Spicy Pickle Franchising Inc., operator of the fast-casual restaurant chains Spicy Pickle in the U.S. and Bread Garden Urban Cafe in Canada, announced the signing of a contract with the Colorado Rockies to provide box lunches at Coors Field during the baseball season beginning with the first home game on April 9. It also announced that the city of Kamloops, British Columbia, awarded Bread Garden Urban Cafe the contract to operate the restaurant and concession services at the McArthur Island Sport and Event Centre in Kamloops.
At Coors Field, Spicy Pickle will offer “Pickle Packs” of five different specialty sandwiches with chips, a large cookie, and its signature spicy pickle spear. The Pickle Packs will be available at the Spicy Pickle kiosk on the main concourse at section 132 behind home plate in a highly trafficked area. The kiosk will also have bottled beverages and kettle-cooked chips available. The sandwiches will include some of Spicy Pickle’s most popular cold sandwiches.
In a second special venue opportunity, its Bread Garden Urban Cafe franchise will open at the McArthur Island Sport and Event Centre, a year around premier multi-use public recreation facility containing curling, ice hockey, speed and figure skating, as well as health and wellness outdoor programs. The facility is a major gathering point for hockey tournaments and events in the winter season. It is a 100-acre public recreation facility that has nine full-size soccer fields and 12 baseball diamonds along with other facilities.
Bread Garden will be the exclusive provider of restaurant and concession operations including a full-service restaurant with liquor license that seats 125 indoor and has a large deck that can accommodate an additional 105 at the Soccer Clubhouse. Additionally, the franchisee will operate two kiosks, one located at the foyer area of the main Arena and serving the Curling Club Lounge and a Baseball Club Kiosk. The lease is for 10 years with two five-year renewals.
“Coors Field will be the first sports venue for us,” says Marc Geman, CEO of Spicy Pickle, “and we believe that customers will enjoy having a healthy alternative to the usual fare at the ball park, conveniently packaged so they can easily carry it around and use it at their seats to hold the food. We also have a sponsorship with the Colorado Rockies that includes full-page advertising in the game-day magazine distributed outside the ballpark and available to Frontier airline customers as they board their planes. We also created a promotion that whenever a runner for the opposing team is caught in a rundown, called ‘in a pickle,’ and tagged out, we will offer a free entree at participating Colorado restaurants after 5 p.m. the next day with the purchase of a second entree. This should be a fun season for us and we look forward to a successful run by our Colorado Rockies.”