Concession Stand Review: Randolph School

This past Friday I worked the Madison Academy at Randolph football game at Randolph’s new campus on Garth Road. I was anxious to see how the concession stand would be, because, well, it’s Randolph – would they have sushi, fillet mignon, steak tartar? I doubted it, but I thought they might have something good and was excited to check it out.

Earlier Friday afternoon, I was hungry and thought that maybe I had better go ahead and eat something, after all, the Rafee Athletic Complex is a fairly new facility and what if they didn’t even have a concession stand, or worse, what if it sucked?! So, I ate some pizza that would hold me over until at least half time in case there wasn’t anything to peak my interest over at Randolph. It’s a good thing I did.

When I arrived at the game, I was in complete dismay at the sight of things – “press box” (I’ll do a write up on this later), concession stand, one side of bleachers. It was confusing and I felt like I was in a time warp. I went to the restroom (it had the tiniest stalls known to man – beware pregnant women, I’m not sure your bellies will fit inside) and then over to the concession stand to check things out.

The first thing I noticed was that the drink provider for the Randolph Raiders was… wait for it… Pepsi! You can gasp now. I was so disappointed I thought I might cry. I had specifically not drunk a Diet Coke earlier with my pizza so that I could have one at the game. Instead, I had water. I guess it’s better for me, but come on, I like an ice cold DC at a football game.

The set up was kind of odd as well. There were two concession stand windows. Around the perimeter of the windows, they had tables set up so that people couldn’t get near the windows. Behind the tables they had workers who would take your order and your money and then get your change and food from the people at the window, I found it to be a little unusual.

I didn’t purchase anything at half time. The line seemed awful long and I didn’t want to bother nor did I want a hot dog without a Diet Coke. I did see my brother from a distance at halftime and so I asked him the next day if he bought anything and asked him about his experience with the Randolph concession stand so I could give you the perspective of someone who actually bothered to buy something at the busiest time.

From Justin: At halftime there were a whole lot of people standing in line I guess. The whole situation was discombobulated and I couldn’t really tell were the lines were so basically I just went to the front of the line and cut.

Justin was there with a fried of ours, Adam. I guess Adam was his ride home from work that night and got forced into going to the football game. Justin bought two hotdogs for himself and two for Adam and also a Snickers bar. His total was $6.50. The hot dogs were $1.50 each and we deducted that the candy was 50 cents.

From Justin: When I saw ‘em (the hot dogs) I didn’t think they would be good, but when I bit into it it was a tasty beef frank and it was really good. The Snickers wasn’t as good as the hot dog. It was weird because it took ‘em a long time to give me my money back.

Justin didn’t purchase a drink, not because of his adversity to Pepsi products, but because he had brought with him a Minute Maid juice – Minute Maid is a Coca-Cola product, I might add. So, we thought it was interesting, but good for Justin that they let him bring his drink inside. Most places won’t allow that sort of thing.

Best I can remember the highest price menu item was a double hamburger (who’s ever heard of a double hamburger, what happened to double cheeseburger?) for $4. The single patty was $3 I think. Overall, I was not impressed with this concession stand – they didn’t even have nachos!

After the game, I was waiting to speak with a coach and a guy named Stu was cleaning up the bleachers with a broom. He came across some peanut shells and said to no one in particular, “Did the concession stand sell peanuts? If they did, I’m gonna kill them!” He seemed pretty ticked about having to clean up peanut shells. No, Stu, the concession stand didn’t sell peanuts, but apparently outside food and drink was allowed in the stadium, so quit your whining. Seriously, what stadium doesn’t have peanut shells after a game?

Final grade: C+