col klink]

At Sunday's game (let's hear it for leaving 11 men on base!  I've come to the conclusion that for the best way to get outs against the M's is let to sacks get full of M's and then let them self-destruct.) it seemed that after every half inning someone was bringing garlic fries into our area and I'll be damned if they didn't smell good.

But since I had a Banh Mi sandwich leftover, I held my ground.

[col klink]

Tried the garlic fries on Friday night. Quite tasty, as matter of fact, damn tasty. They run about $4.95 and they're worth getting at least once. They taste as good as they smell. It looked like there was about 2 tablespoons of well-distributed minced garlic for a standard order of fries and they were well salted.

However with $1.50 banh mi sandwiches outside the park, it's hard to justify the outlay.

[IslandMom]

I'm taking off for the first game of the season against the Big Hurt and the Chicago White Sox.

I consider it sacrilege *not* to get a healthily garnished Polish dog at a ball game.  I certainly won't be one to break tradition today and mine will have lots of mustard, onions, and sauerkraut.

However, going to one of the spring training games this weekend, I noticed there are a lot of different food stands at Safeco, there's even a sushi stand!

With all of the diversity there, what do you all enjoy at the ballpark?

I went to an M's game while I was in grad school at UW... got there and the vendors weren't ready yet, so I figured I could get a hot dog later during the game.  One of the vendors made his way toward our seats, so I ordered what I thought was a beef hot dog.  He looked at me questioningly and said, "You want a beef?", and I said "Yes, how much?" to which he replied, "$5", which I thought was high for a hot dog, but what the heck, I dug out my $$, he reached into his box (I was still seated, so couldn't see into the box), and popped open a BEER!  I just sort of gave him the money, and he handed me the beer.... as my friend declared, "I think Carol just bought her first beer".  This is true - and I don't drink beer - so I handed it to my friend, and said, "Thanks for the rides".  He was pretty happy, but I still didn't have any hot dog.  Guess I have to go back one of these days.  

I did my internship at Group Health on Pill Hill, and took the express from the U district to the Convention Center bus depot.  There was a hot dog cart there - and the dogs looked soooo scrumptious.... I promised that one day, I'd buy one.  Sadly, that day never came!  I'm back in Honolulu now, thinking about those hot dogs.......    

[robert brown]

CK. We blew two already. Nice work. Have fun at the park tonight.

[col klink]

Guess what folks, it's only 5 minutes until they open the doors at Safeco for the home opener against the World Champion Angels. First pitch is 2:05.

This year we have a new manager (Bob Melvin, former bench coach of the Arizona Diamondbacks) and a mostly young and proven rotation and we're missing a lefty in bullpen by the name of Norm "The Sheriff" Charleton. I think our rotation of Freddy Garcia, Jamie "slow and slippery" Moyer, Joel Pinero, Ryan Franklin and untested rookie Julio Mateo should do just fine this year but look for Mateo to go back down to Tacoma sometime in May. Our biggest hole in the bullpen is that we only have one lefty, granted he's a great pitcher but Arthur Rhodes will get over-used and tire by the end of the year without any help. Our only saving grace is that Shigetoshi Hasegawa (rh) is actually pretty good against lefties.

Of course if we don't drive any runs home this year, it doesn't matter how good the pitching is, without runs, we can't win. So this brings us to hitting. We have a couple of new bats in Randy Winn, Greg Colbrun and John Mabry all of whom have been hitting well in Spring training and in the first week of the season. They just might be enough to make up for Jeff "I love to complain and I can't hit a baseball for $6.4 MILLLION a year let alone play well defensively" Cirillo. His spring was abismal and he's currently only 1 for 18.

That means his batting average is only .056

The last regular Mariner to do that badly was Dave Valle. He was doing so poorly one year that bars in Pioneer square were selling drinks for his batting average. I can only hope that they do the same for Cirillo. At least Valle was a decent catcher and didn't make the money Cirillo does. (Valle was on the other hand the biggest ass in the dugout, I went to high school with one of the batboys, and now he's a piss poor announcer)

If Cirillo doesn't start performing, it's not going to be pretty. But our entire offense doesn't rotate around Cirillo, we need a breakout year from Guillen (defensively too, he can't be afraid to get his jersey dirty) and another from Bret Boone. Of course we still need the consistency of Gar and Olerud.

But of course nobody can play well or cheer well on an empty stomach. That's why when I'm bringing a banh mi to the game so I'll be quite ready to boo Cirillo when his name is called. Ordinarily I'd bring two sandwiches but I have to save room for a Polish dog. Oh yeah, I'll have to get some kettle corn right outside. It's so damn tasty and addictive. Well, I'm off to the game! Section 142, row 35 seat 16.

[col klink]

I just got back from the game and Uwajimaya where I bought a half dozen quilcene oysters and a half dozen of another type the name of which escapes me (I did manage to bring in some whiskey to the game) as well as a pound and a half of squid. I can't wait 'till that squid meets guanciale, cilantro and lime.

Oh yeah, Moyer was fantastic, going 7 innings, giving up only 4 hits and one walk while fanning 7. And the best part? Cirillo went 0 for 4 reducing his average from 0.56 to .045

What a great game! We win *and* Cirillo flounders.

I didn't have time to pick up a banh mi, but I did have tasty dog and a citrus soda (with whiskey). It feels so good to have baseball back!

edit: spelling and the other oysters were Penn Cove oysters.

Edited April 9, 2003 by col klink (log)

[awbrig]

How the hell did you sneak in a lb and half of squid?!? Or do we want to know...

I have to say I never heard of eating squid in the stands but now I have! Col Klink!

Glad you had a GREAT time! I was supposed to go to the Cubs opener yesterday but it got snowed out!

[vengroff]

Gotta love the 'ners. I was with them through the tough times in the pre-Jr. days, and still am. Too bad they only come to Baltimore once this season.

See the Baltimore Get-together thread for a right-coast take on baseball and dining.

[Ye-Ye Girl]

I wouldn't bother with the BBQ out in center field, Klink. I tried it twice, and it was mediocre at best.

Love those garlic fries. You can smell an order of them at least ten feet away. And they do smell heavenly.

If you sneak in a flask, careful where you are when you drink from it. Regardless of where my seats are, I always go stand out in the center field "beer garden" (that really isn't a beer garden, but that's what I call it anyway), because it's a fun view of the game and the people watching is fantastic. There are always members of the "Safeco Field Alcohol Enforcement" team hanging out there, and I've never seen a game without at least one bust. Good times.

The best alcohol bang for the buck I've found at the Safe is the sake available at the sushi stand by the bullpens in right center field. Dunno 'bout this year, but last year it was $6 for about 6 oz. (maybe 8?) of warm sake. Not the best sake in the world, but there's about as much alcohol there as in two or three of their wonderfully overpriced beers. Get an Ichi-roll to go with it, and you've got a combination unique to MLB.

I was just wrapping up a 3-hour job interview two blocks from the Safe an hour before game time today. Seriously thought about trying to score a ticket, but remembered another appointment later in the day that I couldn't really blow off. Sure wouldn't mind getting that job, though. Seven minute commute, two blocks from the Safe, five blocks from Pecos Pit, across the street from Krispy Kreme. And those are just the perks!

Edited because I'm temporarily brain dead.

Edited April 9, 2003 by Ye-Ye Girl (log)

[Coop]

When Safeco first opened we ate at the Bar b Que joint by the M"s bullpen. My youngest son bucked the trend of Bar b Que sandwichs and went for a sausage of some description. To his surprise the sausage came covered in the pulled pork. He was in heaven.

[col klink]

How the hell did you sneak in a lb and half of squid?!?   Or do we want to know...

I bought the squid and the oysters after the game.

Sorry to hear your home opener was delayed due to snow. What a downer!

Ye-Ye Girl, I'm very careful with the flask. I never drink straight from it; I buy a pop, drink a third and then I pour in the whiskey with the cup at my feet. One time last year I was two seats from the aisle and one row in front of a camera crew taping the folks behind me (unbeknownst to myself when I started pouring) and I didn't get caught. I could've been on diamond vision! Anyway, that was a really weird game, McLemore hit his first grand slam of his career, the M's scored 15 runs against Anaheim and a man died of a heart attack in the 6th just two sections to my right.

I hope the interview went well!

[girl chow]

How the hell did you sneak in a lb and half of squid?!?   Or do we want to know...

I know Col said he bought the oysters and squid *after* the game ... but it used to be that you could bring your own food (but not beverage) into Safeco field. Col, is this still the case? I'm going to a game in a few weeks and we had planned on bringing along an elaborate picnic feast for our pals, in addition to stopping and getting a bag of bahm mi and bbq pork before the game

[col klink]

I have a hard time imagining the folk's at Safeco letting you bring in a whole pic-a-nic basket when they make you drain water bottles before entering.

I do know you can bring hot dogs from outside vendors, kettle and caramel corn, and kiddie drinks but I don't know about a full basket. However, I've never been given any guff for bringing in banh mi so it might be worth a try.

I'd call up the head office and see what they say.

[MsRamsey]

From: http://mariners.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/sea/bal...lpark_guide.jsp

Beverages, Bottles and Cans

No bottles, cans or outside beverages (including water) are permitted in SAFECO Field. Exceptions are made for guests with medical related needs, baby bottles and unopened, soft-sided, single-serve containers (such as small milk cartons, juice boxes, etc.). Guests may bring in empty plastic sports-type bottles and fill them at any of the 75 drinking fountains located throughout the ballpark.

Food & Beverages

SAFECO Field offers a wide variety of food offerings sure to satisfy any taste. Visit any Guest Service Center for a listing of food options throughout the ballpark. Outside food may be brought into the ballpark as long as it is consumed in the general seating area or designated picnic areas. However, outside food may not be brought into any ballpark restaurant, club lounge nor suite. Food items should be wrapped, bagged or inside a container to avoid spillage. Food that could be thrown as a projectile should be sliced or quartered.

[col klink]

Thanks!

[Schielke]

Now I have to find a way to inject whiskey into a juice box!!

Ben