San Diego Dining

Petco Park: Good Baseball, Bad Place to Eat

Lesson Learned: Eat before you go
By Mark S. Burgess
Posted on Apr 01 2008
Last updated Apr 01 2008

The good news on opening day March 31, 2008 was the Padres beat the Astros by a score of 4-0 on Jake Peavy’s pitching and 14 hits to the Astros 4.

The bad news is that Petco Park is no place to eat.

While the Park presents a nice array of types of food, that doesn’t do much good if you can’t get it. At the first inning break, I stepped out to pick up a couple of dogs and beer. Two and a half innings later, I made it to the counter to order.

This is what the line looked like when I joined

it and pretty much when I left it.

Copyright©2008 sandiego.com, Inc.

There were four lines, ten people deep when I walked up to the Grill to order. When I reached the counter, there were ten people behind me. Each person who reached the counter stayed there, on average, for five minutes. From a menu with eleven items on it, the conversation between counter attendant and customer, the cash or credit card transaction, the search for the food, the placement into carriers all took about five minutes.

I watched the sausages I’d hoped to get, cook and then sit cooling down atop the pile of green peppers and onions on the grill as I waited in line. Eventually, some were wrapped and placed in the ready area. They weren’t bad, once I got them back to the seats.

Behind the counter, attending to the total of 12 lines across the entire Grill counter were 20 people including cooks, counter attendants and one or two of what looked like supervisory personnel. Something a little less than two people per line and still it took five minutes to deliver two dogs, some fries and a couple of sodas.

The system is badly designed. The counter attendants spend a lot of time bent over to peer through the glass to make requests of the cooks. They’re often standing four or five at time waiting: waiting for cash, waiting for sodas; waiting for a burger; talking to each other; getting help from an advisor. No one seems to be in much of a hurry. All the woman in front of me wanted was a cup of hot coffee. She too waited and watched two and a half innings go by to get her coffee.

While no one seemed to be in much of a hurry,

the system is to be blamed when this many

people are involvd with such slow service.

Copyright©2008 sandiego.com, Inc.

When I finally got my two dogs and fries and went to the condiments stand, three of the four ketchup dispensers were empty, three of the four napkin holders were as well.

The counter attendants all seemed personable and trying to be helpful, but the system was obviously either badly designed or broken in some way not explained by opening day issues.

Such an inhospitable setup shouldn’t be a surprise, I guess. The contractor who runs food services for Petco is the same group, the Delaware North Company, that has left the north end of Old Town in San Diego a deserted place for the last three years. There’s new hope for a renaissance there with the re-opening of the old restaurants under new themes, chefs and names recently. The food service mishaps at Petco however, continue since it’s opening. (The first year the burgers were a small dot of beef inside a pretty dry bun; the second year the buns were better – and the burgers more expensive; the third year the nicer buns went away but the burgers got more expensive.)

Before the game, we visited Club 19 on the Toyota Terrace Level. For $12 each, we had watered down Martinis with less than a cup of liquid when you take out the olive. Even at $9 a glass, the server agreed that the beer was a better value than the martinis. While the hot wings (called Zings) and fries were a marginally decent amount at $9.50, the four small lobster ravioli and two pieces of dried cheese bread weren’t worth $10.95.

So, eat before you get to the ballpark - at home or in the Gaslamp Quarter - and go for the beer in small quantities, if you’re on a budget.

Share this article

Subscribe to Dining

 · 

Comments

Be the first to comment on this article.

(1)sandiego.com, Inc. invites comments in which readers can respond freely and anonymously if they wish. Comments submitted by readers will be rejected that are deemed by the editors to be damaging to the future of this web site.
(2)Comparison is made from the IP Address identity of the computer placing the posts. Some networks share these addresses between users.