The Browns and Aramark yesterday announced a new partnership, branded Cleveland Browns Hospitality Group, to provide premium dining service at Cleveland Browns Stadium on game days and for non-game day special events. Local chefs Michael Symon and Rocco Whalen will open outposts of their restaurants, B Spot and Rosie & Rocco's, on the stadium's club level. Chef Jonathon Sawyer also will debut Sawyer's Street Frites, which will feature the signature item from his restaurant Greenhouse Tavern. Suite menus also will feature items from these restaurants (Browns). SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Don Muret notes the Cleveland Hospitality Group "will serve the stadium's suite and club levels, as well as cater special events and corporate functions at the 73,200-seat building." Browns Senior VP/Business Development Jim Ross "would not disclose the length of the contract other than to say it runs more than three years." Delaware North Sportservice "manages the stadium's general concessions." Ross said that the team over time "will consider having one firm operate both concessions and premium." Aramark replaces Levy Restaurants, which "had been the Browns' premium food provider for the past several years after assuming the contract from Restaurant Associates." Aramark is making an "undisclosed investment to revamp the stadium's high-end food offerings by bringing in three well-known local chefs" in Symon, Whalen and Sawyer. Under the multiyear deal with the Browns, Aramark also will take over "food service at the team's training facility in Berea, Ohio" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 6/25 issue).
FOOD CRITIC: In Oakland, Angela Woodall wrote under the header, "O.co Coliseum Food Eatable, Not Delectable." Woodall: "Is the food elsewhere any better or just more expensive? It's an interesting question considering how much business Oakland Coliseum concessionaire Aramark does at sports facilities around the country. I didn't think I could answer my own question until I remembered that concessions at Oracle Arena, operated by a different company, are in fact better" (OAKLAND TRIBUNE, 6/23).
