SubscribeNationals’ kosher policy hard to stomach?
The old baseball Senators had a long-standing tradition. “Washington,” the wise guy sports pundits would say, “first in war, first in peace, last in the American League.”
Seems the NL Nationals — formerly known as the Montreal Expos — are working hard to keep that reputation alive.
Add to their dismal record – currently the worst in the Majors at 15-40 — their policy (or lack thereof) regarding kosher food at their ballpark.
It seems the team has severed its relationship with Kosher Sports, an outfit that provides food to several professional sports venues. The Nationals’ front office claimed they closed the kisok because of “poor performance,” although it seems no one can figure out exactly what that means. To make matters more confused, the proprietor claimed his booth was “tampered with,” potentially making the food unsuable.
This story from Washington Jewish Week indicates a lot of buck-passing, most of it coming from the Jewish owners/partners. If by poor performance they mean lousy sales, why is that surprising? Are there that many kashrut-observing Jews that attend Nationals games as to make such an enterprise viable? Supply and demand, my friends.
But was it necessary for blogger Dan STEINBERG from the Washington Post to write
…And the dude also claimed one of his kosher concession carts was tampered with, leaving open the possibility of non-kosher infiltration and contamination. Cue the Zapruder footage of Screech smearing bacon-wrapped-shrimp all over the inside of that puppy.
* The resolution is that the team is promising a new vendor with “a great kosher product” by mid-June, which will at least end the intolerable indignity of being forced to watch a last-place team absent the comfort of a kosher hot dog. Now if they could only get some real pickles, decent bagels and a few cases of Cel-Ray in the joint, they could stop playing baseball all together.
Or is all of this just silly?
The kosher stand was right behind my seats at National Park. Their entire menu consisted of kosher hot dogs, sauerkraut, beef knishes, soft drinks (not Dr. Browns), and Budweiser (presumably kosher). They were almost always out of sauerkraut and a number of times out of knishes. Several times I noticed the concession was not open. Although I can’t say for sure, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Nats got rid of them for things like that. It didn’t seem like the concession owners really took it too seriously. Considering the team is owned and operated by Jews, you would have thought the concession owners would have been more diligent.
So are you saying you won’t miss them, Marc? So will you no longer buy food there or will you patronize the other food options. Do the Nats allow fans to bring in their own food?