Courtesy St. Louis CITY SC
Soccer fans may have to wait until March 2023 before they can see St. Louis CITY SC kick a ball in the MLS, but the city’s newest sports franchise has just announced that Niche Food Group’s Gerard Craft will be heading up its food program as the club’s Flavor Officer. Craft is heading up an ambitious project that will see him partner with other local food industry players and seek input from fans.
The James Beard Award winning chef and restaurateur will work with the new MLS club and hospitality partner Levy on building out the food offerings that will be available on gamedays. A statement from St. Louis City SC said the club’s goal is to create a food experience that is “unique from the standard in-stadium experience.”
“From the ownership group’s perspective, they've always seen this project differently than a typical sports venture,” Vin Ko, Director of Team Operations at St. Louis City SC, told St. Louis Magazine. “They know that soccer is a vehicle in which we can bring the St. Louis community together and create meaningful connections.”
Ko said that means asking how the MLS team can benefit neighborhoods and communities around the city, and how the gameday experience can be extended around each soccer game’s two 45 minute halves and 15 minute halftime break. The owners of St. Louis City felt food could play a big role in answering those questions. Gerard Craft was thinking the same thing. “I reached out to ownership very early on when they were still trying to get the team going,” Craft said. “I just said I have a huge interest in stadiums and how food works in stadiums and what's offered in stadiums, and I think it could be a lot more exciting.”
Craft said he jumped at the opportunity to create a stadium experience that offers more than the traditional hot dogs and nachos. “I've been to a million stadiums, and they’re usually very boring,” he said. “I don't feel like food in stadiums has progressed with the way that food has progressed.”
Best of all, they want help from the community in shaping that experience. The club is now inviting fans to submit their own favorite local restaurants, dishes and treats via a simple online form. “As Gerard is developing this food story, this new culture that we're looking to bring in the stadium, we really want to bring everybody into that process,” said Ko.
The fan feedback is just the beginning of a two year process that will see St. Louis City SC put together a roster of food partners that will reflect the full diversity of the city’s food scene. “We wanted to create a food story, to thread a needle through the different cultures and neighborhoods of St. Louis, which is huge,” Craft said. He added that it’s important for the food at the stadium to reflect the many cultures who will make up the team’s fanbase. “It's really possible to represent the large cultural diversity among the fans, because if you look at who likes soccer in America, it's everybody.”
Craft and St. Louis City SC are intentional about making the stadium experience a jumping off point for fans to dig deeper into the city’s neighborhoods and food cultures. “I don't think that a ton of people know all of the different things that are out there,” Craft said. The St. Louis City SC app will be a hub for information about partner restaurants that fans can use beyond gamedays to explore food in the city.
With Craft’s involvement, the MLS team will also be championing the St. Louis food scene throughout the next two years with social content and other initiatives. “We want this to almost be like an Anthony Bourdain exploration through the city of St. Louis,” Craft said.
“I’m always looking for new opportunities to unite my passions for both culinary expression and uplifting the community,” Craft said in a statement. “It’s going to be an exciting couple of years working with St. Louis City to find unique local flavors to celebrate as a part of the gameday experience while helping to bring together St. Louis’ diverse communities around food outside of the stadium as well.”
“We truly have an incredible opportunity to create our very own STLMade stadium food experience from scratch,” said Carolyn Kindle Betz, St. Louis CITY SC Chief Executive Officer, in a statement. “By working with Chef Gerard and soliciting input from our fans early in the process, we are looking at ways to celebrate and support St. Louis’ amazing culinary scene."
Editor's Note: The original article was updated with comments from Vin Ko and Gerard Craft.
