Recently I had the good fortune of attending a Vancouver Canucks hockey game; not just any game but the Canucks versus the legendary Montreal Canadiens. However, today’s post isn’t about the Canucks on-ice performance – it is about the new food service the Canucks organization have introduced.
And as you may or may not know, last year the Vancouver Canucks organization made a wholesale change to their food services for Rogers Arena and there has been much fanfare and to-do about their new food options.
So while I was at the game, obviously I had to try the new food options.
The dog that I got, the Bartley Signature’s claim to fame is that the dog is wrapped in bacon. Obviously anything with bacon has got to be better and at $8.75 I would expect it to be better than better.
The reality is that the hotdog was basically a hotdog – a tasty wiener inside a regular kind of bun with loads of caramelized onions. Yes, that wiener was wrapped in a soggy, what I would call an under-cooked piece of bacon, and the sad truth is, the bacon added very little flavour. Honestly, the hotdog at Rogers Arena was no better in flavour or presentation than the dog that you can get at Costco for a buck 50.
Yes, the Rogers Arena bacon-wrapped hot dog comes with a mound of grated cheddar cheese on it but other than that, nothing special. The two tiny packages of mayonnaise or mustard that arrived with it added nothing special.
There were no napkins brought with the dog (yes, the hotdog was delivered to my seat in the stands) so I actually didn’t dare open the packages of mayonnaise or mustard because I didn’t want to get it on my hands and then be stuck in my seat with ketchup or mayonnaise or mustard on my hands. That was a detraction from the dog experience.
Contrast that with the Costco experience where they plunk the foil wrapped dog onto the stainless steel counter and yell out, “Your hotdog is ready!” You get your dog, of course it doesn’t have bacon or cheddar cheese on it, but you can go over to the condiment stand and load on as much mustard, relish, or ketchup or if you want, sauerkraut or jalapeno peppers. These are not options at the Rogers Arena.
Bottom line, the Rogers Arena Bartley’s Signature hotdog for $8.75 was a disappointment.