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Super Bowl Provides Super Selection Of Food And Drink

Tribune photo by JEFF HOUCK

Food Network star Guy Fieri obliges fans as he walks toward the bar in the west club area.

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By JEFF HOUCK | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 1, 2009

Updated: 02/01/2009 08:45 pm

General David Petraeus flips the coin.

It is heads.

Though the Cardinals won, they elect to allow Pittsburgh to receive. And with that, Super Bowl XLIII is set to kick off. But beside all the action on the field, there's plenty to take in at Raymond James Stadium. There's plenty of culinary delights to enjoy all over the stadium.

Just inside Gate A next to the escalator to the second level, vendor George Varnai was standing in front of a rolling cooler filled with ice, beer caps and no beers. Forty minutes before the game, he was out of brewskis.

The Atlanta resident sold all 19 cases of beer allocated to him. One of his pockets was full with a 3-inch wad of cash from selling the $10 bottles.

This was the eighth Super Bowl for Varnai. Number of Super Bowls he's watched in person: zero. Beer vendors don't get a seat at the big game.

Stocking the Cardinals' bench with "Endurance Formula" Gatorade G before the game was Jeremy Yoder, a Buccaneers employee whose brother, Todd, played for the Bucs several years ago.

Which flavor do players like best, the lemon-lime or the fruit punch?

"Both," he said. "Seriously, you pick one. It'll be right."

Oh, and elsewhere, you could get $25 bento boxes of Cyros Sushi rolls and nigiri. Washing it down with a glass of Gekkeikan sake – the kind the emperor of Japan supposedly drinks – put a $12 dent in the wallet.

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