The concept is curious. Turn 347 International House of Pancakes locations nationwide into ghost kitchens producing stadium-themed fast food for delivery and pickup.
Ballpark Bites establishments have sprung up seemingly overnight: 44 in California alone, second only to the 76 in Texas. Maybe that's how ghost kitchens work.
Major League Baseball sponsors the venture, which mirrors the NASCAR Refuel Tenders & Burgers initiative that also utilizes IHOP kitchens, though sadly none of the menus offer Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity. There are now 524 NASCAR Refuels, and the company motto is (of course) “We're growing FAST!!!”
Tying deeply popular, deeply American professional sports to a fast-food company is the brainchild of Virtual Dining Concepts, owned by Planet Hollywood founder Robert Earl. The company's website has 3,000 virtual restaurants, 2,000 restaurants, 6 million orders and, apparently, counting.
The recipe is simple. Offer what people usually eat at a baseball game or a car race for less than the exorbitant prices charged at those places, slather your menu descriptions with plenty of puns and puns worthy of shame, and use delivery services to bring food to the couch. potatoes stuck to your favorite ball game or televised race.
Like most fast food chains, the menu at all MLB ghost kitchens is identical, right down to the sandwiches served on the same soft pretzel bun. The “initial feature” offers chicken strip sandwiches, hot dogs, a sirloin tip sandwich and a cheesesteak. A combination plate is called “the triple play” and “the closest” is a bucket of donut balls mixed with sugar and cinnamon.
“We understand that not everyone has the opportunity to visit an MLB or [minor league] stadium, so we wanted to create Ballpark Bites for fans to enjoy a piece of that experience from the comfort of their home, a local park or even at work,” said Karin Timpone, MLB executive vice president and chief marketing officer.
Reaction on social media and traditional media criticize the MLB for the uniformity of the menus. “You would think that a national organization like the MLB would lean toward the regional specialties of its stadiums, but no,” SFGate wrote.
But pushback would be inevitable if attempts to replicate stadium-specific favorites failed—if San Francisco garlic fries or the LA Dodger Dogs or whatever didn't taste authentic. Additionally, most regional stadium offerings are inferior versions of what's available outside the stadium, such as crab cakes in Baltimore, cheesesteak in Philadelphia, barbecue in Kansas City, or deep dish in Chicago.
Who will seek out a city's MLB-exclusive culinary offering prepared at an IHOP presented by Mastercard?
NASCAR Refuel Tenders & Burgers follows the same script with menu descriptions in overdrive. Choose from the Talladega, Hot Lap or Full Throttle tenders, the Daytona Firecracker burger or the Checkered Flag chicken sandwich.
Or, as IHOP sees it, revenue feeds.
“Our work with [Virtual Dining Concepts] and the three brands we are rolling out will be a growth engine for our restaurants, specifically when we look at non-peak hours during lunch, dinner and late night,” IHOP President Jay Johns said in a statement. “These new brands are relevant to today's consumer and perfect for our existing teams and capabilities in our restaurants nationwide.”
It remains to be seen whether stadium and racetrack food remains attractive enough off-site to sustain hundreds of locations. If so, there will be many kitchens available. As of April 3, 1,699 IHOP restaurants operate in the United States.
The state with the most? California, with 225 locations.
