New menu items greet fans at NHL and NBA arenas

Pro hockey and basketball seasons are ramping up just as baseball wraps up, so hungry sports fans are returning to the rinks and courts to cheer on their teams. Sodexo Live! chefs are ready for them with a roster of new menu items.

Chef Richard Duncan at Canada Life Centre, home of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets, brings more than 27 years of hotel and restaurant experience to the arena’s kitchen. He’s mixing up the menu with a combination of traditional gameday favorites and inspired new items.

On offer are a two-foot Monster Double Jet Dog, Chicken Adobo Skewers and Bison Chili with Jalapeno Corn Fritters. On the sweet side is Chocolate Dipped Seafoam. A couple of concession stands are also featuring a lineup of tot variations, including Reuben Tots.

Jets fans with their Monster Double Jet Dog. /Photo courtesy of Sodexo Live!

The Smoothie King Center in New Orleans is home court for the NBA’s Pelicans. Here, Executive Chef Lenny Martinsen is bringing fans a taste of the Big Easy.

Local flavors are showcased in Nachos covered in a Cajun cheese sauce with local Gulf seafood; Italian grilled sausage topped with onions and peppers, drizzled with spicy hurricane sauce and served on Leidenheimer bread, a French-style loaf baked by a longtime New Orleans bakery; a footlong superdog topped with chili, shredded cheese and white queso; and Three-Cheese Mac ‘n Cheese with slow-roasted beef debris. Debris is a NOLA favorite, made by mixing the bits of meat that fall off a beef roast as it’s cooking the oven into beef gravy.

Chef Martinsen also helped develop the menu for Super Bowl LVI, held in New Orleans this past February.