The games have begun. And whether you’re a 49ers fan or a citizen of Raiders Nation, there’s one thing we all can agree on: Football’s fine, but tailgate season rocks.
It’s a time when grills get fired up, brewskis flow and the summer’s bikini embargo on nacho consumption is lifted. Sports-minded folks may be mulling QB concerns and touchdown tallies, but all we can think about are the tempting appetizers, sliders and noshes we’ll serve next weekend, when the Niners face Minnesota and the Raiders go head-to-helmeted-head with Cincinnati.
We turned to a pair of experts: die-hard Niner fan and top chef Michael Mina, whose Bourbon Steak and Tailgate options woo fans at Levi’s Stadium, and chef Stephane Tonnelier from Berkeley’s Five, who caters to the Cal Bears football crowd as well as Raiders devotees.
For uber fan Mina, the stadium gig has been a blast from both team-watching and culinary points of view.
“Oh, yeah, I’m there every game day,” he says. “We usually focus on the team we’re playing — the best Philly cheesesteak for the Eagles. We bring in chefs and great products from that state.”
And the very idea of Super Bowl 50 — the championship game will be held Feb. 7 at Levi’s Stadium — has him chortling with glee.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” he says. “It being in the Bay Area. The new facility. The 50th. It’s one that will rival any food and sports combination that has ever happened.” He laughs, then adds, “That’s the goal.”
Whether you’re tailgating in the parking lot or throwing a football-watching party at home, the key, Mina says, is “do good food and have fun with it. You can always do ribs, but people are going to gravitate toward things that are interactive and fun.”
Make a fondue fountain, he suggests, by filling chocolate-style fountains with his ‘Merican Cheese Fondue. Add platters of bread, small potatoes, grilled broccoli and filet bites for dipping. And for dessert, he says, “you can have a lot of fun with simple floats and things like cookies, brownies, s’mores — s’mores cookies! They’re easy to eat and handle.”
As you might guess, given Five’s location, Tonnelier’s football fare is more focused on the East Bay. During the UC Berkeley football season, he does pregame lunches at Five — guac-topped Cal BEARito, anyone? And this fall, he’s rolling out Raiders game-day specials, using patrons’ suggestions as inspiration, with twists such as a Raiders on the Storm cocktail that combines Ménage à Trois Mandarin, orange bitters and black sambuca as a nod to the Raiders’ colors.
“Growing up in Paris, we were big fans of soccer,” he says. “Here in the states, I’ll try to catch a few football games on my rare days off. I have a very short attention span, so most of the time I’m flipping channels back and forth, trying to watch all the games at the same time.”
Tonnelier is an unabashed fan of creative tailgate fare.
“I like having a simple yet gourmet plan when it comes to tailgating or game-day recipes and dishes,” he says. “To some, it can be a little intimidating to take things up a notch, but gourmet doesn’t always mean complicated or time consuming. It can just be a matter of putting a twist on your favorite dish. Instead of your classic hot dogs and hamburgers, think chorizo hot dogs with chimichurri sauce, and corned beef and Swiss cheese sliders with Carolina coleslaw.”
Planning ahead is always smart, but for tailgate parties, it’s absolutely critical. “The less work you have to do when you get to the stadium, the better!” Tonnelier says. “Don’t forget to have enough for after the game as well. And if you’re barbecuing there, bring lots of extra foil to dump hot coals from your grill into, so that you don’t light the whole parking lot on fire.”
