Over the past 9 articles in the Coors Field Insider, we've talked about where to park, where to get snacks outside the park, where to take your kids to play when they get bored INSIDE the park (because come on, kids get bored). We talked about some of my favorite concessions, and how to get sauced after eating said concessions. But something's been missing. What part of ballpark fare has been missing from this whole series? We covered the peanuts, we covered the beers, what's left?

No article series about a ballpark is complete without the hot dogs. The frankfurters. The tubesteaks. The wieners.

However you refer to them, no ballpark is complete without a sausage in a bun. Whether you prefer a Hebrew National cooked at the park or you bring your own Johnsonville Brats in with you, nothing quite rounds out the baseball experience like a hot dog.

The good news is that you have many an option for hot dogs at Coors Field (and given the theme of these articles, is anyone surprised?). The first simple option is just the 1/8th lb dog, the standard issue frank you get out of the 8 pack at the grocery store. The next is effectively the same dog (the Super dog), but it's ramped up to a 1/4 lb dog.

Past that, things get interesting. 

The two premier sausages you can get at Coors are the ones in the picture at the top of the article: the Rockie Dog and the Foot Long Bratwurst. Both are buried in a heap of peppers, onions, and sauerkraut. If you remember, onions and I don't get along terribly well, so for my exploration, I opted to pick a bratwurst or Rockie Dog on a later date.

Click past the jump for my adventure in frankfurters.

Continue reading this post »

There's an old saying that gets retranslated for every possible enjoyable activity: A bad day at the ballpark beats a good day in the office. I couldn't agree more. Munching on peanuts/nachos/dogs is just that much better when you have something cold to wash it down with. 

Most days, it's hard to beat an ice cold beer at the ballpark. The downside of this is that the typical beer selection available at some ballparks is limited to one brand and "Light" and "Regular" (and hey, if that's your brand, you come out on top!). But some people don't really like beer, or they wanted more selection to begin with, and they still want to go find that satisfying adult beverage.

As per usual Coors Field has alternatives. And I mean alternatives.

During the Friday fireworks game, I went and grabbed as many pictures as I could of the variety of beer stands around the main level of Coors Field - and that's excluding the OF concourse, as it was roped off for the sake of fireworks attendees. This is also excluding the Camarena Loft above the bullpens in the RF club level.

Basically, you can get just about anything to drink you'd like at Coors Field. They have Coors products and Budweiser products, and not just the Regular and Light varieties. You can get Blue Moon at various spots around the park (in nifty wooden stands), Budweiser American Ale, just to name a couple of drinks from the major breweries off the beaten beer path.

They have stands that have a variety of bottled options, including Heineken, Sam Adams, Corona, Newcastle, and Guinness.

On top of that, if you're Gluten-Free, the Gluten Free stands (yes, seriously, they have Gluten Free concessions. These people think of everything) have Bard's Gluten Free Malt Beer for sale.

Don't want a beer? There are a bunch of Margarita stands around the park, along with a very limited selection of wine, as well as cocktails in the forms of whiskey, gin, rum, whatever.

So, simply put, if you're up for an alcoholic beverage, you have countless options available to wet your whistles.

Photo Diary past the jump.

Continue reading this post »

Last week in Coors field Insider, we talked about Buckaroos and all of the other fun stuff for smaller kids to do at Coors Field. Clearly, there's a lot of awesome stuff for littl'uns to do at the park, but this kind of excludes a group of kids. This group isn't really defined by an age, but they're the kids who are too big for the playground (or close to it) and too young to sit and watch a full game.

Not to worry, there are other games at Coors Field that your young men and women are able to participate in if sitting in their box seat for 9 innings doesn't sound appealing.

There's only a couple that I'm missing, so we won't take TOO much time talking about them, and that'll leave me time to talk up my new favorite peanut vendor outside of Coors.

If you head over to the Gate A area behind the bullpens, you'll find what's known as Coors Field's Interactive Area. This is where they keep the carnival-esque games that you'd expect to see at a ballpark: Pro Batter, Pro Batter Jr., Speed Pitch, Tee-Ball, and the KOA Fantasy Broadcast Booth. 

Some of these may not seem entirely kid-driven, and that's true. Everything there but the Tee-ball and Pro Batter Jr. are for guests of all ages. But for those among you who are really just big kids anyhow, this is the perfect diversion if it's just a boring game or what have you.

Anyhow, Pro Batter and its Jr complement are one of those games where you stand in a batting cage ready to bat, and they have a screen at the other end with a projected image of a MLB pitcher on it and a hole in the screen with a pitching machine right where the release point would be. The Jr option is obviously slower and I seem to recall seeing Dinger pitching a couple of times.

Speed Pitch is exactly what it sounds like: a batting cage with a speed gun in it. It's exciting for kids to say "WOW I'M THROWING FAST", and it's another fun pissing contest for bored guys to see who can throw the ball harder.

Tee-ball is pretty self explanatory.

The KOA Fantasy Broadcast Booth lets you and a friend step in and call a half inning of a game for like 10-15 bucks and you can take the DVD home with you as well. That's pretty neat. I imagine that many of us could have a hell of a time abusing something like that. And by abusing I mean using properly and not being stupid during use at all.

Continue reading this post »

It's the top of the 4th, tied at 2. The crowd is milling. All the runs were scored within the top 2 innings. There's a runner on first with 1 out and the pitcher is at the plate. Cook comes set, working from the stretch. Hudson squares. He delivers, and Hud-

DAAAAAAAAAAD I'M BORRRRRRED

Hangon buddy, the inning will be over so-

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAD I'M HUNGRY

Alright sweetheart, just a minute here

(in stereo) DAAAAAAAAAAD WE HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM

Funny story, that's actually a scene taken from the bullpen. Rex Brothers and Clay Mortensen would not leave Rafael Betancourt alone. But I'm sure you could picture your kids saying this, or perhaps your nephews/nieces, or the kids behind you, or possibly Dexter Fowler.

But in all seriousness, we know the attention span children have. More importantly, the Rockies know. That's why there's a bunch of stuff to keep kids busy at the park. The obvious option is to take kids for a walk, but that's not nearly as fun as we'd like to think, especially for those of us who actually HAVE kids and know the stark reality of how kids like to run around and have fun.

Coors Field, back behind the LF corner, has a playground. A pretty sweet playground at that. There's a slide, a couple of steering wheels, one of those spinny tic-tac-toe things, and that weird soft rubber flooring stuff that makes it so you don't absolutely shred your knees if you take a spill. There's also an attendant there to make sure that the kids playing in said playground aren't 9 year old bullies pushing kids down the slides and other bully activities.

So your bundle of joy runs around the playground for an inning or so, and if you have a group of parents, you can likely take shifts: one person makes sure the kids are all accounted for, the others stand by the rail watching the game and looking back over their shoulders every 3rd pitch. Oh who am I kidding, everyone draws straws and if one parent doesn't step up to take the bullet for the rest of the game, someone gets to go take the kids to the playground and miss all of the delightful RISP-stranding goodness.

Now the kids have run around for about 20 minutes and now they want to do something else. Maybe they want a snack. Well you obviously can't give kids a full on serving of the Helton Burger or the Monster Nachos, those things are pretty much the size of the kid themselves.

YOU'RE IN LUCK - as seems to be the theme of this series, I create the problem then show you how Coors Field solves it? I feel like I'm in the standard issue "As seen on TV" commercial, where the life is terrible until the product is introduced, and suddenly the kids are all behaving and the husband isn't on the couch anymore and everything is clean and peaceful? Yep, read Coors Field Insider, and your problems will soon be scarce!

Continue reading this post »

Every ballpark has their standard fare: Peanuts, Cracker Jack, Hot Dogs, Burgers, and Nachos. Coors Field is no exception to this rule. We covered the Helton Burger a couple of weeks back, so now we move forward to the next fantastic item for purchase at Coors Field:

The Monster Chicken Nachos.

Now, the initial reaction is "big whoop, nachos, every park has them".

Wrong.

If that's your initial reaction, you're thinking of your standard plastic tray of chips with nacho cheese drizzled across the tray and a few sad looking jalapeños scattered across the top for a bit of spice.

Wrong.

Maybe you're thinking of some weird crumbly-ground-beef concoction with virtually no flavor that just ends up on your shirt anyhow and tastes like paste.

Wrong.

The Monster Chicken Nachos at Coors Field are quite possibly the best item in the ballpark.

Click past the jump and find out just WHY they're so great.

Continue reading this post »

Some days, when I go to Coors Field, park my car, bring in my peanuts, buy a Helton Burger, and watch the first few innings of the game or so, I start to get a little antsy in the pantsy. Can't sit still. I want to watch the game, but I don't want to sit in my section - or in any section, for that matter. Some of you may have friends with you who aren't as dialed-in on the game. Others may have brought their families and have kids who are already complaining about being bored - despite the fact that the Rockies are up 4-2 in the 4th and already have 2 on in the 5th with nobody out. 

Sometimes you just need to get up and move around, but you don't want to miss any of the game.

Well, don't you worry, because like so many other aspects of attending Rockies games, Coors Field Has You Covered.

While not a unique-to-Coors feature, Coors' continuous concourse differentiates it from a lot of older parks, where the infield box seats and the outfield bleachers have their own distinct entrances and no connecting path within the park. There are 5 different entrances to the park: Home Plate, 1B, RF, LF, and the Rockpile/CF. No matter where your seats are in the stadium, you can get to them from any entrance.

So back to being all footloose and fancy-free, Coors' concourse allows you to just do laps of the field if you wish, with very few areas that you can't see the game. The only area on the concourse where you are completely obstructed from the playing field is when you walk underneath the Rockpile in CF directly behind the fountains: you need to walk through a nifty little tunnel thing before you get to the wall that Root Sports' Tom Helmer is becoming increasingly notorious for standing on top of. Outside of that short stretch, you can just wander around while still watching the game.

It seems a bit silly to talk about the best places to stand in a ballpark when you have a reserved seat, but some days you just want to wander and just kind of take in the ballpark rather than dial completely into the game. Some of my favorite games at Coors Field involved me sitting in my seats for like 45 minutes and then finding a good leanin' post over in the RF corner and watching the game from there. Other fringe benefit: You might just get the chance to meet some of the Root personalities, like Marc Stout or Alanna Rizzo (true story, Muzia, Fisher, mkorpal and I got to meet Alanna - sort of - during a day game when she came over to the RF corner to do a segment. I think some people watching from home saw us lurking in the background).

Other great standing-and-watching-before-moving-on spots include anywhere above the LF pavilion between the various concession stands and the rail, and ...well, really, anywhere.

Stick around, because next week we'll actually go somewhere with this whole "wander around Coors Field" thing, because I'll admit it's a bit intuitive that you can easily walk around a ballpark. Between food reviews, we'll let you know about great places that aren't in your seats for you to hang out for both adults and also for the kids that adults sometimes bring to games.

Until next week!

Food and Sports seem to go together so hand-in-hand that having selection at the ballpark is almost a must at most major sporting events anymore. While most football, basketball, and hockey arenas feature the standard issue nachos, pretzels, cheap burgers and fries, maybe a chicken finger basket. Occasionally they'll have some special stuff if you're sitting in the primo seats, such as the Victory Knot at the Pepsi Center. But nothing - Nothing - compares to the nearly absurd selection of food at Coors Field. 

Coors Field features the typical ballpark fare of peanuts, popcorn, hotdogs, and nachos. It's the specialty foods that really make Coors stick out. Several concession stands have multiple types of hot dogs - and not just "1/8 pound or footlong?" kind of selection, but stands that give you the option between bratwursts, Chicago style, New York style, Rockie Dogs, and even more on top of that. Nacho alternatives that make Chipotle jealous. Pizza. Cheesteaks. Garlic Fries. Even Rocky Mountain Oysters.

But we can't forget one of the relatively recent additions to the Coors fare, and that is the Helton Burger.

Click past the jump for a review.

Continue reading this post »

So you've gotten your tickets to sit in the Purple Row, you've made the journey to Coors Field, you've parked your car, and you're on your way into the park. But wait, you don't have any snacks! What is a hungry baseball fan to do?

The good thing is that you're covered from like a million different angles. If you decided to light rail in or park somewhere in downtown south of the field, and you're walking in on Wynkoop, there's a particular hot dog vender right at the beginning of the baseball plaza next to Sing Sing's and Fado's. His prices aren't much different than any other street meat vendor around Denver, but the difference in quality is certainly noticeable. He's a friendly vendor and he's been doing it for quite awhile now. Best place to get a hot dog.

If you parked somewhere in LoDo and are walking in, you're slightly out of luck as far as hot dogs go. I think I saw a vendor on 21st between Larimer and Lawrence on the way in on Saturday.

But your quest for finding something to eat outside of the park isn't in vain. If you're not early enough to just hit up a restaurant down on the 16th St. Mall or something of similar ilk, the next option is to grab a burrito directly outside of Coors Field. The names of the vendors have changed over the years we've been going, but one name that seems to linger is "Nancy's Fancy Burritos". They're all somewhere between 3 and 5 bucks for a burrito filled with local cookin' goodness. My personal favorite is the Steak and Green Chile. 

Past that, if you forgot your peanuts, kettle corn, soda pop, gatorade, bottled water, Spitz sunflower seeds, pistachios, or even Rockies merchandise such as hats, buttons, tshirts, whatever, it's all being sold by somebody outside of the park. I've seen Doc Popcorn venders north of the park, as well as a guy roasting his own peanuts in a parking lot.

Here's the best part:

Permitted Items:

 

• Plastic beverage containers
• Soft-sided bags or containers 16"x 16"x 8" or smaller
• Insulated cups or thermoses 22 ounces or smaller
• Food items

 

So there you go. Bring yourself a full meal from home if you please, or if not, buy it right outside of the park and bring it in with you. One of my fonder Coors Field memories involved Chipotle, a bag of Dill Pickle Spitz, and sitting in the Rockpile.

But in the event that you're not a gourmet cook and want something more substantial than peanuts and soda pop, Coors Field has options for you.

Next Week: The Helton Burger.

What other interesting food/drink options have you found outside of the park?