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When I was trying to come up with July’s Stadium of the Month feature, I wanted food to be the focus as there are some stadiums (specifically ballparks) that have quality food options worthy of dining out for. I racked my brain for a little while and shame on me for temporarily forgetting my first minor-league ballpark that has stood above the next 43 stadium visits I have made. It is Frontier Field in my hometown of Rochester, NY! The community-owned Red Wings play in a facility that has highlighted food since its opening in1996. The food menu is much more than just 872 varieties of weirdly topped hot dogs like all other minor-league ballparks now offer (faking both quality and quantity). Rochester instead offers a selection that can take a visitor a good month of games to sample everything and it starts by staying local. City delicacies include the traditional Zweigles white hot dog (think of a more porkier version) and the garbage plate (may not sound appetizing but it is, make sure to eat with bread). Both can be found at Frontier and while the plate is not truly from Nick Tahou’s, it is close. More local favorites are abound throughout the park as Red Osier offers great Prime Rib sandwiches, Salvatore’s contributes their excellent Pizza and Chicken French or Chicken Parm can be found from Calabria Italian Restaurant. “I could go on forever baby” (thank you Angels with Filthy Souls), but I’ll just throw out a few more items worth trying: The Mac and Cheese, the Flowering Onion, the Crepes and the Chili. To top it all off, there is even a beer unique to the ballpark. Rohrbach’s, a craft brewery in Rochester, features four beers at their stand including “Red Wing Ale”, an excellent beer red ale specifically made for the team. If that’s not enough, traditional Genesee Beer can be found at the park as well (emmmm…Cream Ale).
Frontier still has a special place in my heart as those first smells of the concourse take me back to my childhood and all of the Red Wings and Rhinos games that I attended. Little did I know that over 15 years and 43 ballparks later, it stands above all in the food category. The park itself is decent with the downtown location offering a nice backdrop for games, including the Kodak building towering over the third base side. While I’ve never been fond of the generic seating bowl that seems to fan out from the field too much, the atmosphere for a ball game is very pleasant. Front-office management is top notch (led by Dan Mason) and the in-game stylings on the traditional organ by Fred Costello is much appreciated.
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Stadium and Arena Visits 