Mystery Diner: Elfstrom Stadium

I’ve decided that the only thing better than going to a baseball game on a warm, sunny day during the summer is going to a baseball game on such a day and counting it as work.

This was the case earlier this week when two coworkers accompanied me to Geneva’s Elfstrom Stadium to sample the park’s culinary wares and also to take in a couple innings of Kane County Cougars baseball. Not that it mattered in a Mystery Diner sense, but the Cougars were playing the Great Lakes Loons of Midland, Mich., the single-A affiliate of the L.A. Dodgers.

The food choices are plentiful at Elfstrom, but we tried to avoid the park’s general concession stands, where staple ballpark food such as burgers, hot dogs, pizza and nachos are found, among other things. Not that there’s anything wrong with these items – it’s just that we were looking more for the park’s specialty items.

We found such items at Bobak’s sausage grill, the “South of the Border” Mexican food stand and another grill that offered Philly cheesesteaks and Italian beef sandwiches. It’s a good thing I had my coworkers with me, because I’m pretty sure there’s no amount of antacid that could have brought relief had I tried all these myself.  But since there were only three of us, we did have to make one concession from the above four specialty offerings. We decided to cut the burrito and/or super nachos from the “South of the Border” stand. The nachos on display did look delicious and I’m sure the burrito was too, but I guess they just didn’t feel quite as much like baseball food to us as the other choices.

I got the Philly cheesesteak, which along with the Italian beef, was served on a French roll and with grilled peppers and onions. The cheese was melted on to the beef right on the grill, so it was gooey and spread throughout the sandwich as should always be the case with a cheesesteak. Worth noting here is the top-notch pepper/condiment bars found throughout the concourse at the stadium. Taking full advantage of the pepper bar, I souped up my cheesesteak with pickled jalapeno slices and a handful of dill pickle slices – which, in my opinion, are as delicious a pickle as you’ll get anywhere – on the side. The beef was good, with the grilled sweet peppers and onions providing a good contrast to the spicy jalapenos I added.