Super Bowl is a food economy game changer: Andrew Coppolino
Cultural and sports behemoth is also a food giant, even in Waterloo region
The Super Bowl is an enormous entertainment juggernaut, but it's also a food giant and a significant driver of restaurant business.
According to Forbes magazine, the U.S. Department of Agriculture states that after Thanksgiving, Super Bowl LI will be the largest food consumption day in America. The big game – including the immensely popular television commercials and the much-hyped half-time show – has a similar impact in Canada.
The numbers
Statistics cited by Forbes also reveal that on Super Bowl Sunday:
- Over one billion chicken wings will be consumed.
- 12 million pizzas will be eaten.
- Guacamole will be made from 190 million pounds of avocadoes shipped from Mexico.
- It will all be washed down with 350 million gallons of beer.
In terms of human resources and jobs, Forbes says that in mid-January, Pizza Hut hired 11,000 additional employees, and companies delivering food can see their business increase by one-third over an ordinary Sunday. The magazine also notes that bar owners say that the Super Bowl, a day that is to restaurants what Christmas is to retailers, can account for nearly 75 per cent of food sales over the year.
While economists agree on the economic bolster of the global event, this crush of bar business in the U.S. is felt in Canada too, where business owners remark that the game – this year, it's New England Patriots versus Atlanta Falcons in Houston, Texas – has a huge impact on the economy.
Waterloo Region's food and drink industry will also see a boost. Jay Taylor of Morty's in Waterloo, a popular sports bar near Wilfrid Laurier University since 1981, says that the Super Bowl drives the pub's menu.
"It is our busiest Sunday of the year and our biggest take-out day by far," Taylor said. "We will literally sell a ton of chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday."
East versus South
In addition to the usual pub and football fare, Morty's is preparing "tribute foods" of the Super Bowl cities: New England clam chowder and chicken-fried steak with spicy "Hotlanta" wings with cayenne and white gravy. Dessert is traditional American apple pie.
"For the wings, we probably do two-thousand for take-out. We have to cook them in 15-minute increments," Taylor adds.
At Cambridge's Gator's Tail, a pub with a Cajun flavour, chef and co-owner Alanna Sisto looks for Super Bowl Sunday to drive super sales as well.
"We do about three times the sales during the Super Bowl over a regular Sunday. It's a lot of regulars and families. The bar was sold out a month ago and there's overflow that comes in. We're big New England fans here, so I'll make clam chowder," Sisto says.
Super Bowl 'tribute foods'
San Francisco-based food writer and editor Anna Monette Roberts also believes in comparisons between Thanksgiving and the big game, both in sports bars and at home.
"Instead of gathering around a dinner table with your family, you're gathering around a coffee table and television with your friends. The game is the centre-piece, but the drinks and food certainly play a very large role in the Super Bowl," she says.
There's little doubt that chili is one of the go-to foods for Super Bowl festivities at restaurants and bars; however, for home Super Bowl parties, Monette Roberts has created a wide variety of Super Bowl recipes that are found on Popsugar.com if you want to make them yourself at home.
"For Atlanta and Georgia," she says, "the two most popular dishes are a chili-cheese dog from a drive-in restaurant called The Varsity and the Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A fried chicken sandwich served with pickles. In Boston, foods could be a lobster roll, either hot or cold, dressed with some mayo and of course clam chowder. That latter is from Union Oyster House established in 1826. People can re-create these flavours no matter where they are."
In keeping with the general boom in interest in food over the last decade or so, Super Bowl food has become more deeply ingrained in American – and we can extrapolate Canadian – culture, says Monette Roberts.
"Back in the day, people used to just do simple crock-pot chili," she says, adding that heightened interest and information gained from the Internet have inspired home cooks.
"They're very interested in the foods from every city. Each year, people research ahead of time what the iconic dishes are from Super Bowl cities. They want to have a competition of the food and the beer."
Super Bowl grub around this region
In Kitchener's Eastwood Plaza, Strykerz Kitchen and Bar is cooking Super Bowl chili and is having a hot wings-eating contest with a very hot Reaper pepper sauce called "Instant Regret" (the Reaper pepper – registering two million Scoville heat units – is likely the world's hottest pepper).
Moose Winooski's, just off Sportsworld Drive in Kitchener, says Super Bowl Sunday is super busy. Part of their menu includes a football-shaped hamburger.
In northeast Waterloo, St. Louis Bar and Grill will be featuring nachos and all-you-can-eat chili dogs with the purchase of a $20 ticket, which also qualifies you for a chance to win the "Super Bowl Squares" game.
Get there early, because central Waterloo's Morty's Pub, like many sports bars, will be packed. The competition on the table will be between southern chicken-fried steak and New England clam chowder.
On Franklin Boulevard in Cambridge, Gator's Tail Sports Shack and Grill will have appetizer specials and is preparing chili with andouille sausage and Cajun spices.
Perhaps a little more quiet is the event at Guelph's Borealis Grille and Bar on Gordon Street, where they are nevertheless cooking up both beef and vegetarian chili was well as wings and nachos. There will also be prize draws and Super Bowl Squares.