4 Hartford Business Journal • July 31, 2017 www.HartfordBusiness.com
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Home Cooking
"On my truck, I have my oven and fryolator
for fried dumplings or French fries," Marsh
explained. "I can't do that from the food cart,
so I pre-make my food [on game nights] and
keep it hot and serve it with rice and peas."
The exposure for participants is more
than just in-park foot traffic; it's digital too.
"We have a page on our website that lists the
different food vendors and the games they're
scheduled for," said Given. "We also have
each game's featured restaurant up on the
[ballpark's] video board."
For Luis Rodriguez, owner of Comerio on
Park Street, the Dunkin' Donuts Park crowd
is another opportunity to expand his cus-
tomer base. His restaurant has been in his
family — and Hartford — for 40 years, but
Rodriguez jumped at the chance to partici-
pate in the program. On an average night in
the stadium, he draws about 250 customers
for his kabobs and Cuban sandwiches. Even
if his profit margins may be smaller than a
night at the restaurant, he sees the lower
overhead costs and people he meets as the
true value of the Yard Goats opportunity. "We
try to keep our prices family friendly on game
nights and since it's just me working the cart,
it does work out financially."
While Given says he likes the rotation of
eight participating restaurants, he has received
inquiries from additional restaurants looking
to become involved. "Perhaps next year, we'll
get up to 10 [restaurants]," he said, noting one
of the goals of the program is to get ballpark
customers into the actual restaurants of the
Neighborhood Flavors Cart participants.
"Through our Launch-a-Ball contest at
the end of our games [where fans throw ten-
nis balls at targets on the field], fans can win
prizes, including gift certificates to [flavor
cart] restaurants," Given said. "That helps
fund our community programs but also,
hopefully, helps put some feet in the door for
our restaurant partners outside of the game."
Rockin' Chicken's Colan has seen that cus-
tomer conversion already. "What we sell at
the stadium the fans like, but is limited," he
said. "If they want to try other things — like
our rotisserie chicken over charcoal — they
need to come to our restaurant, so [the expo-
sure] it's definitely helped our business."
But as a relatively new business, Colon says,
the Neighborhood Flavors Cart helped provide
something more important than exposure for
his restaurant — credibility. "When people see
you as a new restaurant in the new stadium in
Hartford, it says we're doing something right,"
Colon said. "Our involvement with the Yard
Goats has been instrumental in a lot of good
things happening for us." n
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Donna Collins, Associate Publisher:
860.236.9998 ext. 121 or email
dcollins@HartfordBusiness.com
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