January 6, 2025 • 35 mins
Curious about the buzz surrounding the El Paso Chihuahuas' unique logo and spirited game atmosphere? Listen in as we chat with Adriana, the Director of Food and Beverage for this dynamic AAA team and a proud San Diego Padres affiliate. Adriana takes us behind the scenes, sharing her partnership with Chef Maria Barragan Ortado to bring an array of mouth-watering menu items to the stadium. From traditional concession favorites to creative themed night dishes, discover how they masterfully blend culinary creativity with the vibrant culture of El Paso and its scenic downtown views.
From the excitement of Hot Cheetos Night to the iconic jerseys that fans can't get enough of, like Stanlot and Dogface, the team’s offerings capture the heart and soul of El Paso. And let's not forget our whirlwind 24-hour trip to soak up the ballpark's celebration of local culture, enhanced by new food offerings like the highly anticipated birria cart, promising an even more delicious game day experience.
Finally, Adriana opens up about the imaginative culinary innovations happening at the ballpark, such as the locally inspired dog bowl flauta. We reflect on how beloved community staples like Chico's Tacos influence these creations and discuss the cross-border culinary adventures that await those willing to renew their passports. The El Paso Chihuahuas games are more than just about baseball—they’re a rich tapestry of community, flavor, and shared experiences that bring people together. Don't miss our discussion on how these elements create an unforgettable atmosphere that keeps fans coming back for more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So it was just the silhouette of the eyes and
everybody thought, oh, we'regoing to be this, you know,
really cool crocodile, orsomething like that.
And then they announcedChihuahuas, and it was you know.
Some mixed reactions out there,of course.
But, when they released thewhole logo.
I mean, how can you not fall inlove?
Is anybody?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
there, all right.
All right, all right.
Well, welcome everybody to yetanother episode of the dad hat
chronicles.
My name is ed, also known asthe dad head, and with me, as
always, my co-host, my goodfriend val stadium food girl.
What up girl?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
hi, I'm I'm so excited today, ed I Ed, I've
been texting you all the time.
Well, I am so excited.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Even two weeks ago I was like I'm so excited, I'm so
excited for this guest that wehave on today it's funny because
you've been sending me pictures, uh the Instagram link, so I I
know you are excited, so I'mgoing to let you go on.
Do your thing, girl.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
So everyone again.
I'm so excited Today.
We have one of my very goodfriends, adriana, with us today.
We have hung out a couple oftimes.
We of course met through thebeautiful sport of baseball, but
, adriana, we have you on today.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
(01:27):
I know you're super busy.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
No, super excited to be on with you guys, and you
know, just talk baseball foodand all the great stuff that
goes along with it.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yes, absolutely.
Um, if you could um in just afew words what you do exactly
with the El Paso Chihuahua AAAaffiliate of the San Diego
Padres?
Speaker 1 (01:52):
yeah, absolutely so.
Uh, I am the director of foodand beverage out there with the
El Paso Chihuahuas and, um, yeah, so everything food and
beverage related, everythingfrom concession food, anything
we do up in the suites, in theclub, our bars, all that great
stuff I have the honor of, youknow, creating some really great
(02:14):
experiences for our guests andmaking sure our season ticket
holders don't get bored of thesame food every day.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I highly doubt that they get bored with all the food
that you guys have.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So you know, kudos to our chef and our team.
I mean they she chef, mariabarragan ortado.
She does an amazing job ofreally, you know, coming up with
some great stuff at thebeginning of the season.
But not just that, she alsodoes a great job.
Every time we have a themenight, like she goes all in man,
whether it's Star Wars night,harry Potter or Wizard night.
(02:48):
I mean, she just all in.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
One.
My daughter would love HarryPotter night.
Me, I would love Star Warsnight, I know right.
And we have a chihuahuaourselves, a little gypsy.
She weighs less than fivepounds.
I want you to know that gypsyweighs less than five pounds.
I want you to know that sheliterally weighs less than five
pounds.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
A good chihuahua is five pounds or less.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
So, um, but yeah, no, I, I can attest to that.
We went last year for the veryfirst time, and Adriana and Chef
Maria and oh my gosh, remind meagain who we met, what was his
name?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah.
So Brad Taylor, the GM andpresident of the team, went
ahead and joined us halfwaythrough our show.
Our little walkthrough ofeverything.
He joined us up in the WestStar Club.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, you guystried a bunch of stuff together.
Our little walkthrough ofeverything.
He joined us up in the WatchStar Club.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, I mean, you guys tried a bunch of stuff
together and his favorite wassome of those chicken taquitos
you guys tried that just soundsdelicious.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Yeah, you had reached out through the Pro Sports
Catering account and we kind ofconnected that way catering
account and we kind of connectedthat way and we my fiance and I
had been planning a trip out toEl Paso for the longest and I,
I love El Paso, it's one of myfavorite cities and he had never
been and I was like, okay, thisis perfect.
I keep seeing the food posts onInstagram.
You had never.
(04:22):
I'm telling him you have neverbeen.
He's a huge Padres fan, bornand raised in San Diego, and I
was like we have everyopportunity to go, we have
plenty of vacation time, let'sjust do this.
So we drove from Vegas.
We crossed off a few cities onthat trip, but one of our cities
that we went to was in El Pasoand the setup was absolutely
(04:48):
incredible.
But even besides that, you walkin and it's like a beautiful
view of downtown El Paso frombehind home plate.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
You've got the burger stand with like 12 different
burgers out in left field andthen right behind you is Mexico,
literally out in left field andthen right behind you is Mexico
and so literally you walk inand you can just feel what El
Paso has to offer in that, inthat stadium, and it's
incredible definitely um, elPaso and Juarez go together and
(05:20):
you know even Las Cru, but it issuch a wonderful city with such
a great culture and just asmorgasbord of different foods
and cuisine.
So we definitely try to pull abunch of stuff in from
everywhere.
And you're absolutely right,she kids you not when she says
you know you're literally half amile, if not less, from the
(05:42):
Mexican border.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Oh, I believe it.
I've been to El Paso.
It's beautiful.
I actually got to cross borderwhen I was in El Paso, too,
though, so I spent a couple ofhours on the other side of
Mexico, so it was amazing, itwas beautiful.
I have not been to El Paso yet.
No, I mean to the stadium.
Okay, so I'm great.
A big Chihuahuas fan, right?
(06:04):
You know a great Brandios logo,by the way, so Brandios was the
designer of that logo, so shoutout to Brandios for a wonderful
El Paso logo the Chihuahuas.
So go ahead.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
So much.
No, we got so much heat atfirst, but it is one of the
number one logos out there inminor league baseball.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I remember that.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, I mean, it is such a awesome ornery, you know,
fun loving Chihuahua he's.
You know, chico's just amazing,he's everything.
I mean he's amazing.
But but, yeah, no, I mean wedefinitely, definitely, um, you
know, work very closely with ourpartner, the mountain star
(06:47):
sports group, uh, to make surethat, you know, we represent the
brand as fast as we can, astrue as we can to, to chico and
and the padres as well, and, um,you know, again, it's just uh,
who would have thought, right, achico chihuahuas, you know,
down in el paso, the armpit oftexas, but uh, it is.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I hate that.
I remember and it's not.
I hate that.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
That's the actual like people do call it that yeah
so I remember when, when thelogo, when it was released,
right, because I believe, if I'mnot mistaken, the, the, the
name was released first and thenthe logo was released
afterwards.
Am I correct on that?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I think it was actually backwards.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Backwards Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yes, they released the top five names and one of
them was like I don't know if itwas like the alligators or
something to that sort, and theyreleased the eyes.
So it was just the silhouetteof the eyes.
So it was the just thesilhouette of the eyes, and
everybody thought, oh, we'regoing to be this really cool
crocodile or something like that.
And then they announcedChihuahuas and it was some mixed
(07:54):
reactions out there.
But when they released thewhole logo.
I mean, how can you not fall inlove?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Absolutely no.
I own so many Chihuahua hatsand still want to get some more
hats.
Uh, it's not even funny howmany hats I have, I think, just
because, like you know, I'm ahuge 47 brand uh person.
So, uh, there is this one whereI want to get the hat, which is
the uh, the diamond dog cap,which is like the full chihuahua
(08:22):
standing up.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yes, we'll get you one, I'll make it happen, oh,
okay.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I may know a person or two.
So let me ask you this because,according to Brandios, right
when someone releases a logo,right when the team releases the
logo, there's this thing calledthe J-curve, what they call the
J-curve.
Right At first they're like no,we don't like it, we don't like
it.
And then they work up to it.
(08:48):
How long was that period oftime in which, uh, it went from
not really liking it to like,man, this is, this is our logo.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Goodness.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I know tough questions here, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yeah, no, you know, I don't think it took too long.
You know.
I want to say, you know, withinthe first six months we went
from, you know some mixedreaction, especially here
locally, because outside of ElPaso people were loving it right
off the bat, right.
But I mean, no, they no morethan like shoot, and I may even
(09:28):
be wrong and I I do apologize,angela, if you're listening and
I get this wrong.
But um, but no, I mean yeah,just um, not it picked up, steam
.
I wish I could have a betteranswer for you no, no, it's fine
.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I mean it's fine, like, I mean it's well, I
remember, like I said, Iremember when it came out and I
remember me all, right off thebat.
I'm like, yes, I love it, Ithink it's great.
You know, it's like there'sthere's never been a chihuahua
logo, right, or a name like that.
And when I saw it and I'm allthe way on, you know north
carolina, but when it came out,I was in cleveland, ohio, and
I'm like, oh my god, yeah,absolutely, why not?
Speaker 1 (10:04):
no, I mean, like I said, very quickly, you know it
became.
We had merchandise shipped outto all 50 states.
I believe it's super quick andand to your point, you said you
said you have a bunch of hatsand whatnot.
David, our, our store, ourstore manager, our souvenir
store and all that stuff.
He does such an amazing job inswitching up all of the gear and
(10:27):
just keeping it fresh, andthere's different things almost
every month.
So you need to visit thesouvenir store at least once a
month to make sure you have allof the updated gear that we're
rolling out.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I believe it, I absolutely believe it, I
absolutely believe it.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
On that same note, let me just say I think the
Chihuahuas do such a good jobwith creating and getting so
much hype.
I follow on social media andevery time on Instagram you see
a theme night, the commentsection just goes crazy and you
know what I love the most isthrough the comment section and
(11:06):
through the hype that the ElPaso show was good.
On Instagram I learned aboutand I know I feel like such a
fake baseball fan for sayingthis, but I learned about the El
Paso Diablos and throughInstagram I think I had seen
them post like someone waswearing a Diablos hat to a game.
Like this was a few years agoand they just continue to love
(11:29):
what they have now the Chihuahualogo, obviously, but then the
Margaritas Spongebob night washuge and so it's just.
It's one of those teams whereit's like there isn't a bad hat
to wear to a game because everylogo goes so hard.
It's the best.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Oh, absolutely, and the Diablos, obviously.
I'm sure you did your research,but you know it's such a rich
baseball history and that's whatstarted baseball in town was
the Diablos, and you know thedifferent logos that even they
went through right.
The most famous one I want tosay is the Pitchfork.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yeah, no, jim Paul, and when he started that down
here, you know he just did anamazing job, you know.
And again, going back to howyou're talking about promotional
nights and things like that,you know we're truly blessed to
have such a great partner in theChihuahuas and to work with
them on, again, all these themenights, whether it was a
SpongeBob night, a Star Warsnight Shoot.
I even remember one of myfavorites was the Hot Cheetos
(12:27):
night.
That was fire.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Literally and figuratively.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I think I want to say it was the Chihuahuas that
posted a few days on Instagram abracket of the best jerseys.
I don't know if you saw thatpost.
I learned that there was a HotCheeto night through that post.
It just keeps getting betterand better with them.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I love Hot Cheetos.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yes, we had so much fun with Hot Cheetos night, you
can imagine.
Everything in the ballpark waseither dusted with Hot Cheetos,
hot Cheetos here, hot Cheetosthere.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Hot Cheetos burrito, oh heaven.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Heaven Cali burrito with some Hot Cheetos in it?
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
The Stanlot jersey, a Loteria jersey, yes, the
Dogface jersey.
And you know what else I lovetoo and I know every minor
league team kind of sort of doesthis at least through like with
the colors.
But you guys even had an EP ElPaso swag chain jersey.
I have heard so many greatthings about how much people
(13:30):
love the brown and yellow aswell with the.
You know, seeing that EP brownand yellow hat too, that one is
a huge like, very loved item aswell.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Oh, absolutely.
And the great thing about ourcity and our fans is you know
they'll reach out and they'llsay what are the players wearing
today?
Because we want to wear, wewant to match whatever the
uniform is.
So we have a get up for everyuniform.
So if the guest wants to matchand come and you know full
regalia, they absolutely can ohmy god, look at that chihuahua
(14:02):
jersey.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yes, hot cheetos, I'm on the instagram page right now
.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
I'm not even kidding you, I'm looking at and I'm like
, oh yes yes, uh, they weredoing like a brack on there's oh
, they're still doing it thestory post, so keep up with it.
And and right now they'remaking issues between the
spongebob and scooby-doo, likehow am I supposed to do
scooby-doo?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
scooby-doo, I'm sorry , I'm a scooby-doo guy.
I grew up on that.
I won't say my age, uh, butyeah, I'm a scooby-doo guy it's
one of the best.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
I, I love it, and you know what else I love too is
again and I had mentioned thisearlier and I had told you guys
when I was there too Iabsolutely love how, let's say,
you only have like we only had24 hours in El Paso.
We went to El Paso, we gotthere.
I want to say no, we got therelike at 12 PM.
(14:55):
We met Chuck and Desiree Idon't know if you remember them,
the huge Chihuahuas fans,adriana.
We met up with them in downtownEl Paso, went to the game and
then we left the next morning.
But because my fiance had neverbeen to El Paso, he even
mentioned that you learn so muchabout what the city has to
offer within, like just goinginto that stadium.
(15:17):
And another great example,besides the food, is when you go
into the team store, and then,of course, you're seeing all the
merch.
You guys have the star thatpays tribute to the star on the
mountain in El Paso as well,which is so beautiful.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yes, I mean gorgeous as you're flying in or even as
you're driving down I-10,.
They did a full reno on thatstar and it shines super bright,
but hence the name of the team,right, the ownership team,
Mount Star Sports Group.
You know, paying homage to thatgorgeous startup on the
mountain and, yeah, I mean weuse it wherever we can.
(15:52):
We have a suite that's calledMountain Star Suite.
So, yeah, we again, wedefinitely embrace and try to
show off El Paso culture andjust everything that we can to
show off our city when you walkinto the ballpark.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Two things that I love about that you guys do also
, One is that you guys sell ajersey the Sultanas de Monterrey
Very nice.
And then Chucotown.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yes, that Chucotown is so popular, so popular
actually, that the University ofthe Street, UTEP.
They recently got some love fordoing El Chucotown football
helmets.
No way, I want to say this,last weekend.
Oh, it's so cute yeah, so, uh,our, our lovely nickname for el
(16:44):
paso, el tuco, and, um, you know, the the silver, black and
white, you know giving off kindof those raider vibes, but, um,
just a great looking jersey, youknow really represents our city
and just kind of again, youknow, showing love.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Y'all those jerseys and helmets for UTEP.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Right, what Not us shopping?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I should not exceed that.
You can't be doing this to meLike those are legit.
Oh Lord, have mercy.
No, I'm turning it off becauseif not I'm going to be spending
some money.
I can't do it, I'm just goingto be mad.
Some money, I can't do it.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
My wife is going to be mad at me.
I think we're going back nextyear for sure.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Let me know.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I'll go because I've never been.
Yes, I think we're going to flythis time because I drive
through New Mexico.
It's rough.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah, there's not much going on, for sure, but we
would, we would love to host theboth of you and get you some
gear and have you come out andtry all of our amazing food.
I know chef has been working onsome things.
We've had some conversationsabout a birria cart.
Um had, which is new.
We've never done birria out atthe ballpark, so that will be
interesting.
(17:53):
Um, you know, uh, and and toyour point, you know, just
switching it up, um, we won'thave 12 burgers, but we'll
definitely have at least sixover at our 12-pack burger cart.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
It felt like 12.
I had never seen that manyoptions at once at a minor
league I don't even know if at amajor or minor league ballpark
but I went and I was walking upwith Chuck at Chucked Up on
Instagram.
You guys, if you love El PasoChihuahua content, he's your guy
.
But I walked up with Chuck andwe follow each other.
And it was like the jalapenopopper burger that I had tried.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Oh, yes, and then?
Speaker 3 (18:28):
it was like a bacon cheeseburger one, and then, like
it was just so many and Iremember I was recording them,
and then I looked over and therewas more and I was like, okay,
let me clean my camera lens, letme like do the 0.5 so I can
really get like a good view ofall these options here.
It was a lot.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
And for those of you listening, depending on where
you're at, when she saysjalapeno popper, it's not your
typical.
You know breaded jalapeno withcream cheese and cheddar.
You know this is a traditionalMexican jalapeno with cream
cheese and cheddar.
This is a traditional Mexicanjalapeno popper.
This is a jalapeno stuffed with, again, cream cheese, but then
it's bacon wrapped Absolutelydelicious.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Through a toothpick as the garnish on top of a
burger.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I'm not hungry at all , don't worry, I'm not hungry at
all.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
You're the only one.
Speak for yourself.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
I'm starving now.
We just listened to jalapenopoppers.
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 3 (19:25):
On that note, adriana , I know I wasn't there this
season, but can you walk, talkus through maybe like a few of
like the best sellers and maybewhat was one of like your
favorite items that was wasavailable this season for those
who were able to go?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
yeah, the dog ball.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
One of them has to be the dog ball you know, if I
could, I would put everything ina dog bowl.
It's so awesome, you can do somany things with it, but so yeah
, hands down, one of our bestsellers is obviously the loaded
nachos in a dog bowl, whetherit's the carne asada nachos, the
brisket nachos, and it's notyour traditional barbecue
brisket, it's your more umabuelita tia type brisket with
(20:08):
the clods barbecue of the clodsauce kind of mix in it.
And then we also had the.
We also had a your traditionalpicadillo.
Just you know, ground beef typetop nachos.
Those are always our bestsellers.
The next item that's pretty upthere that's a fan favorite and
it's been a recipe that we'vecarried since the ballpark open
(20:30):
is called the Chihuahua dog.
So, it's our version of aSonoran hot dog, you know,
bacon-wrapped and then toppedwith pinto beans, pico de gallo,
mayo, ketchup, nacho cheese.
I mean it's just delicious, ohgoodness, oh sweet.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I'm hanging on to the photos I have from last year.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
You know, you can just upload them to the cloud,
so that way it doesn't take upspace on your phone, and then
keep going, right.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah, no, I was like oh my gosh, no, but I mean I
can't stop looking at them.
I was so sad I didn't go thisyear.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Oh yeah, but you're going to come this year, this
upcoming season.
I am.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
And we're going to come this year, this upcoming
season.
I am and we're going to have abus.
It's going to be the best.
What about like your favorite?
What was like your favorite my?
Speaker 1 (21:18):
favorite.
You know it wasn't necessarilyone of Chef's creations, but
again, with the economy and justthe way things are, we had some
souvenir items that we didn'tquite know what to do with, and
we're always listening to fanfeedback and one of the things
was you know, something thatperhaps is a little bit more
family friendly, somethingthat's a little bit more price
(21:40):
conscious?
We have these really great beefflautas that we get from our
distributor and we ended updoing a dog bowl flauta and a
for because we host we also hostsoccer at our stadium.
We ended up using a bucket, butthose that dog bowl flauta and
a uh for because we host we alsohost soccer at our stadium we
ended up using a bucket, um, butthose that dog bowl flauta with
like 20 flautas, lettuce,tomato, all the toppings that
(22:02):
thing looked bomb and it wasabsolutely delicious you know,
handheld food quick and easy toeat.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
You know who doesn't like a flauta you know, that
that concept kind of reminds meof, which actually brings me to
a question real quick.
So that concept with the flotasinside the bowl reminds me of
how chico's the restaurant does.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
It was that kind of inspiration so yes, uh, yes and
no, um, chico's it.
It's not chico's unless youhave that tomato sauce.
True, that bath, but no forsome of our theme nights,
especially when we have theChico night and those specialty
jerseys and whatnot we did, wedefinitely took a page out of
(22:43):
the Chico's Tacos book and triedto do something similar.
We obviously can't compare, butwe try.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
We try our hardest to get that chico's tacos I mean,
you know chico's tacos for thosewho don't know is like the spot
in el paso.
But if you are not able to makeit to chico's tacos, you're
going to be just as satisfiedgoing into wawa's game.
And is that?
Was that the inspiration forthe mascot slash logo name?
(23:13):
I always wondered.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
I don't think so.
I think you know there's alwaysthose typical dog names right
and in Spanish.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I want to say that's one of them.
Chico ven pa'ca.
Yeah, True story True story.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
No, that's great.
No, that I can totallyunderstand.
I mean 20 flautas and it's a.
I get you know, I eat like afamily of four, so it's fine.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Like how do you decide what to eat?
You know what I mean.
Like, oh, I want everything.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Right no.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
I mean it really.
We get a lot of those questions.
You know they'll come up to theguest services booth and
they're like you know, what doyou recommend?
Or you know same thing, likewhat's your favorite or what's
the number one selling item.
I think it just has to do withyou know what mood you're in.
You know, because if you getsomething that you're just not
quite craving, you know it's notgoing to hit the same right so
(24:12):
if you're heading to theballpark and you're like you
have your your heart set on ahot dog, then I'm definitely
going to send you to the quadrisdog cart.
Right, I don't want you to havea a regular nathan's not that
there's anything bad with it,right, a regular, you know hot
dog but I want you to get thefull experience.
I'm going to send you to go geta quadris dog.
You know a bacon wrap quadrisdog.
If you want a bacon wrappedQuanto's dog.
If you want a burger?
I'm going to send you to tobullpen burgers and get you know
(24:35):
our chucco burger some ham, thepatties, some some weenie, some
hot dog slices in there, fullyloaded, um, but yeah.
I mean it's, it's hard, it'shard to really, you know, say
you have to try this.
One thing Like this is the onething you need to have.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
That the way, the way you just explained your
recommendation like if someone'scraving a hot dog is perfect,
because if you're somebody likeme whose passport is 12 years
expired and you can't cross theborder to go get a hot dog, it's
okay, because you're atSouthwest university park and it
works out Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, I want to renew that passport.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
You have to, we'll take you across the border.
We'll take you to some bombtaco places.
We'll take you to go have anactual Juarez dog, and then we
can compare and see what we needto do to tweak it.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
It's so funny that you say that, because that is
all on my list for when I dorenew my passport and when you
go.
It reminded me more that Ineeded to.
Specifically, I remember when Igot to the ballpark and you
know, like out in left field,when you can take the stairs to
go to the second level that'swhere you can see Mexico and
(25:52):
from the second level of the ofthe ballpark and I remember
looking out and I was just likeman, it's so close, yet so far
away, cause if I try crossing,y'all are not going to hear from
me for a while.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I'm going on a food adventure here I go, and so yeah
no, I definitely need to renewit.
And what better the goal is torenew it and what better the
goal is to have it renewed andnot be so lazy and have it
renewed by the time we get to elpaso perfect so let me ask you
this and whenever you guys arethinking about something, it's
(26:24):
like you know the inspiration,you know, do you guys look at it
from, like obviously frommexico, and then you know,
within tampa, like you know,where does mostly like?
Do you guys do this in a group?
How does that work out for youguys?
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Well, we've actually done it a few different ways.
A lot of it is us going out andvisiting local restaurants and,
on the weekends, hitting up thedifferent markets and whatnot,
looking out for the newest foodtruck and just kind of seeing
what they're doing and what ourlocal community is into.
A lot of it is also, as youguys mentioned, Instagram so
(27:00):
much right, Whether it'sInstagram or TikTok, and just
the influence that has.
We also like to borrow andtweet different ideas from
several different bar plots.
Actually, I also run the ProSports Catering Instagram
account, so I have access to allof our different ballparks
(27:21):
across the country and thingsthat they submit.
So it's always amazing to seethe creativity out there and how
we can take something and againmake it your own right, Give it
a little twist, throw somejalapeno on there, whatnot, but
a little bit of everything.
You know.
Our company also likes to keepthings exciting.
They put out this contest wherethe best or the most creative
(27:46):
culinary innovation for the yeargets a nice healthy chunk of
change.
So it makes all of us verycompetitive, right, trying to
get that award.
But no, it's great, it reallyis great, especially when we get
to meet together once a yearand just share everything that
we've done and what's worked andwhat hasn't, you know, and be
(28:08):
able to share what worked for usand give that experience to
another fan and another part ofthe country that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
I absolutely love it on that same note of like
creativity, I want to also saythat the el paso chihuahuas have
some of the most fun and mostcreative food containers like I
don't know if you guys are gonnahave these next year, but these
were so fun to drink out ofthese little margarita or
cocktail cups with, like, thehelmet on top.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Oh, the fish bowls.
Yes, so cute, so I get a lot of.
I get.
I catch a lot of heat for mystaff, especially my warehouse
manager, because he's like whatam I going to do with all these
souvenirs?
Where I can store them?
Speaker 2 (28:49):
don't you worry, we will take care of it, yes, but
to your point, I think.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
You know people get bored of the same cup.
People get bored of coming outand getting their food in a
paper boat and stuff like that.
So how can we continue to?
You know, grow our brand andmake food fun?
And absolutely, I'm alwayslooking for new souvenirs, new
cups, new vessels.
Shout out to Churchill they doan amazing job for us.
(29:16):
Shout out to Whirly they're theones who do our dog bowls and
you know some great quality,great looking dog bowls.
Shout out to Henya, who didthose fishbowl helmets that you
just showed out.
So, yeah, no, we have somereally great partners that you
know.
I'm like I'm looking for this.
What do you got?
You know, and even when theydon't, they're so great at
(29:38):
helping us come out withsomething new.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
That's so funny that you say that, because our good
friend Mr Eric Prophet was there.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Second to last game of the season and he had sent me
a photo of this and I think youguys were sold out.
But like that, you know, I meanit's fine because, like, I mean
it's great that you guys areselling out of this stuff
because it's so cool to drinkout of and I mean and especially
if you're a hat person, I meanit's so cute.
I'm a huge hat person, so if mydrink comes with the hat, of
(30:06):
course I'm going to take 20 likeof course you are like.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
I even see here a little mason jar with the el
paso margaritas, you know, withthe logo.
I mean you, you guys, go aboveand beyond just to not only
think about the actual food itemor drink, but like the actual
vessel in which the food comesin yeah, absolutely,
presentation is everything and,like I said, you know, we think
(30:32):
a lot about our season ticketholders.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
right, you know they're out there, you know, and
they come out to all 75 games.
You know how can we break upthat monotony?
So whenever we play as theMargaritas, we've got a
Margarita special and it comesin that special Margarita Mason
jar.
So we really embrace all of ourlogos and try to do the most
that we can with them,absolutely.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
That's great thinking , because we live in a world,
where in?
today's world is where the phoneeats first, right Everyone's
photos before, no matter howstarving you are, get the video,
get the photo.
And so it's so fun, like it'ssuch an aesthetic you know
everything about, like where,how the food comes in and how
the drink comes in at thisballpark specifically is so
aesthetic and it's just.
And then you guys have thatreally colorful.
(31:21):
I don't know if it's stillthere, but if you guys still
have that really colorful carout in left field, I mean just,
oh, yes, la Pesera, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
So good, yeah, yes, yes so good, yeah, I mean again,
you know, we work very closelywith our partner whether it's
something that they have thatthey don't have a need for, and
we can find something creativeto do with it.
And that's exactly whathappened with that was.
It was a souvenir kind of storething and then, like you know
what, we're not going to use itanymore.
Do you think you can dosomething with it?
(31:51):
I'm'm like, hmm, yes, Fishbowls, Spanish la pecera cocktails,
fully loaded, done you?
know and again truly embracing,you know again, our culture and
just everything down here.
It's fully decked out with thepaper mache flags that you
typically see in a Mexicanrestaurant.
(32:12):
I mean, you know, valerie, Imean you saw it up in close.
It's just, you know, a biver.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
I was so taken back by it and I noticed when I left.
But I'm being re-triggered Idon't have any photos of that
little stand.
I remember when I left I waslike, oh my gosh, we got our
drinks from there and I was sotaken back by the drink and the
actual stand that I didn't evenget a photo of it.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Oh well, I'll send you guys one over, in case you
guys want to post it or share it.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yep Done.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
I hope you guys enjoyed that episode with Val
and I, with Adriana.
Make sure you guys come backnext week.
Okay, we will be discussingmore food items.
We will be discussing more ofEl Paso, chihuahua, some
merchandise, some of the futureevents that is going to be
happening at the ballpark, aswell as, obviously, my famous,
not-so-famous, questions.
(33:04):
But before I go, guys, I want tomake sure that you guys are
making sure that you guys arefollowing not only Val and I,
but also Adriana.
Make sure that you are goingfollowing not only Val and I,
but also Adriana.
Make sure that, uh, that uh,you are going to my YouTube
channel, uh, stay up to datethere.
So make sure you hit thesubscribe button, hit the like
button on the videos, uh,because not only do you see the
uh episodes for this podcast,but also the live shows that uh
(33:28):
goes on every Tuesday andThursdays at 9 PM Eastern time.
Again, I'll make sure you guyshit the subscribe button and
then tell one more person aboutit.
All right, until then, guys,keep grinding and then always
support the minor leagues, seeya.
So it was just the silhouette of the eyes and
everybody thought, oh, we'regoing to be this, you know,
really cool crocodile, orsomething like that.
And then they announcedChihuahuas, and it was you know.
Some mixed reactions out there,of course.
But, when they released thewhole logo.
I mean, how can you not fall inlove?
Is anybody?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
there, all right.
All right, all right.
Well, welcome everybody to yetanother episode of the dad hat
chronicles.
My name is ed, also known asthe dad head, and with me, as
always, my co-host, my goodfriend val stadium food girl.
What up girl?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
hi, I'm I'm so excited today, ed I Ed, I've
been texting you all the time.
Well, I am so excited.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Even two weeks ago I was like I'm so excited, I'm so
excited for this guest that wehave on today it's funny because
you've been sending me pictures, uh the Instagram link, so I I
know you are excited, so I'mgoing to let you go on.
Do your thing, girl.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
So everyone again.
I'm so excited Today.
We have one of my very goodfriends, adriana, with us today.
We have hung out a couple oftimes.
We of course met through thebeautiful sport of baseball, but
, adriana, we have you on today.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
(01:27):
I know you're super busy.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
No, super excited to be on with you guys, and you
know, just talk baseball foodand all the great stuff that
goes along with it.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yes, absolutely.
Um, if you could um in just afew words what you do exactly
with the El Paso Chihuahua AAAaffiliate of the San Diego
Padres?
Speaker 1 (01:52):
yeah, absolutely so.
Uh, I am the director of foodand beverage out there with the
El Paso Chihuahuas and, um, yeah, so everything food and
beverage related, everythingfrom concession food, anything
we do up in the suites, in theclub, our bars, all that great
stuff I have the honor of, youknow, creating some really great
(02:14):
experiences for our guests andmaking sure our season ticket
holders don't get bored of thesame food every day.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I highly doubt that they get bored with all the food
that you guys have.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So you know, kudos to our chef and our team.
I mean they she chef, mariabarragan ortado.
She does an amazing job ofreally, you know, coming up with
some great stuff at thebeginning of the season.
But not just that, she alsodoes a great job.
Every time we have a themenight, like she goes all in man,
whether it's Star Wars night,harry Potter or Wizard night.
(02:48):
I mean, she just all in.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
One.
My daughter would love HarryPotter night.
Me, I would love Star Warsnight, I know right.
And we have a chihuahuaourselves, a little gypsy.
She weighs less than fivepounds.
I want you to know that gypsyweighs less than five pounds.
I want you to know that sheliterally weighs less than five
pounds.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
A good chihuahua is five pounds or less.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
So, um, but yeah, no, I, I can attest to that.
We went last year for the veryfirst time, and Adriana and Chef
Maria and oh my gosh, remind meagain who we met, what was his
name?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah.
So Brad Taylor, the GM andpresident of the team, went
ahead and joined us halfwaythrough our show.
Our little walkthrough ofeverything.
He joined us up in the WestStar Club.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, you guystried a bunch of stuff together.
Our little walkthrough ofeverything.
He joined us up in the WatchStar Club.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, I mean, you guys tried a bunch of stuff
together and his favorite wassome of those chicken taquitos
you guys tried that just soundsdelicious.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Yeah, you had reached out through the Pro Sports
Catering account and we kind ofconnected that way catering
account and we kind of connectedthat way and we my fiance and I
had been planning a trip out toEl Paso for the longest and I,
I love El Paso, it's one of myfavorite cities and he had never
been and I was like, okay, thisis perfect.
I keep seeing the food posts onInstagram.
You had never.
(04:22):
I'm telling him you have neverbeen.
He's a huge Padres fan, bornand raised in San Diego, and I
was like we have everyopportunity to go, we have
plenty of vacation time, let'sjust do this.
So we drove from Vegas.
We crossed off a few cities onthat trip, but one of our cities
that we went to was in El Pasoand the setup was absolutely
(04:48):
incredible.
But even besides that, you walkin and it's like a beautiful
view of downtown El Paso frombehind home plate.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
You've got the burger stand with like 12 different
burgers out in left field andthen right behind you is Mexico,
literally out in left field andthen right behind you is Mexico
and so literally you walk inand you can just feel what El
Paso has to offer in that, inthat stadium, and it's
incredible definitely um, elPaso and Juarez go together and
(05:20):
you know even Las Cru, but it issuch a wonderful city with such
a great culture and just asmorgasbord of different foods
and cuisine.
So we definitely try to pull abunch of stuff in from
everywhere.
And you're absolutely right,she kids you not when she says
you know you're literally half amile, if not less, from the
(05:42):
Mexican border.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Oh, I believe it.
I've been to El Paso.
It's beautiful.
I actually got to cross borderwhen I was in El Paso, too,
though, so I spent a couple ofhours on the other side of
Mexico, so it was amazing, itwas beautiful.
I have not been to El Paso yet.
No, I mean to the stadium.
Okay, so I'm great.
A big Chihuahuas fan, right?
(06:04):
You know a great Brandios logo,by the way, so Brandios was the
designer of that logo, so shoutout to Brandios for a wonderful
El Paso logo the Chihuahuas.
So go ahead.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
So much.
No, we got so much heat atfirst, but it is one of the
number one logos out there inminor league baseball.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I remember that.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, I mean, it is such a awesome ornery, you know,
fun loving Chihuahua he's.
You know, chico's just amazing,he's everything.
I mean he's amazing.
But but, yeah, no, I mean wedefinitely, definitely, um, you
know, work very closely with ourpartner, the mountain star
(06:47):
sports group, uh, to make surethat, you know, we represent the
brand as fast as we can, astrue as we can to, to chico and
and the padres as well, and, um,you know, again, it's just uh,
who would have thought, right, achico chihuahuas, you know,
down in el paso, the armpit oftexas, but uh, it is.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I hate that.
I remember and it's not.
I hate that.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
That's the actual like people do call it that yeah
so I remember when, when thelogo, when it was released,
right, because I believe, if I'mnot mistaken, the, the, the
name was released first and thenthe logo was released
afterwards.
Am I correct on that?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I think it was actually backwards.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Backwards Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yes, they released the top five names and one of
them was like I don't know if itwas like the alligators or
something to that sort, and theyreleased the eyes.
So it was just the silhouetteof the eyes.
So it was the just thesilhouette of the eyes, and
everybody thought, oh, we'regoing to be this really cool
crocodile or something like that.
And then they announcedChihuahuas and it was some mixed
(07:54):
reactions out there.
But when they released thewhole logo.
I mean, how can you not fall inlove?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Absolutely no.
I own so many Chihuahua hatsand still want to get some more
hats.
Uh, it's not even funny howmany hats I have, I think, just
because, like you know, I'm ahuge 47 brand uh person.
So, uh, there is this one whereI want to get the hat, which is
the uh, the diamond dog cap,which is like the full chihuahua
(08:22):
standing up.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yes, we'll get you one, I'll make it happen, oh,
okay.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I may know a person or two.
So let me ask you this because,according to Brandios, right
when someone releases a logo,right when the team releases the
logo, there's this thing calledthe J-curve, what they call the
J-curve.
Right At first they're like no,we don't like it, we don't like
it.
And then they work up to it.
(08:48):
How long was that period oftime in which, uh, it went from
not really liking it to like,man, this is, this is our logo.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Goodness.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I know tough questions here, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yeah, no, you know, I don't think it took too long.
You know.
I want to say, you know, withinthe first six months we went
from, you know some mixedreaction, especially here
locally, because outside of ElPaso people were loving it right
off the bat, right.
But I mean, no, they no morethan like shoot, and I may even
(09:28):
be wrong and I I do apologize,angela, if you're listening and
I get this wrong.
But um, but no, I mean yeah,just um, not it picked up, steam
.
I wish I could have a betteranswer for you no, no, it's fine
.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I mean it's fine, like, I mean it's well, I
remember, like I said, Iremember when it came out and I
remember me all, right off thebat.
I'm like, yes, I love it, Ithink it's great.
You know, it's like there'sthere's never been a chihuahua
logo, right, or a name like that.
And when I saw it and I'm allthe way on, you know north
carolina, but when it came out,I was in cleveland, ohio, and
I'm like, oh my god, yeah,absolutely, why not?
Speaker 1 (10:04):
no, I mean, like I said, very quickly, you know it
became.
We had merchandise shipped outto all 50 states.
I believe it's super quick andand to your point, you said you
said you have a bunch of hatsand whatnot.
David, our, our store, ourstore manager, our souvenir
store and all that stuff.
He does such an amazing job inswitching up all of the gear and
(10:27):
just keeping it fresh, andthere's different things almost
every month.
So you need to visit thesouvenir store at least once a
month to make sure you have allof the updated gear that we're
rolling out.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I believe it, I absolutely believe it, I
absolutely believe it.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
On that same note, let me just say I think the
Chihuahuas do such a good jobwith creating and getting so
much hype.
I follow on social media andevery time on Instagram you see
a theme night, the commentsection just goes crazy and you
know what I love the most isthrough the comment section and
(11:06):
through the hype that the ElPaso show was good.
On Instagram I learned aboutand I know I feel like such a
fake baseball fan for sayingthis, but I learned about the El
Paso Diablos and throughInstagram I think I had seen
them post like someone waswearing a Diablos hat to a game.
Like this was a few years agoand they just continue to love
(11:29):
what they have now the Chihuahualogo, obviously, but then the
Margaritas Spongebob night washuge and so it's just.
It's one of those teams whereit's like there isn't a bad hat
to wear to a game because everylogo goes so hard.
It's the best.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Oh, absolutely, and the Diablos, obviously.
I'm sure you did your research,but you know it's such a rich
baseball history and that's whatstarted baseball in town was
the Diablos, and you know thedifferent logos that even they
went through right.
The most famous one I want tosay is the Pitchfork.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yeah, no, jim Paul, and when he started that down
here, you know he just did anamazing job, you know.
And again, going back to howyou're talking about promotional
nights and things like that,you know we're truly blessed to
have such a great partner in theChihuahuas and to work with
them on, again, all these themenights, whether it was a
SpongeBob night, a Star Warsnight Shoot.
I even remember one of myfavorites was the Hot Cheetos
(12:27):
night.
That was fire.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Literally and figuratively.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I think I want to say it was the Chihuahuas that
posted a few days on Instagram abracket of the best jerseys.
I don't know if you saw thatpost.
I learned that there was a HotCheeto night through that post.
It just keeps getting betterand better with them.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I love Hot Cheetos.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yes, we had so much fun with Hot Cheetos night, you
can imagine.
Everything in the ballpark waseither dusted with Hot Cheetos,
hot Cheetos here, hot Cheetosthere.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Hot Cheetos burrito, oh heaven.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Heaven Cali burrito with some Hot Cheetos in it?
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
The Stanlot jersey, a Loteria jersey, yes, the
Dogface jersey.
And you know what else I lovetoo and I know every minor
league team kind of sort of doesthis at least through like with
the colors.
But you guys even had an EP ElPaso swag chain jersey.
I have heard so many greatthings about how much people
(13:30):
love the brown and yellow aswell with the.
You know, seeing that EP brownand yellow hat too, that one is
a huge like, very loved item aswell.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Oh, absolutely.
And the great thing about ourcity and our fans is you know
they'll reach out and they'llsay what are the players wearing
today?
Because we want to wear, wewant to match whatever the
uniform is.
So we have a get up for everyuniform.
So if the guest wants to matchand come and you know full
regalia, they absolutely can ohmy god, look at that chihuahua
(14:02):
jersey.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yes, hot cheetos, I'm on the instagram page right now
.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
I'm not even kidding you, I'm looking at and I'm like
, oh yes yes, uh, they weredoing like a brack on there's oh
, they're still doing it thestory post, so keep up with it.
And and right now they'remaking issues between the
spongebob and scooby-doo, likehow am I supposed to do
scooby-doo?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
scooby-doo, I'm sorry , I'm a scooby-doo guy.
I grew up on that.
I won't say my age, uh, butyeah, I'm a scooby-doo guy it's
one of the best.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
I, I love it, and you know what else I love too is
again and I had mentioned thisearlier and I had told you guys
when I was there too Iabsolutely love how, let's say,
you only have like we only had24 hours in El Paso.
We went to El Paso, we gotthere.
I want to say no, we got therelike at 12 PM.
(14:55):
We met Chuck and Desiree Idon't know if you remember them,
the huge Chihuahuas fans,adriana.
We met up with them in downtownEl Paso, went to the game and
then we left the next morning.
But because my fiance had neverbeen to El Paso, he even
mentioned that you learn so muchabout what the city has to
offer within, like just goinginto that stadium.
(15:17):
And another great example,besides the food, is when you go
into the team store, and then,of course, you're seeing all the
merch.
You guys have the star thatpays tribute to the star on the
mountain in El Paso as well,which is so beautiful.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yes, I mean gorgeous as you're flying in or even as
you're driving down I-10,.
They did a full reno on thatstar and it shines super bright,
but hence the name of the team,right, the ownership team,
Mount Star Sports Group.
You know, paying homage to thatgorgeous startup on the
mountain and, yeah, I mean weuse it wherever we can.
(15:52):
We have a suite that's calledMountain Star Suite.
So, yeah, we again, wedefinitely embrace and try to
show off El Paso culture andjust everything that we can to
show off our city when you walkinto the ballpark.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Two things that I love about that you guys do also
, One is that you guys sell ajersey the Sultanas de Monterrey
Very nice.
And then Chucotown.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yes, that Chucotown is so popular, so popular
actually, that the University ofthe Street, UTEP.
They recently got some love fordoing El Chucotown football
helmets.
No way, I want to say this,last weekend.
Oh, it's so cute yeah, so, uh,our, our lovely nickname for el
(16:44):
paso, el tuco, and, um, you know, the the silver, black and
white, you know giving off kindof those raider vibes, but, um,
just a great looking jersey, youknow really represents our city
and just kind of again, youknow, showing love.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Y'all those jerseys and helmets for UTEP.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Right, what Not us shopping?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I should not exceed that.
You can't be doing this to meLike those are legit.
Oh Lord, have mercy.
No, I'm turning it off becauseif not I'm going to be spending
some money.
I can't do it, I'm just goingto be mad.
Some money, I can't do it.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
My wife is going to be mad at me.
I think we're going back nextyear for sure.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Let me know.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I'll go because I've never been.
Yes, I think we're going to flythis time because I drive
through New Mexico.
It's rough.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah, there's not much going on, for sure, but we
would, we would love to host theboth of you and get you some
gear and have you come out andtry all of our amazing food.
I know chef has been working onsome things.
We've had some conversationsabout a birria cart.
Um had, which is new.
We've never done birria out atthe ballpark, so that will be
interesting.
(17:53):
Um, you know, uh, and and toyour point, you know, just
switching it up, um, we won'thave 12 burgers, but we'll
definitely have at least sixover at our 12-pack burger cart.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
It felt like 12.
I had never seen that manyoptions at once at a minor
league I don't even know if at amajor or minor league ballpark
but I went and I was walking upwith Chuck at Chucked Up on
Instagram.
You guys, if you love El PasoChihuahua content, he's your guy
.
But I walked up with Chuck andwe follow each other.
And it was like the jalapenopopper burger that I had tried.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Oh, yes, and then?
Speaker 3 (18:28):
it was like a bacon cheeseburger one, and then, like
it was just so many and Iremember I was recording them,
and then I looked over and therewas more and I was like, okay,
let me clean my camera lens, letme like do the 0.5 so I can
really get like a good view ofall these options here.
It was a lot.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
And for those of you listening, depending on where
you're at, when she saysjalapeno popper, it's not your
typical.
You know breaded jalapeno withcream cheese and cheddar.
You know this is a traditionalMexican jalapeno with cream
cheese and cheddar.
This is a traditional Mexicanjalapeno popper.
This is a jalapeno stuffed with, again, cream cheese, but then
it's bacon wrapped Absolutelydelicious.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Through a toothpick as the garnish on top of a
burger.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I'm not hungry at all , don't worry, I'm not hungry at
all.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
You're the only one.
Speak for yourself.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
I'm starving now.
We just listened to jalapenopoppers.
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 3 (19:25):
On that note, adriana , I know I wasn't there this
season, but can you walk, talkus through maybe like a few of
like the best sellers and maybewhat was one of like your
favorite items that was wasavailable this season for those
who were able to go?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
yeah, the dog ball.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
One of them has to be the dog ball you know, if I
could, I would put everything ina dog bowl.
It's so awesome, you can do somany things with it, but so yeah
, hands down, one of our bestsellers is obviously the loaded
nachos in a dog bowl, whetherit's the carne asada nachos, the
brisket nachos, and it's notyour traditional barbecue
brisket, it's your more umabuelita tia type brisket with
(20:08):
the clods barbecue of the clodsauce kind of mix in it.
And then we also had the.
We also had a your traditionalpicadillo.
Just you know, ground beef typetop nachos.
Those are always our bestsellers.
The next item that's pretty upthere that's a fan favorite and
it's been a recipe that we'vecarried since the ballpark open
(20:30):
is called the Chihuahua dog.
So, it's our version of aSonoran hot dog, you know,
bacon-wrapped and then toppedwith pinto beans, pico de gallo,
mayo, ketchup, nacho cheese.
I mean it's just delicious, ohgoodness, oh sweet.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I'm hanging on to the photos I have from last year.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
You know, you can just upload them to the cloud,
so that way it doesn't take upspace on your phone, and then
keep going, right.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah, no, I was like oh my gosh, no, but I mean I
can't stop looking at them.
I was so sad I didn't go thisyear.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Oh yeah, but you're going to come this year, this
upcoming season.
I am.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
And we're going to come this year, this upcoming
season.
I am and we're going to have abus.
It's going to be the best.
What about like your favorite?
What was like your favorite my?
Speaker 1 (21:18):
favorite.
You know it wasn't necessarilyone of Chef's creations, but
again, with the economy and justthe way things are, we had some
souvenir items that we didn'tquite know what to do with, and
we're always listening to fanfeedback and one of the things
was you know, something thatperhaps is a little bit more
family friendly, somethingthat's a little bit more price
(21:40):
conscious?
We have these really great beefflautas that we get from our
distributor and we ended updoing a dog bowl flauta and a
for because we host we also hostsoccer at our stadium.
We ended up using a bucket, butthose that dog bowl flauta and
a uh for because we host we alsohost soccer at our stadium we
ended up using a bucket, um, butthose that dog bowl flauta with
like 20 flautas, lettuce,tomato, all the toppings that
(22:02):
thing looked bomb and it wasabsolutely delicious you know,
handheld food quick and easy toeat.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
You know who doesn't like a flauta you know, that
that concept kind of reminds meof, which actually brings me to
a question real quick.
So that concept with the flotasinside the bowl reminds me of
how chico's the restaurant does.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
It was that kind of inspiration so yes, uh, yes and
no, um, chico's it.
It's not chico's unless youhave that tomato sauce.
True, that bath, but no forsome of our theme nights,
especially when we have theChico night and those specialty
jerseys and whatnot we did, wedefinitely took a page out of
(22:43):
the Chico's Tacos book and triedto do something similar.
We obviously can't compare, butwe try.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
We try our hardest to get that chico's tacos I mean,
you know chico's tacos for thosewho don't know is like the spot
in el paso.
But if you are not able to makeit to chico's tacos, you're
going to be just as satisfiedgoing into wawa's game.
And is that?
Was that the inspiration forthe mascot slash logo name?
(23:13):
I always wondered.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
I don't think so.
I think you know there's alwaysthose typical dog names right
and in Spanish.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I want to say that's one of them.
Chico ven pa'ca.
Yeah, True story True story.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
No, that's great.
No, that I can totallyunderstand.
I mean 20 flautas and it's a.
I get you know, I eat like afamily of four, so it's fine.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Like how do you decide what to eat?
You know what I mean.
Like, oh, I want everything.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Right no.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
I mean it really.
We get a lot of those questions.
You know they'll come up to theguest services booth and
they're like you know, what doyou recommend?
Or you know same thing, likewhat's your favorite or what's
the number one selling item.
I think it just has to do withyou know what mood you're in.
You know, because if you getsomething that you're just not
quite craving, you know it's notgoing to hit the same right so
(24:12):
if you're heading to theballpark and you're like you
have your your heart set on ahot dog, then I'm definitely
going to send you to the quadrisdog cart.
Right, I don't want you to havea a regular nathan's not that
there's anything bad with it,right, a regular, you know hot
dog but I want you to get thefull experience.
I'm going to send you to go geta quadris dog.
You know a bacon wrap quadrisdog.
If you want a bacon wrappedQuanto's dog.
If you want a burger?
I'm going to send you to tobullpen burgers and get you know
(24:35):
our chucco burger some ham, thepatties, some some weenie, some
hot dog slices in there, fullyloaded, um, but yeah.
I mean it's, it's hard, it'shard to really, you know, say
you have to try this.
One thing Like this is the onething you need to have.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
That the way, the way you just explained your
recommendation like if someone'scraving a hot dog is perfect,
because if you're somebody likeme whose passport is 12 years
expired and you can't cross theborder to go get a hot dog, it's
okay, because you're atSouthwest university park and it
works out Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, I want to renew that passport.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
You have to, we'll take you across the border.
We'll take you to some bombtaco places.
We'll take you to go have anactual Juarez dog, and then we
can compare and see what we needto do to tweak it.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
It's so funny that you say that, because that is
all on my list for when I dorenew my passport and when you
go.
It reminded me more that Ineeded to.
Specifically, I remember when Igot to the ballpark and you
know, like out in left field,when you can take the stairs to
go to the second level that'swhere you can see Mexico and
(25:52):
from the second level of the ofthe ballpark and I remember
looking out and I was just likeman, it's so close, yet so far
away, cause if I try crossing,y'all are not going to hear from
me for a while.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I'm going on a food adventure here I go, and so yeah
no, I definitely need to renewit.
And what better the goal is torenew it and what better the
goal is to have it renewed andnot be so lazy and have it
renewed by the time we get to elpaso perfect so let me ask you
this and whenever you guys arethinking about something, it's
(26:24):
like you know the inspiration,you know, do you guys look at it
from, like obviously frommexico, and then you know,
within tampa, like you know,where does mostly like?
Do you guys do this in a group?
How does that work out for youguys?
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Well, we've actually done it a few different ways.
A lot of it is us going out andvisiting local restaurants and,
on the weekends, hitting up thedifferent markets and whatnot,
looking out for the newest foodtruck and just kind of seeing
what they're doing and what ourlocal community is into.
A lot of it is also, as youguys mentioned, Instagram so
(27:00):
much right, Whether it'sInstagram or TikTok, and just
the influence that has.
We also like to borrow andtweet different ideas from
several different bar plots.
Actually, I also run the ProSports Catering Instagram
account, so I have access to allof our different ballparks
(27:21):
across the country and thingsthat they submit.
So it's always amazing to seethe creativity out there and how
we can take something and againmake it your own right, Give it
a little twist, throw somejalapeno on there, whatnot, but
a little bit of everything.
You know.
Our company also likes to keepthings exciting.
They put out this contest wherethe best or the most creative
(27:46):
culinary innovation for the yeargets a nice healthy chunk of
change.
So it makes all of us verycompetitive, right, trying to
get that award.
But no, it's great, it reallyis great, especially when we get
to meet together once a yearand just share everything that
we've done and what's worked andwhat hasn't, you know, and be
(28:08):
able to share what worked for usand give that experience to
another fan and another part ofthe country that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
I absolutely love it on that same note of like
creativity, I want to also saythat the el paso chihuahuas have
some of the most fun and mostcreative food containers like I
don't know if you guys are gonnahave these next year, but these
were so fun to drink out ofthese little margarita or
cocktail cups with, like, thehelmet on top.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Oh, the fish bowls.
Yes, so cute, so I get a lot of.
I get.
I catch a lot of heat for mystaff, especially my warehouse
manager, because he's like whatam I going to do with all these
souvenirs?
Where I can store them?
Speaker 2 (28:49):
don't you worry, we will take care of it, yes, but
to your point, I think.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
You know people get bored of the same cup.
People get bored of coming outand getting their food in a
paper boat and stuff like that.
So how can we continue to?
You know, grow our brand andmake food fun?
And absolutely, I'm alwayslooking for new souvenirs, new
cups, new vessels.
Shout out to Churchill they doan amazing job for us.
(29:16):
Shout out to Whirly they're theones who do our dog bowls and
you know some great quality,great looking dog bowls.
Shout out to Henya, who didthose fishbowl helmets that you
just showed out.
So, yeah, no, we have somereally great partners that you
know.
I'm like I'm looking for this.
What do you got?
You know, and even when theydon't, they're so great at
(29:38):
helping us come out withsomething new.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
That's so funny that you say that, because our good
friend Mr Eric Prophet was there.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Second to last game of the season and he had sent me
a photo of this and I think youguys were sold out.
But like that, you know, I meanit's fine because, like, I mean
it's great that you guys areselling out of this stuff
because it's so cool to drinkout of and I mean and especially
if you're a hat person, I meanit's so cute.
I'm a huge hat person, so if mydrink comes with the hat, of
(30:06):
course I'm going to take 20 likeof course you are like.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
I even see here a little mason jar with the el
paso margaritas, you know, withthe logo.
I mean you, you guys, go aboveand beyond just to not only
think about the actual food itemor drink, but like the actual
vessel in which the food comesin yeah, absolutely,
presentation is everything and,like I said, you know, we think
(30:32):
a lot about our season ticketholders.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
right, you know they're out there, you know, and
they come out to all 75 games.
You know how can we break upthat monotony?
So whenever we play as theMargaritas, we've got a
Margarita special and it comesin that special Margarita Mason
jar.
So we really embrace all of ourlogos and try to do the most
that we can with them,absolutely.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
That's great thinking , because we live in a world,
where in?
today's world is where the phoneeats first, right Everyone's
photos before, no matter howstarving you are, get the video,
get the photo.
And so it's so fun, like it'ssuch an aesthetic you know
everything about, like where,how the food comes in and how
the drink comes in at thisballpark specifically is so
aesthetic and it's just.
And then you guys have thatreally colorful.
(31:21):
I don't know if it's stillthere, but if you guys still
have that really colorful carout in left field, I mean just,
oh, yes, la Pesera, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
So good, yeah, yes, yes so good, yeah, I mean again,
you know, we work very closelywith our partner whether it's
something that they have thatthey don't have a need for, and
we can find something creativeto do with it.
And that's exactly whathappened with that was.
It was a souvenir kind of storething and then, like you know
what, we're not going to use itanymore.
Do you think you can dosomething with it?
(31:51):
I'm'm like, hmm, yes, Fishbowls, Spanish la pecera cocktails,
fully loaded, done you?
know and again truly embracing,you know again, our culture and
just everything down here.
It's fully decked out with thepaper mache flags that you
typically see in a Mexicanrestaurant.
(32:12):
I mean, you know, valerie, Imean you saw it up in close.
It's just, you know, a biver.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
I was so taken back by it and I noticed when I left.
But I'm being re-triggered Idon't have any photos of that
little stand.
I remember when I left I waslike, oh my gosh, we got our
drinks from there and I was sotaken back by the drink and the
actual stand that I didn't evenget a photo of it.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Oh well, I'll send you guys one over, in case you
guys want to post it or share it.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yep Done.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
I hope you guys enjoyed that episode with Val
and I, with Adriana.
Make sure you guys come backnext week.
Okay, we will be discussingmore food items.
We will be discussing more ofEl Paso, chihuahua, some
merchandise, some of the futureevents that is going to be
happening at the ballpark, aswell as, obviously, my famous,
not-so-famous, questions.
(33:04):
But before I go, guys, I want tomake sure that you guys are
making sure that you guys arefollowing not only Val and I,
but also Adriana.
Make sure that you are goingfollowing not only Val and I,
but also Adriana.
Make sure that, uh, that uh,you are going to my YouTube
channel, uh, stay up to datethere.
So make sure you hit thesubscribe button, hit the like
button on the videos, uh,because not only do you see the
uh episodes for this podcast,but also the live shows that uh
(33:28):
goes on every Tuesday andThursdays at 9 PM Eastern time.
Again, I'll make sure you guyshit the subscribe button and
then tell one more person aboutit.
All right, until then, guys,keep grinding and then always
support the minor leagues, seeya.
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