Something I didn’t pick up on right away was something that was buried in a Rangers Press release. yesterday, the Rangers published a list of food changes to the ballpark.
It’s the fact that the Rawlings Grill (formerly Friday’s Grill) is gone. There’s no restaurant up there anymore. It’s now been replaced by what I believe to be additional seating for the “All You Can Eat” seats. Here’s the relevant text from the press release:
The All You Can Eat section has been expanded to about 2,100 seats and will be located in the Home Run Porch and the space formerly occupied by the Rawlings All-American Grill. This package is now available for every home game.
I have to say I’m a bit surprised by that. I’m not surprised that the All You Can Eat thing has been expanded, it’s actually a decent value, even if you don’t gorge yourself and get an “average” amount of food. But to completely eliminate the restaurant is a different thing. I enjoyed that up there, and with the Gold Club behind home plate being restricted by where you sit, there’s no “common restuarant” anymore. The Rawlings Grill was a good value. The Gold Club (assuming you were in there) is somewhat overpriced (and they don’t do common things like refills on your soda, or they’re not supposed to anyway). There is the Diamond Club, but that’s a ritzier kind of place, it’s not a quickie burger joint kind of thing like Rawlings was (or Fridays was before it). I wonder if the place was cutting into profit of ballpark food. Or I could be looking too deep, and Rawlings wanted to cut their sponsorship deal in the economy.
Who knows, but the fact that the Rawlings restuarant is not there anymore did come as a bit of a surprise. I’m going to Saturday’s exhibition game, and I’ll be taking pictures, so I’ll get a look at what it looks like, and post something here.
That’s sad about the grill. I’d never eaten up there, but it gave the ballpark a nice feel to it.