By Bill Parry
While the Mets were in the Bronx battling the Yankees in the Subway Series on Saturday, their stadium was put to use. Nearly 10,000 people filled the corridors and the infield dirt for the second annual Bacon and Beer Classic. During its two sessions, 47 restaurants and 56 breweries offered two dozen bacon dishes and more than 100 craft beers.
The Classic’s organizer, Cannonball Productions, challenged each chef to bring their most inventive bacon-inspired dishes, which were judged by a panel of foodies. Winners included bacon s’mores on a stick, chili-“pork-gasm” and bacon-infused cheesecake drops. Each restaurant brought 3,500 samples per session.
The crowds lined up at station after station around the entire ballfield, waiting patiently on each line for their food samples or craft beer served in small cups. Music blared and the new high definition video board in centerfield carried live interviews with excited attendees.
“This is awesomeness,” screamed one woman while another said, “I want bacon on my bacon.” Nobody seemed to mind the long lines at each station.
“We had no issues whatsoever, we were very pleased,” Cannonball Productions Marketing Manager Samantha Schaible said adding that bacon and craft beer is such a fad right now and that they’re the only company to bring the festivals directly to baseball fans in their home stadiums.
Customers paid $59 for a general admission ticket for three hours at the festival but two weeks before the event the ticket price went up to $79. There was also a VIP ticket for $129 that went up to $139 two weeks before the Classic.
VIP ticket holders had an extra hour of bacon and brew plus access to the a portion of the field and both dugouts. A married couple from Forest Hills said the extra cost was worth it because it was less crowded on the field and lines were absent.
“Plus, we got to sit in the dugout, how cool is that?” Brian Nemchin said. His wife Jessica said the two had grown up as Mets fanatics.
“In fact, we met while watching a Mets spring training game in a bar five years ago and we got married last year,” she said.
Jamaica resident Ricardi Calixte paid the VIP price for the second year in a row. “I love bacon, I love beer,” he said. “I always try to attend any kind of cultural event in Queens because it promotes the borough, and I’m all for that.”
Brooklyn resident Orlando Molina was on the infield enjoying VIP status at General Admission cost. “I bartered my way down here,” he said, baseball parlance for bribing, he admitted with a smile.
Molina has connections at Citi Field as the creative force behind a web series based on Mets fans. “It’s about all the hardcore Mets fans who have stuck with them through the last brutal seasons,” he said adding that the stories were getting better now that the Mets fortunes have changed on the field this year.
“The stadium looks better now that they’re winning,” Flushing resident Christine Meuller said. “You really get a feeling of hometown pride now, it’s like you have something trendy in your own neighborhood, it’s a much better stadium than that one in the Bronx.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
