tlongII
10-30-2014, 06:07 PM
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/10/who_makes_the_food_decisions_a.html
http://imgick.oregonlive.com/home/olive-media/pgmain/img/oregonian/photo/2014/10/27/-5c0884310af032f6.JPG
The muffuletta sandwich from Bunk
Chris Oxley, wearing a dark blue suit, walks out of a back elevator at the Moda Center and speeds along an empty hallway, the staccato pierce of a whistle sneaking through an open luxury suite window from the basketball floor below.
"They're whistle-testing," Oxley says. "There's a mechanism on the referees belts that, when the whistle blows, it stops the clock. We have a new system that we're testing right now."
As General Manager of Rose Quarter Operations, Oxley and his team are constantly testing new systems at the Portland Trail Blazers arena. There are new lights, new sound systems, new safety measures and — perhaps most of all — new food.
And this year, thanks in part to Oxley, the Portland food revolution has finally breached the nearly 20-year-old stadium.
Just two years ago, food-obsessed Trail Blazer fans were typically better off eating before they reached the game. That began to change last season, with the addition of a half-dozen local Portland restaurants to the mix of vendors. Today, Moda Center visitors can pair wood-fired pizza with on-tap wine, eat pork belly sandwiches with cocktails and craft beer, sip kombucha while munching on vegan snacks, or create a DIY affogato with third-wave coffee and artisan ice cream. Everything, in other words, you'd expect to find outside.
"We've always had some local purveyors," he says. "Po'Shines (Cafe De La Soul) has been here for a long time. But there is a push in the industry to say 'recognize what's in your market.' The utilitarian food experience just doesn't fly anymore."
. . .
Normally, Brooklyn seems to take its cues from Portland, decorating its restaurants in reclaimed wood and Edison light bulbs, pickling this and canning that.
But at least in one respect, Portland owes a tip of the bowler to the New York borough.
"Brooklyn went 100-percent local" for concessions at their new arena, Oxley says. "They had this edict to embrace the community, and it worked out great. That left a lasting impression about what could be done."
In July of 2013, the Rose Quarter switched from Ovations to Levy Restaurants, a larger entertainment concessions purveyor which handles accounts for the bulk of NBA arenas, including Brooklyn's. Two months later, the Rose Quarter announced an expanded food lineup at the Moda Center including Portland's favorites Bunk Sandwiches, Killer Burger and Sizzle Pie.
This year, the biggest changes are found on the Club level. The old buffet -- referred to internally as the "Golden Corral" -- has been replaced by kiosks serving Cha Cha Cha burritos, Coco doughnuts and both Salt & Straw and Ruby Jewel ice cream. There's a wood-fired pizzeria with wine on tap from Cooper's Hall and a full-sized Bunk pouring beer-margarita slushies. Ticket-holders here in the 200-level will order off of chalkboard menus hand-drawn by a local artist, using the $30 embedded in their tickets to pay.
"You can look around at other arenas in other sports and ask, 'What are your 10 most popular food items?' and predict exactly what they are," Oxley says. "We've really tried to flip the arena food pyramid. We're taking the time to find the right food and the right beer, not just offering the static 'hot dog-popcorn-pretzel-nacho.'"
Speaking of beer, Oxley says the Moda Center pours more than 70 percent craft. During the preseason, a sleek new third-floor bar, The Pines, was pouring pints from longtime sponsors Widmer and Pyramid as well as a few taps from 10 Barrel, the increasingly popular Bend brewery. The Local Cork offers Widmer's line of small-batch brews, while outside, the still-new Dr. Jack's sports bar has an all-Northwest handle list curated by Michael O'Donnell, the director of Rose Quarter operations for Levy Restaurants.
But unlike Brooklyn, the Moda Center didn't go completely local. On the ground floor, between Sizzle Pie and Killer Burger, is Fowl Language, a kiosk offering hand-breaded chicken tenders and biscuits. Surrounding The Pines are carts including the Humble Slider, Cones soft serve ice cream and Polanco, a Mexican cart -- all brands created by the Rose Quarter and Levy.
So why not recruit a local business -- Pine State Biscuits, say, or Son of a Biscuit -- for the Fowl Language space?
"It's somewhat financial," O'Donnell says. "If you have all subcontractors, you're not getting the sales from it. We have a good mix. And a lot of our concepts blur the line between what you might think is local and what's our own brand."
"I walk around with people from out of town and say, 'I want you to identify what is a local restaurant and what isn't,'" Oxley says. "They go, 'Oh yeah, Bridgetown Deli. I go there all the time.' But Bridgetown Deli doesn't exist anywhere but here."
. . .
From the front, the Moda Center's roof resembles the prow of an ocean liner, the kind of multi-level cruise ship that take ages to change course.
That same amount of effort and forethought is required when trying to improve the quality of concessions within the arena.
The key, Oxley says, is to be "ever evolving."
Another key: recognizing when something isn't working. Fire on the Mountain, the chicken wing chain with three Portland locations, is one of the city's most recognizable food brands, and popular within NBA circles to boot. But in the arena, the saucy wings were a mess — literally, I needed a forest-worth of napkins while trying to eat them last year.
This year, the Fire on the Mountain location is gone.
For Oxley, making sure customers are satisfied with the Moda Center's food is about more than just customer service.
"Food is the most personal of all of our interactions," Oxley says, standing by a Moda Center exit. "You have these emotional connections with food. And if you can make a really good connection there, it makes everything else much easier.
http://imgick.oregonlive.com/home/olive-media/pgmain/img/oregonian/photo/2014/10/27/-5c0884310af032f6.JPG
The muffuletta sandwich from Bunk
Chris Oxley, wearing a dark blue suit, walks out of a back elevator at the Moda Center and speeds along an empty hallway, the staccato pierce of a whistle sneaking through an open luxury suite window from the basketball floor below.
"They're whistle-testing," Oxley says. "There's a mechanism on the referees belts that, when the whistle blows, it stops the clock. We have a new system that we're testing right now."
As General Manager of Rose Quarter Operations, Oxley and his team are constantly testing new systems at the Portland Trail Blazers arena. There are new lights, new sound systems, new safety measures and — perhaps most of all — new food.
And this year, thanks in part to Oxley, the Portland food revolution has finally breached the nearly 20-year-old stadium.
Just two years ago, food-obsessed Trail Blazer fans were typically better off eating before they reached the game. That began to change last season, with the addition of a half-dozen local Portland restaurants to the mix of vendors. Today, Moda Center visitors can pair wood-fired pizza with on-tap wine, eat pork belly sandwiches with cocktails and craft beer, sip kombucha while munching on vegan snacks, or create a DIY affogato with third-wave coffee and artisan ice cream. Everything, in other words, you'd expect to find outside.
"We've always had some local purveyors," he says. "Po'Shines (Cafe De La Soul) has been here for a long time. But there is a push in the industry to say 'recognize what's in your market.' The utilitarian food experience just doesn't fly anymore."
. . .
Normally, Brooklyn seems to take its cues from Portland, decorating its restaurants in reclaimed wood and Edison light bulbs, pickling this and canning that.
But at least in one respect, Portland owes a tip of the bowler to the New York borough.
"Brooklyn went 100-percent local" for concessions at their new arena, Oxley says. "They had this edict to embrace the community, and it worked out great. That left a lasting impression about what could be done."
In July of 2013, the Rose Quarter switched from Ovations to Levy Restaurants, a larger entertainment concessions purveyor which handles accounts for the bulk of NBA arenas, including Brooklyn's. Two months later, the Rose Quarter announced an expanded food lineup at the Moda Center including Portland's favorites Bunk Sandwiches, Killer Burger and Sizzle Pie.
This year, the biggest changes are found on the Club level. The old buffet -- referred to internally as the "Golden Corral" -- has been replaced by kiosks serving Cha Cha Cha burritos, Coco doughnuts and both Salt & Straw and Ruby Jewel ice cream. There's a wood-fired pizzeria with wine on tap from Cooper's Hall and a full-sized Bunk pouring beer-margarita slushies. Ticket-holders here in the 200-level will order off of chalkboard menus hand-drawn by a local artist, using the $30 embedded in their tickets to pay.
"You can look around at other arenas in other sports and ask, 'What are your 10 most popular food items?' and predict exactly what they are," Oxley says. "We've really tried to flip the arena food pyramid. We're taking the time to find the right food and the right beer, not just offering the static 'hot dog-popcorn-pretzel-nacho.'"
Speaking of beer, Oxley says the Moda Center pours more than 70 percent craft. During the preseason, a sleek new third-floor bar, The Pines, was pouring pints from longtime sponsors Widmer and Pyramid as well as a few taps from 10 Barrel, the increasingly popular Bend brewery. The Local Cork offers Widmer's line of small-batch brews, while outside, the still-new Dr. Jack's sports bar has an all-Northwest handle list curated by Michael O'Donnell, the director of Rose Quarter operations for Levy Restaurants.
But unlike Brooklyn, the Moda Center didn't go completely local. On the ground floor, between Sizzle Pie and Killer Burger, is Fowl Language, a kiosk offering hand-breaded chicken tenders and biscuits. Surrounding The Pines are carts including the Humble Slider, Cones soft serve ice cream and Polanco, a Mexican cart -- all brands created by the Rose Quarter and Levy.
So why not recruit a local business -- Pine State Biscuits, say, or Son of a Biscuit -- for the Fowl Language space?
"It's somewhat financial," O'Donnell says. "If you have all subcontractors, you're not getting the sales from it. We have a good mix. And a lot of our concepts blur the line between what you might think is local and what's our own brand."
"I walk around with people from out of town and say, 'I want you to identify what is a local restaurant and what isn't,'" Oxley says. "They go, 'Oh yeah, Bridgetown Deli. I go there all the time.' But Bridgetown Deli doesn't exist anywhere but here."
. . .
From the front, the Moda Center's roof resembles the prow of an ocean liner, the kind of multi-level cruise ship that take ages to change course.
That same amount of effort and forethought is required when trying to improve the quality of concessions within the arena.
The key, Oxley says, is to be "ever evolving."
Another key: recognizing when something isn't working. Fire on the Mountain, the chicken wing chain with three Portland locations, is one of the city's most recognizable food brands, and popular within NBA circles to boot. But in the arena, the saucy wings were a mess — literally, I needed a forest-worth of napkins while trying to eat them last year.
This year, the Fire on the Mountain location is gone.
For Oxley, making sure customers are satisfied with the Moda Center's food is about more than just customer service.
"Food is the most personal of all of our interactions," Oxley says, standing by a Moda Center exit. "You have these emotional connections with food. And if you can make a really good connection there, it makes everything else much easier.