St. Louis CITY SC continues to redefine the fan experience by adding to its list of local food vendors, an initiative that it calls CITY Flavor. Four new culinary partners for the 2025 season include Bolyard’s Meat & Provisions, Chicken Scratch, Damn Fine Hand Pies, and Pappy’s Smokehouse.
In addition to expanding its food offerings, CITY SC is introducing new food stands with meals under $10, ensuring fans have access to affordable, family-friendly options. An additional walkout market has also been added, bringing the total to four, the most in any Major League Soccer venue.
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CITY SC’s technology component has been broadened as well. Beginning this season, all vendors will accept CITY Pay through the STL CITY SC app. (Fans who use CITY Pay will receive 5 percent cash back on purchases, while myCITY+ loyalty members will earn 10 percent cash back.)
The season opener is this Saturday, February 22, at 7:30 p.m. at Energizer Park in Downtown West. Here’s what to expect.
The New Options
Bolyard’s signature item will be a roast pork panini with wholegrain mustard and pickles. “It’s like a play on a Cuban sandwich,” says owner Chris Bolyard. The panini is served on a hoagie from Companion and includes slow-roasted, pulled pork shoulder, bread and butter pickles, apple mustard and cheddar cheese, all pressed on a griddle before serving. Bolyard’s also previewed its take on pozole (Mexican hominy stew), which uses hominy shipped from New Mexico and a pork broth incorporating slow-cooked pork shoulder, garlic and onions. “The hominy gets real tender and absorbs a lot of that pork broth,” Bolyard says. The butcher’s matchday menu will also feature a pretzel stick from Companion, among other items.
Chicken Scratch owners Nate and Christine Hereford plan to serve a crispy chicken sandwich on a Companion potato bun topped with lettuce, house-made dill pickles, and the restaurant’s Scratch sauce (a dill- and tarragon-forward buttermilk sauce). Chicken nuggets will be available in portions of four with Scratch sauce. And a pulled rotisserie chicken sandwich with horseradish honey mustard will be available.
Madeline Hissong and Gene Bailey’s Shaw bakery brand will offer a Buffalo chicken dip hand pie and the City Celebration doughnut—a sour cream cake doughnut with a raspberry, blueberry and lemon glaze reflecting the colors of the flag of the city of St. Louis. Bailey is looking forward to joining the local lineup of restaurants. “So many amazing people that we know that have been so supportive to us and make some of our favorite food in the world have spots here.”
Pappy’s is already a popular pre-match spot for some CITY SC fans, so the award-winning barbecue joint seems like a natural choice for Energizer Park. Its menu will initially include four-bone ribs, a burnt ends sandwich, a pulled pork sandwich, and a smoked chicken sandwich, though the restaurant’s team is open to offering specials throughout the season. Rory Sullivan of Pappy’s says he expects that the team will smoothly manage the transition to in-stadium service. “We’re used to having a huge line out the door and just being slammed,” he says, “and I think that’s what we’re going to get here.”
The Local Lineup
The new restaurants join a list of more than 20 returning local establishments, including the best-selling Balkan Treat Box and Steve’s Hot Dogs. (Balkan Treat Box plans to offer a chicken kebab, which was a special last season but will be a permanent fixture this year.) In addition to the four newcomers, the food partners include:
- Balkan Treat Box
- BEAST Craft BBQ Co.
- Bold Spoon Creamery
- Brass Burger
- Dewey’s Pizza
- Donut Drive-In
- Farmtruk
- The Fattened Caf
- Kaldi’s Coffee
- Malinche
- Mayo Ketchup
- Medina Mediterranean Grill
- Olive + Oak
- Padrinos Mexican Restaurant
- Pastaria
- Pie Guy Pizza
- Seoul Taco
- Steve’s Hot Dogs
- Union Loafers
- Wally’s
The Background
The CITY Flavor program is led by James Beard Award-winning chef and CITY chief flavor officer Gerard Craft, as well as CITY chief experience officer Matt Sebek. As in years past, Craft continues to play a key role in selecting new vendors. “Each time we’ve brought some really well-known, established places, as well as some really hot new up-and-comers,” Craft says. “We like that kind of balance.”
In choosing new food partners, Craft says one consideration is finding restaurants who fit the match-day experience, though he brings it back to a couple of key questions. “What do I love? What’s exciting to me? And what’s going to be exciting on match day to the fans?” Craft says. “Obviously there are a lot of places I love that don’t necessarily fit match day, but these guys all really fit.”
Sebek says he’s proud of what CITY Flavor achieved in the 2024 season. Serving food at a Major League Soccer stadium comes with inherent logistical challenges, such as the rush of a 15-minute half-time break. Doing that with a vendor lineup centered around local independent restaurants is “the absolute hardest way to do food in a stadium,” Sebek says, but he adds that the food vendors and the CITY SC match-day team “perfected” those operations in their second season, refining mobile ordering, match-day procedures, and data collection. The club is now able to provide vendors with data-driven insights to help them prepare for each match, accounting for weather conditions, ticket sales, and other factors. “Those kind of things matter and can give a bit of sanity to an otherwise chaotic process,” Sebek says.
Craft says he was amazed at the pre-game fan turnout during Season 1. “At first, we thought we’d have to do all our business in the 15-minute halftime window,” he says. “But word got out quickly about how good the food was, and people started showing up well before the match to take advantage. Fans getting there early has become a St. Louis thing, one we’re very proud of.” It’s a tradition that continued last season, when more than 60 percent of sales happened prior to kickoff.
Concessions at Energizer Park open 90 minutes prior to kickoff and close at about the 70th minute of play.
