It's looking as if Gates Barbecue won't have a place at the redesigned Kauffman Stadium.
In charge of concession stands and restaurants in the newly redesigned stadium is food giant Aramark, which signed an agreement this past fall with the club to provide food services for the next 10 years. Calls to Aramark office went unreturned but a Royals employee with knowledge of the new concession layouts told me he had not seen Gates in the new plans.
"The barbecue stands are called KC All-Star Barbecue and they are run
by Aramak," said media-relations coordinator Colby Curry. "They are
behind the first and third base concourse and the food court."
Curry
emphasized, though, that he wasn't sure whether Gates had made a deal with Aramark
for another part of the ballpark. A Gates employee told me she had
heard that the company had left Kauffman Stadium and been replaced by KC All-Star
Barbecue -- but again, she wasn't 100 percent sure.
In an online chat
with fans, Royals' senior vice-president Kevin Uhlich said that the new
in-stadium restaurant would be called Rivals. It will be "your classical
sports bar ... the food will consist of big burgers, chicken
sandwiches, buffalo wings etc.," he said. There is no mention of Gate's anywhere
on the Royals' Web site.
Aramark
is also in charge of concessions at several other stadiums including
Coors Field, Fenway Park, Camden Yards and Turner Field. Coors and Fenway have local restaurants -- Papa Gino's Pizza, Dunkin' Donuts and Legal Seafood at Fenway, and, at Coors, the delightful delicacy known as Rocky Mountain oysters.
A big belated hat-tip to Chimpotle for the original tip.
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