This season’s professional basketball and hockey seasons have tipped off with what appears to be an increase in vegan, vegetarian, and plant-based options for attendees.
At arena concessions operator Aramark, that includes an expanded partnership with Sonia Steele, a vegan chef better known as Vegan Vicki, owner of Koncious Kuisine. A cancer survivor who adopted a vegan lifestyle first for her health but also for her compassion for animals, she is known for creating her own style of “vegan soul food.”
This year, Aramark added vegan items from Koncious Kuisine to its concessions at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, home of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association and the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League.
Aramark’s relationship with Steele grew from the foodservice operator’s Taste of Black Cleveland event, where she was a past participant, a spokeswoman for Aramark told SFA News Daily. The concessions operator first featured some of her creations on the suite menu in 2019.
“With demand for plant-based alternatives becoming more mainstream, we wanted to expand our partnership with Koncious Kuisine into our concessions operation,” the spokeswoman said.
The items, offered in the CLE/MKT grab-and-go foodservice venue at the arena, include a BBQ Chik’n Wrap, a Chik’n Bac’n Ranch Wrap, a BLT Wrap, and a vegan Caesar salad.
The Aramark spokeswoman said demand for vegan food is growing at some locations faster than others, with the biggest increase in demand coming from athletes and performers at the arenas. All of Aramark’s foodservice brands have plant-forward options they can incorporate into their menus, she said.
Other new plant-based menu options that Aramark has added to sports arenas around the country this season include Boosted Bowls, offering Mediterranean grain bowls, salads, açai jars, dragon fruit jars, and more at AT&T Center in San Antonio, and a Za’atar Cauliflower Cheesesteak, consisting of za’atar-spiced cauliflower topped with caramelized onions and harissa cheese wiz, at First Line Steaks at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
“We are currently in development of a major plant-forward initiative that will touch all aspects of our business, encompassing luxury suites, club boxes, concessions, restaurants and catering,” the Aramark spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile, Wicked Kitchen, which offers plant-based CPG products in supermarkets around the country and online, has opened its first sports-venue foodservice location at Target Center in Minneapolis, home of the Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team.
Among the plant-based sandwich offerings will be a Grilled Chorizo Brat with harissa mayo, sautéed peppers and onions, and shaved lettuce on a sub roll; a Jalapeño Gouda Burger with vegan gouda cheese, lettuce, tomato, and sliced onion, topped with creamy, zesty Wicked burger sauce, and a Meatball Sub, with plant-based meatballs in Wicked’s own Nana’s red sauce, topped with parmesan on a garlic-butter sub roll.
Wicked Kitchen is also operating an ice cream cart at Target Center, offering plant-based ice cream novelties made with a lupini bean base that the company said provides creaminess and mouthfeel without the aftertaste of other non-dairy ice creams. The novelties are also available at three other locations in Target Center.
“There's no better way to show mainstream America that animal-free foods are super tasty, satisfying, and comforting than by serving them up in a basketball stadium in the middle of the country," said Pete Speranza, CEO of Wicked Kitchen.
Other vegan restaurants new to basketball stadiums this season include Full Bloom at FTX Arena in Miami, an outpost of the “gourmet vegan cuisine” restaurant that touts itself as the first vegan restaurant in Miami Beach, open since 2015. Full Bloom offerings at FTX Arena include Guava BBQ Nachos, made with guava BBQ jackfruit, chipotle aioli, corn chips, shaved lettuce, and pickled jalapeño; a Picadillo Chili Cheese Dog made from a smoked carrot topped with picadillo chili, vegan cheese sauce, and onion relish; a Mushroom Cheese Quesadilla made with local oyster mushrooms, coconut mozzarella, and a gluten-free tortilla, and a Smoked Fish Dip featuring smoked jackfruit spread, pickled jalapeños, cayenne pepper sauce, and tortilla chips.
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