New Orleans is known for the po’ boy. So, for Super Bowl LIX, the Superdome turns into po’ boy central, complete with a stepped-up array of in-stadium menu items meant to give the global clientele of a Super Bowl a true taste of the city.
That taste may include one of a few po’ boy creations, or could be local oysters, smoked short rib, or even a healthy dose of alligator.
“In some cases, for something like the Super Bowl, the only taste of New Orleans [fans] will get is inside [the stadium],” Jennifer Bargisen, Sodexo Live! the vice president of culinary for the Midwest region, tells me. “We have to do the city proud.”
Feeding fans for a Super Bowl isn’t like any other NFL game. Most fans come from out of town and the event is a weeklong celebration in and around the venue. For the Feb. 9 Super Bowl, that gives both the Superdome and the city a chance to celebrate New Orleans’ culinary culture.
Sodexo Live! will handle not only all the meals served inside the Superdome on Super Bowl Sunday, but also at the event spaces in the week leading to the game, including a variety of fan festivals and special events. In all, Bruce Kraus, Sodexo Live! regional vice president for the New Orleans market, tells me, they expect to serve 250,000 meals. But it’s that in-stadium experience that requires the team step up execution for a truly New Orleans-styled experience.
For a Super Bowl, Kernell Jupiter, Sodexo Live! general manager overseeing the Superdome, tells me that every nook and cranny of the stadium and parts of the neighboring Smoothie King Center fills with VIP parties and premium spaces. And with so many visitors, New Orleans becomes the perfect place to celebrate the authentic food of the region. “We are held to the same standards as the best po’ boy places in town,” Bargisen says. “We get deeper and deeper into New Orleans [tastes]
as we get closer to game day.”
From a 35,000-people fan fest early in the week to special events at the National World War II Museum, everything leads to game day. Gates open four hours before kickoff (two hours earlier than a typical NFL game), giving fans time to experience activations—and food—throughout the site and inside the venue.
“New Orleans is the most fun,” Bargisen says about holding a Super Bowl in New Orleans, a city that will host its 11th with this event, tied for the most of any city. “They stand at attention for things like this. They do it year-round. They know what they do well.”
Part of that is the po’ boy culture. The Super Bowl menu features three versions, a surf and turf option with smoked short rib and fried shrimp, a soft-shell crab variety and a fried oyster version. Sodexo Live! has 6,500 pounds of shrimp ready just for the po’ boys with half a ton of soft-shell crab, 12,000 local oysters and 50,000 baguettes from local bakery Leidenheimer lined up for the authentic po’ boys.
“I can’t talk up the soft-shell crab po’ boy enough,” Kraus says. “It is so, so good.” He adds that the fried oyster options aren’t traditional, with fun flavors and textures—the shrimp is fried with a cornflake coating—to give it a unique spin. And the smoked short rib and shrimp po’ boy isn’t a regular item either.
Then there’s also the 5,000 alligator sausages, 1.3 tons of short ribs, 700,000 ounces of beer and 50,000 cocktails expected for the game. The alligator sausage is a local gameday staple, served in the building for at least 20 years. So, while that item doesn’t take on a Super Bowl twist, Kraus says they have elevated other dishes, such as the seafood nachos now with Louisiana gulf shrimp and crawfish. The menu also includes a lobster karagee, Nola bread pudding and a Big Easy Big Game Bahn Mi. Stepping up the ingredient list is special for the Super Bowl, Bargisen says, from the soft-shell crab to the lobster with high-end bacon.
And that’s all just for general concessions. The Sodexo Live! team also has the premium spaces, with a Super Bowl-level expectation that comes with them. The company brings in hundreds of chefs from all over the country and tailors each experience.
“This is one of the hardest balancing acts of what we do,” Bargisen says. “You are at a very expensive area, but fans still want to feel like they are at a football game. They don’t necessarily want caviar in the middle of a football game, but others do. It is differentiating that experience and listening to that up front. All of those areas are really custom.”
Part of what makes every element of the day unique is the global atmosphere of the game and the fans dining on a truly local dose of New Orleans, complete with 40% of all ingredients coming from local purveyors. While there will be a few items added that link to the teams playing—this year the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, which each bring obvious food-related ties—Bargisen says the benefit of playing in New Orleans is the ability to really showcase the tastes of the city.
With all the shrimp, crab, oysters, Leidenheimer baguettes and alligator sausage flowing at the Superdome, there’s still one thing to keep in mind: “It is still a football game,” Jupiter says. “People are going to look for the nachos, hot dogs and the peanuts.” And fans will need something to drink. “You have bottled water [often the top-selling item at a sporting event] or an adult beverage,” Kraus says. “It is New Orleans, after all.”
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