¶ Hat Collecting and Merchandise in Baseball
Is anybody there ? All right , all right . All right , all right . Well , welcome everybody to yet another episode of the Dad Hat Chronicles podcast . My name is Ed , also known as the Dad Hat , and with me I got my co-host Stadium Food Girl herself , val . What's going on , my friend ?
Hi , I'm so excited . Another Monday , another day of doing what we love most .
That's right . That's right , so I'm going to hand it off to you . You're going to take over . Start it off . Start us off , girl . Start it off .
I got you , girl , start it off . I got you . So today we have one of my very good friends and I'm so excited to have him on , so excited At the Ballpark . Food Guy , rudy , thank you so much for being here and yeah , I'm just excited to like have you sorry , have you on today .
Thanks for having me . Yeah , this sounds like a really fun thing .
It's not . It really isn't . I mean , people hate this . I tell you it's so gross , I don't even know why people come on . I'll be honest with you .
I got a nice cut today and everything like that , just to make sure I look camera ready man look at you , all decked out and everything .
Look at you , okay , and you've got a bunch of pirates ahead , so I'm all for that as well .
There's a couple , yeah , just a handful just a couple . I have more over there I have to say , for as long as I've known you , I've never seen the pirates hat wall .
That is so nice , oh , really , yeah , usually I'm in a different corner of the room and I was like you know what ? Let's , let's just throw the hat wall in there , because this is not all the hats , there's more that I can't even fit up here . Back in Pittsburgh there is a whole separate Pirates hat wall there too . Oh , my god , are you serious ?
And I don't repeat hats . There might be like one or two repeats , that's it .
What's your count ?
In all , I probably like over 500 total , because I have a lot of other teams too . Um , one of my buddies he started it off years ago and uh , we've been collecting like since covid and just rolling with the , you know , they started to sell out and uh , I mean I don't have hair so I'm just like let's , you know , let's throw a hat , literally .
Yeah , I know I'm with you , homie , it saves on haircuts um so much , but yeah , so , uh , probably probably like between five and six hundred that's awesome I love that well , you learn something new every day .
It's more than just the food . Food now , now is . And I think that's perfect because the dad hat right . I mean , and then I know that Ed does a show with some other friends and their hat collectors . I'm like , wow , yeah .
I collect these kinds of hats right , the dad hats , you know . Yeah , so I am over . I think by now I'm over 600 of them , are you ? And that's rookie numbers compared to some of the people that we know in this area , like my friend Patrick Larson . No one knows exactly the actual count and he refuses to count the number of hats .
So I get it , because my wife did a count one time and then multiplied it you know dollar wise and I told her not to because it would make her really mad , don't ?
ever . Oh , that's bad . No , that you can't . You can't start figuring out how much you spent .
It's um nope , nope , nope , nope . That's , that's , that's uh , sleeping on the couch , you know thing . So we don't do that anymore . We stop counting .
No , uh-uh , uh-uh . Our other good friend who ballpark food guy knows Food and Fittance , has an awesome hat wall as well .
Yeah , his is pretty impressive . He's been doing that because I noticed he started taking those trips probably about five years , if not longer ago , and he'll go after like every every place he gets a hat and I'm like that's a cool thing .
You know that way , you remember , uh , where you were and and that it also captures the the era that you visited , because they changed the hat so much you know with the batter man and that you know all the different . I mean there's so many different pieces of a new era hat that can change week to week now that it's hard to keep up with all of it .
It really is . I mean with with the business of hats , right , like I mean , every week , or you know , there's new stuff coming out which I love , by the way , like I .
You know , I don't know if you're like me , but like for the to commemorate the beginning of each season , whether it's baseball or football , for me , right , I always get a hat , always get a hat , no matter what . Like I have to buy a hat , right , oh , yeah , to commemorate , it's like so , it's like that's how I .
But then , when it comes to major league baseball , I don't buy a hat , I go . I'm waiting until I go to the actual ballpark to actually get the hat there . Minor , to actually get the hat there . Minor League Baseball different story Right , yeah , I go buck wild with that . You know , as Val knows already , Fun hats Minor Leagues .
They don't have roles , they just do whatever they want .
I mean the latest one I got . Look at this thing .
Oh yeah , that's a cool one .
Yeah , from the Iron Pigs .
Remember this conversation , Val , when we were talking to our boys .
And I wish it came in a dad hat . So do I , so do I .
They do so many the Iron Pigs , like they have a new hat , like every three weeks they move . I don't know . That must be New Era's best minor league account by far .
So we recently spoke with Ed . Remind me what his role was for the Iron Pigs .
Remind me what his role was for the Iron Pigs , he's the director of merchandise for the Iron Pigs .
So we recently spoke with him and he specifically said that minor league I think it's up to six different , I guess , opportunities to make different logos over here . And he straight up said we take advantage of all six opportunities and I'm like man , good for you guys .
That's what you're doing , right ? I mean , that's an opportunity for you to go ahead and , you know , get merchandise to the people and get people to buy , you know , merchandise from your team .
Now , that's throughout the season , right , he does like those throughout the season , but in the off season which is very smart he does very , you know , hat world kind of thing where he puts out different kinds of hats of different colors or whatever designs out , you know , out there .
So like we're just waiting for the Black Friday one that he's going to be coming out , and things like that , so that's going
¶ Ballpark Food Guy Origins and Memories
to be cool .
Yeah .
But I want to know something . My question for you is you know , like you briefly touched up on this , that you started really collecting during COVID . Is that when you really started uh collecting , uh hats ?
I had . So I had a more space for it at a different apartment and I had shelves where I could do like three or four hats .
So first I did the divisions and I was like , well , you know what some of these hats are like the , the adjustable hats , like some were snapbacks , some were the stretch hats , and I was like I'm just going to get a collection of fitteds . I didn't have a . Pirates fitted when I first moved to LA and I realized that I was like , oh , this isn't great .
And so as I was visiting ballparks , I was grabbing them . And then , during COVID , they were re-releasing all the Cooperstown collection . I was like , ah .
I love the nostalgia .
So , as they were selling out , I'm like , well , I want to get some of these older hats , like you know , like the old Angels logo , the old Indians logo , and they were selling out so fast , I was like I should grab these , because it seems like people are just spending all their what are they calling those ?
The stimulus checks were just going right toward hats .
For real , yeah , I stimulus checks were just going right toward hats . For real , yeah , I'm not going to deny that I didn't buy a hat or two during that time , you know , because I did spend some money on that right .
We all did , I feel so seen .
I mean , there were some like I bought some interesting stuff during that . I didn't buy anything . The hat boxes started to add up and after a while , like my roommate would be like , why is there another hat box here today ?
I don't know , don't worry about it . Don't worry about it . It's cool . It's cool , don't worry about it . You don't see that . You don't see that at all .
Mind your business , mind your business , right yeah right on your business .
so yeah , uh , another question for you how you know , like I you know , obviously I know stadium because I had her on the , on the podcast right as far as , like , you know how she got started and all this so and obviously you see her now she's my , my calls on this podcast but like , how'd you get started with being you know the whole ballpark food guy
thing ?
so that's a great question . Um , it's . It's kind of a part of it was a joke and then part of it was a little bit of a sad story . I was living in New York City in like 20 . I want to say it was like probably like 2008 , 2009 .
And I was dating a girl that invited me to a Fourth of July party , but I didn't RSVP until like the day before and she was like , well , it's in the Hamptons , like they're not just going to let you come out . I was like , oh , well , okay . And I was like , well , I have nothing to do on the 4th . And I looked and I saw the Yankees were playing .
I was like , you know what ? I'm going to get a club level before . So I'm like this is pretty great . And so I was like I'm going to start looking at every ballparks club level . And that was part of the motivation . But I didn't do that immediately . Um , when I got out of grad school , I needed a job .
Um , I went back to a bartending job I had at one of the . It was at the hockey arena and that didn't last long . I went to the baseball stadium , I became a supervisor and I was working concessions . Every day I was a concession supervisor and I think at that point I was like there's a market for like people that love this food .
So I would walk around the stadium with just like a bucket of wings or like a couple of sandwiches and people . I would see people's eyes as I was walking through and I didn't take advantage of taking photos of it .
But you know , a couple of years down the road I'm out here and I decided I want to write a comedy about concessions and I should probably have something to show that I've done this before . So I started just taking pictures of hot dogs at games and that's how Ballpark Food Guy came about . It was a joke .
I was like I'll get people to like a picture of nachos and they do . Yeah , absolutely . That was .
That's the whole foundation of ballpark food guy in a nutshell and , and I really remember again , this is at pnc park right , not at yankee stadium where you started that was I .
So I I had the idea at yankee stadium . I started doing it at pNC Park Because that was where I worked . That was my first ballpark and later I moved out to Dodger Stadium and I did the same thing there for a little while .
But I think I called a buddy that was my old boss and I was like , hey , can I come in and take pictures of the hot dogs and all the different stuff you have ? And he set it up for me and so yeah , pnc has always been like a home for me because I , you know , I worked a lot of shifts there late into the night .
Absolutely One of my favorite ballparks of all time .
Love that ballpark . I'm crossing that we already booked our hotel and I was texting Rudy I think yesterday or today about it , or actually last week , and I was like Rudy we just booked our hotel to PNC .
You will be coming with us I even asked him . He was like , all right , twist my arm . Right , that's pretty cool . Like I remember going to that ballpark with my wife , Like that was our first ballpark that we went to , like on our first weekend trip . When you know , we got together and all that .
We're just like all right , let's go to Pittsburgh , Right , yeah , you know , not a Steelers fan , but like I was like I mean , you know , I like the , the , the Pirates will always have a soft spot in my heart , Right , Because it's like , you know , like we for them , even though he wasn't drafted by them . So I was like , you know , got it .
And then I saw the statue and I fell in love with that ballpark . I mean it is such a beautiful ballpark and I tell anybody it's like by far one of my best ballparks in the whole country .
You got to go watch a game there . You know I was blessed to to get that . The funny thing is you're blessed to get a great park but you don't have a great team . So I've been to some games there where you're like they didn't even have a hit today and it can get pretty scorching hot there in the sun . But I think they picked probably the best backdrop .
San francisco is really nice , san diego has a really nice backdrop to Baltimore's great , and you know I'm sure there's others that I'm going to leave out . I still have to see Kaufman and I'm looking forward to that . That's a beautiful park .
Yeah , I mean , like some of these , they really catch the ambience of the city and people think Pittsburgh and they think of smog and you know steel mills and I mean there really isn't an operational mill near the city proper for quite a ways .
But that statue I remember it being in front of Three River Stadium when I was a kid and the stories that I hear about people's interactions with Clemente . There were the kids that were my dad's age that would run and try to sit in right field , but we had a family member that was a volunteer in the clubhouse and so he just grabbed my dad one time .
He was like I'm going to take you down to meet him and so he went down there . My dad's like I couldn't understand anything he was saying , but he seemed nice . I'm like that's a core thing . I might get to meet somebody someday that's on a similar level . I might get to meet somebody someday that's on a similar level .
But I'm like dude , that's that . Just gave me chills , dude .
Yeah .
Your dad got to meet Clemente . He did .
And he has dumb luck . Somebody handed him a ticket to the World Series when he worked at a gas station . He walked over past the laundromat and the guy that owned the laundromat was like , hey , it's the 79 World Series , I can't go tonight .
The laundromat , and the guy that owned the laundromat was like hey , it's the 79 World Series , I can't go tonight Do you want this ticket . My dad was like , yes , I'm like how do people just hand away World Series tickets ? Now , that would cost you like $4,000 . Thousands and thousands of dollars .
That was the . You guys beat the Orioles , right ? Was that the Orioles ?
That was against the Orioles .
I'm like , wow , I was , he didn't get out of his seat the whole like just entire event , just watching the whole game you know , yeah , lucky , really lucky . Oh , my god , I've been lucky enough to get make it to um a world series game , have you ? We ? Yep , we lost , we lost to the cubbies , all right .
Oh , that was a good one , yeah oh yes that was a good series .
That game seven was so electric . I have a great- .
Roda Davis with that clutch home run . I remember that . Oh , that was such a good game .
I have a great friend that is oh sorry . And yeah , that one . I mean that was . I think that was a pretty heartbreaking World Series , but people were- . If it didn't rain .
if it didn't rain , we would have won that game . I want to see . That's all I'm going to say . Anyways , let's talk about you , man . Let's talk about you , Okay . So tell me , how many ballparks have you been to ? Right ?
now I'm at 26 right now . I still have to do . I do this once a week at this point . I do Toronto , minneapolis , milwaukee , kansas City , houston and Atlanta .
Wow .
Nice Wait , then you're at 24 ?
24 . 24 . 24 . That's still a good number , though .
I mean , I think I only have like a handful of ballparks that I've been to Six left , that's right .
Okay , all right .
We're great Cause , like I made it to Shea Stadium , riverfront , old Yankee Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia , so I had to redo a couple in there , and I mean all those uh , the ashtrays they called them .
I mean every single one of those was the same stadium with a little bit of a different setup , but that was cool yeah , that is true , they all look like ashtrays , you know ?
oh yeah . So let me ask you this you only do major league ballparks , or have you done any minor league ballparks that you've been to and done the same thing ?
I've done some minor leagues . I did Buffalo Salem Field up there with a buddy that's from there . I've done . I went to the 66ers Stadium in San Bernardino and let's see .
Aviators .
Oh , I went to the Aviators , that's right . I went to the aviators , that's right . I went to the reno aces , and reno aces has , like , they have a beautiful , like new style stadium . It's not nearly as good as the aviator stadium , though that one is freaking phenomenal that's pretty cool . I like that . I think that's all my . There's a bunch .
I wanted to do salt lake city , but mike trout , you can never tell when he's gonna get hurt . So I'm like I want to a rehab game , but I don't know how many of those we're going to get .
I mean , at this point I don't even know if you'll ever play a full season , ever again . I know it's sad to say right , because such a talent right .
Yeah , god man , so sad it's going to be a tough one . I'm trying to think if there's any . I haven't done the quakes out here in LA yet and I've been meaning to see the Lake Elsinore storm . I just , you know there was a lot of weekends that I was trying to get out and do that and lately it's not been a priority .
But Lake Elsinore storm . I'm going to say , make that up ASAP because the food is so good .
Is it Okay ?
It's so good .
I can fit that in before the end of the year . You should .
And then I might meet you out there .
That sounds fun . I was like I might go . I mean , come on , I can't twist my arm here .
I'll go .
Yeah , I've done football and hockey too . You took my next question .
Yep , I've done those on hockey too . You took my next question .
Yep , I've done those on a much smaller scale . I think I did . You know what last year was the coolest experience ? A buddy had company seats on the floor at the Q or whatever the . Is it still the Quicken Loans ?
arena , it's still the Q .
All right , at the Q , and I , I mean I , I went with him cause I'm like , dude , we get to go to the lounge and , you know , eat the buffet , and I'm like this is great , you get the brown mustard that they only have there .
Oh yeah , See , I've been telling you , Val , that the study in mustard .
The Burtman's mustard they have the knockoff here in L .
no , no , it's Burtman's right there . That's the stuff right there .
Or maybe I got it in Pittsburgh and brought it to LA , but either way , outside of Ohio they have the knockoff version of it . But it's really good it is .
Listen , knockoff or not ? Brown mustard that stadium mustard . That stuff is on a hot dog , oh baby .
That's where it's at . I've done those two , so I've done Boston the Nets . I've been to Madison Square Garden for a hockey game . That's a weird environment . That stadium is just like that arena is just kind of different . And then Now is it the arena , or is it the fans , or is it a combination of the both ?
I think at the time they were renovating and the people really weren't into the Rangers at the game I went to .
Ah , gotcha .
Yeah , I probably picked a game that was more economic and not quite as exciting . But the Nets Barclays Center was fantastic . That was so innovative and I mean I was really blown away by what they were able to offer there .
It was pretty cool oh , so cool yeah let me ask you what's your , what's your like , your , your , your process
¶ Sports Stadium Foodie Experience
. Right , because everybody has a process , and I asked you this one , too , about like , when you go to the stadium or the ballpark , wherever you go , it's like what's . But like , when you go to the stadium or the ballpark , wherever you go , it's like what's your process ? When you're like getting there , what are you trying to get first ?
What is , what is it that you do as , as you get there ?
so I think it it changes and this has been uh I I've learned over time .
You need to either you either need two games or you need to get there as soon as the gates open and you do some research beforehand to try to set up maybe one or two things that are going to be feature items , and then I think the key is I'll get those one or two feature items , find a spot in the place that has a great backdrop , and I try to do
as much filming before there's a lot of people in there as I can . And the funny thing is some places like I got uh at one of the major league parks . I'm not going to out them , but I reached out to the front office and I was like , hey , I'm an influencer .
I had like 400 followers at the time and they gave me some tickets and I was like , can I bring a gimbal in ? They were like , yeah , and so I get there , and they're like you can't bring it in . I was like I don't know what to tell you , but you got to talk to the people upstairs and I right right I got in with it , they were cool .
Um , I was like I'm not gonna hit anyone . I promise this is my page . I'm just here to take pictures of hot dogs and with some places , like I think when I was at the the brookets , like I took a lot of photos but I didn't post a lot . You know , val and I did the thing earlier this year and , like Chef Gary just walked up to us with hot dogs .
Well , this is immersive and so I will try to get as much footage as I can before .
Number one like you get into the third quarter of a basketball game or like into the sixth inning of a baseball game and they're going to those cooking projections that they're giving out are going to have them peeling back and everybody goes toward the ice cream and that's usually where I attack , like one of the last items I can get .
But I think overall my process is get there early , get through as much stuff as you can , hope there's not a rain delay and you're not in a rain city . But it seems to work out pretty well , I would say like 90% of the time , if not more .
Hey , that's a good tip . That's sixth , anything Cause everyone is going towards the ice cream , and then that's good . Then now I have two opportunities to eat before in the sixth inning yep , I was .
I was thinking the same thing .
I was like , oh my god , like like the psychology behind that right , because I'm one of them like six , seventh inning listen , give me some ice cream and it's only from having worked there that , like I , how much I remember we were working PNC Park one time and someone fired off an entire package of hot dogs .
Now there's like 120 hot dogs in an industrial package and they threw them all sometimes in the back . They'll just put them in an oven , oh no , and my boss was carrying them like Santa Claus just a sack of cooked hot dogs and we donated everything . But you have to take a loss on all of that .
Yeah , you just took an L Big L too $5 a hot dog .
at least they were not happy about that . I mean , it was . I got that stand . The next event . I was like you're going to cook 20 at a time , that's it .
Yeah , and if they have to wait , they have to wait , wait , because you don't want to lose the money . That's 120 hot dogs right there . They just went out the window I mean not on that level .
It's like when they start asking you like , hey , why did you have so much spoilage last night ? It's like , well , uh see what happened was . It's different from when you got the bartenders . And all of a sudden it's like why are there eight spoiled bud lights on here ? It's like , okay , how many of you are working eight ? Oh okay , I see what happened .
Yeah , yeah , but that's little tips , crazy I was gonna just say for those listening and for someone like me , if you can get into , if someone's got two days in pittsburgh , how do you do two days in pittsburgh , at least two , right , because I don't know anyone that's going . I mean , unless they're going just for a day .
Alright . So if you've got a day in Pittsburgh and I think this comes up a lot in With the Pirates game at night .
With the Pirates game at night seven pirates game at night , all right .
So I would do it like this . Um , I think you spend your morning , uh , assuming you can get the the tour tickets , you do the roberto clemente museum in the morning . Uh , it's down the street , it's an uber ride , or a rather long walk , I would say it's . It's not quite a walk , it's a short ride , um , and you're in Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood .
There's a place that I really love over there that's called the William Penn Tavern . It moved from Shadyside down to Lawrenceville . They have the best wings . They're called the kitchen sink wings . They put all the sauces together and it's spicy , but it's garlicky and it's Parmesan-y , and then you know , there's the buffalo flavor . It's delicious .
Whenever you hear someone say the kitchen sink , you'd know it's going to be a lot of food right , like I mean , it's just good stuff .
Oh yeah , and they're . You know they're like reasonably sized , so you're not eating the you know the full buffalo wing , but they have pickle fries that I really love there . Their sandwiches are good .
¶ Pittsburgh Food and Drink Guide
And then from there I would say you go one of two directions If you've got a little bit of time left . I think the next thing is you head to a spot that has either really good beer or really good drinks . Around the ballpark there's two breweries that I can think of that I really like .
There's the Church Brew Works , which is just up a ways from that ballpark or from that neighborhood , and then you've also got the Penn Brewery , which is an old converted . I think that's also a converted church , I don't know . It looks like a monastery . They're both very religious looking , but the Church Brew Works is literally a converted church .
And then Penn Brewery they do an Oktoberfest every year . A lot of their beers are kind of themed that way . There's another spot that I am going to blank on right now . I'm going to look up the name if I have just a second here . You got all the time you want , bro .
I went in with a couple of friends and there's a Clemente mural on the side of it , in the north side . It's probably one of the spots where I'm like it's a cash only spot .
That's good to remember . Right there I was like , if you're going to go , go , but it's cash only . That's something to remember , because who carries cash nowadays ? Yeah ?
Right .
It's Verdetto's . Verdetto's in the North side . They have a Clemente mural on the side . They've got some old memorabilia inside a little bit here and there . A pool table in the back and North side can be a little hit and miss . Some parts of it are a little rough , some are more refined .
I would say , if you're still hungry and you have more time , before the ballpark there's two pizza spots that are really big and these are both Uber rides . It puts you a little bit away from the city . But in squirrel Hill there's mini O's and ILOs . They're right next to each other and then in the South Hills you have Fiore's .
There's a couple of other pizza spots that are up and coming . I haven't tried yet so I'm not going to give a wreck , but I've always been a Minio's person . I know Dave Portnoy's covered a couple of these places . But Pittsburgh pizza is pretty special because you have some Sicilian slices . You've got some regular slices .
It's not the huge New York slices where they sit out all day . They're pretty much making the pie um per order . Um , it's a little heavier . Uh , the cheese is a little bit richer . So I mean it's a , it's a full meal , um , and if you're doing this . By that point you've probably had enough food that you can go down toward the North shore .
Um , maybe go across the street . There's a beer garden that's right across the street that has , like , I mean , I don't even know how many coolers there are , but we're talking hundreds of beers . And then next to it , the North Shore Tavern , which has the stake on a stone , and another huge like offering of beers on tap .
That one has more memorabilia than every bar that I think I've seen around there . And of course , you've got , you know , your , your average . This favorite place I go for Steeler games is usually McFadden's , which is , you know , around on the other side . It's , uh , where the Maseroski gate is .
But so those would be my first day spots that I would check out . Um , once you're inside the , the best stand that I can think out , once you're inside , the best stand that I can think of is behind Home Plate . There's a marketplace back there where they usually have a rotating offering .
Pops Plaza , which is on the first baseline , where the first baseline meets left field , named after Willie Stargell , usually has like chicken and peats and some cheese steaks . They have some Philly offerings , because aramark's based out of philly oh nice that aramark is based out of philly .
I didn't know that yeah and uh .
So they they also have . You know , usually like down from that gate , uh , at the left field rotunda at the bottom of there , they've had a hot dog concept from smallman street Dogs , smallman Street Deli for a while now . I hope they'll keep that . They've been really good . They had a oh gosh , they do a Chicago dog there , which is kind of different .
You know you expect to see something more Pittsburgh , but they also have a Reuben dog and a Bacon Wrap dog . Further down they've had a couple of rotating concepts throughout the years , but the I icy light setup is usually underneath the left field bleachers . They did like a cantina thing . There's a pizza spot there occasionally and I hope it's still there .
Center field has Manny's Barbecue , which is Manny Sanguian's place . He was a catcher for the Pirates . Manny sometimes is still there signing autographs . That's pretty cool , roberto Clemente's best friend . And they have , you know , some like pierogies that are topped with , you know , pulled pork or pulled chicken or you know what have you .
And then , as you wheel around the Riverwalk over toward there's , like they called it , the Skull Bar . Most recently , and that's where I usually work , there was a chicken on the hill concept which was done , uh , with a vendor , and chicken on the hill was named for Willie Stargell .
It was , uh , a fried chicken spot in the hill district and people would put in orders back in the seventies and if Willie hit a home run while he was up , the food was free , but if not , you paid for your own food . So people would put it these massive orders . They do a chicken sandwich there . I hope they'll keep that this year .
I think the big thing was the renegade dog , which that was pretty good . I was really surprised by that . It's really like unwieldy . I mean , there's so much hot dog there that it's a two-hander , like it's a junior boomstick . That's how I would look at it .
Yowza , yeah , and the top deck repeats a lot of the stuff that you find downstairs In the home plate club . There's a , there's a buffet , you know , a carvery , there's a bar that's specifically just for the restaurant there . They also have a menu with a burger and a couple of a la carte items .
Um , they have a really nice dessert set up and then , once you go down and you're actually behind home plate , um , all you can eat , like nachos , hot dogs that you can throw toppings on yourself , and they've got a pretty nice arrangement . Um , you know , snacks like candy and , uh , you know popcorn and chips and then , uh , then , a personal bar there .
That is , it's not part of the ticket if you buy the ticket behind home plate , but it's still worth it . Pretty good offering . And then I would say , the one thing Pittsburgh does pretty well is they have a lot of vendors walking around through the games too , so vending commissaries are open . Um , you know , you can get most things .
I don't know how much in-seat service they're doing right now . I don't think it's as much as other stadiums . But yeah , that's . That's most of the in stadium offerings that I can think of . There's a few others , uh , quaker steak and lube wings and primanti's , which pittsburgh's famous for god , I haven't heard that name in a long time .
Right , and I like going to the actual Permanente's location in the Strip District or in one of the satellite locations because there's just more offerings there . The Capicola's great .
If you have a second day and you're really looking for a couple of unique things in Pittsburgh , um , I would say there's like two or three places off the top of my head , um , and in in the Shady Stud neighborhood . One of my favorite restaurants is Shady Grove . It's got great bar food .
Um , I've been , like my mom worked across the street for years , so I mean , I've been eating there like for I don't even know how many years now , but the menu is pretty diverse Some of the best bar food and pizza that I've ever had . There are two other things . There's a pierogi place that is in McKees Rocks .
Mckees Rocks is a little bit of a , it's an area , but the pierogies are good . The South side also usually had a pierogi place near one of the churches because they do a lot of fish fries and I got to see if the sign is back there . It should be , you know , relatively soon I think they'll start up for football season .
Pierogies oh my God , I haven't had a good pierogi in a while . Um God , pierogi small , oh my God , I haven't had a good burger in a while .
And I would say as far as . As far as the really special places , um , I have a friend that has a cocktail bar downtown that's walkable from PNC park . It's called the Warren . Um , I really love that place . They also have a late night menu . Uh , late night menus are hard to find in Pittsburgh . That's one of the things I would say .
The Warren has a late night menu . There's a place not too far from there called Bakersfield . They have a late ish menu . The Capitol Grill is actually a pretty great place before or after games . You know , surprisingly , tequila cowboy down the street is fun if you want to get thrown out by one of the bouncers fast . Uh , no , it's , it's a .
It's a western themed bar that has the bull in there you can ride oh nice um , I've not been thrown out of there , but I've watched other people get thrown out .
Um well , now , I know yeah .
¶ Pittsburgh Sports Show Episode 2
I hope you guys enjoyed this episode with Rudy . Now make sure you guys come back next week . Okay , episode 2 , part 2 , however you want to go with it , we are going to be here next week with this episode .
We are going to be going into some more suggestions that he has about Pittsburgh my famous not so famous questions , as well as some of the things that he does in order to look at when he is at a different ballpark or stadiums , and things like that .
Okay , Also , make sure that that I Chronicle Sports Show is going to be live Tuesday at 9 pm Eastern time on my YouTube channel , as well as on Facebook , instagram heck , even on LinkedIn anywhere except on Twitter , guys . Yeah , we are not on Twitter .
They are charging us , so we are going to be off of that until further notice , until they decided to go do it free . But anyways , join us 9pm Eastern time . We're going to be talking football , we're going to be talking some baseball , whatever comes to our mind , guys . Until then , guys , keep grinding and always support the minor leagues , see ya , thank you .