You Can Now Order Dodger Stadium Food Directly to Your Couch. We Tried It.

Ben Bergman

Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior finance reporter. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks.

You Can Now Order Dodger Stadium Food Directly to Your Couch. We Tried It.

Have you always dreamed of scarfing down a Dodger Dog while sitting in your pajamas on your couch? You're in luck. The Los Angeles Dodgers have teamed with Postmates and Home Team Kitchens to deliver stadium grub to your doorstep.

There are certain rules in life. You consume a giant tub of popcorn and a large soda when you go to the movies, a bowl of chili when you're skiing, and a hot dog and all manner of other sodium rich foods in order to distract you from the dullness of a four-hour baseball game. But this is 2020, where any normal rules have long since gone out of the window and people are craving for any way to have a taste of pre-pandemic days – as long as it can be done from the safety of their home.

Using Postmates or its competitors, one is free to choose from a vast selection of food - sushi from Sugarfish, chicken burgers from Howlin' Ray's, tacos from Guisados. So I was curious to know why anyone would want to order items they normally get only because they are confined to the stadium with nowhere else to go.

"It's comfort food and the kind of thing we need these days," said Mike Jacobs, founder and CEO of Home Team Kitchens.

Interestingly, the Dodgers starting working on a plan to deliver food in February, before the coronavirus starting causing havoc in the U.S.

"The coronavirus accelerated what we thought was a cool brand extension for us," said Tucker Kain, president of Dodgers Business Enterprise, who sees delivery as a good way to keep front of mind for fans. "We want to build a bridge with fans in a meaningful way given that the live experience isn't available."

The Dodgers and Home Team Kitchens think people will want stadium food even when they are not watching a game. "It's great food to have if you're watching Netflix or if you're at work and you want a big serving of nachos," Jacobs said.

The program quietly soft-launched on opening day and started marketing this week when the Dodgers travelled to Houston. Food is prepared out of a single ghost kitchen in Hollywood, but there are plans to expand it to 25 locations throughout Los Angeles so deliveries can be faster and fresher. Jacobs also wants to partner with sports bars to open several dine-in options.

"Demand has been greater than my projections," said Jacobs. "It's double what I was expecting. We're hiring new staff and expediting getting more locations. It's a lot of Dodger Dogs." (Dodger Dogs have also been available in select ampm locations since 2016.)

What It's Like Ordering a Dodger Dog at Home

Yesterday, as the Dodgers were preparing for their final game against the dreaded Astros, I opened up Postmates and ordered $30 of food (which came to $50 after taxes, fees, and tip.) Here's how it went.

No standing in line or worrying about missing an at-bat. First pitch was scheduled for a little after 4 p.m. I placed my order at 3:16 p.m. Postmates said my food would arrive no later than 4:20 p.m. to my apartment in downtown L.A. That turned out to be slightly optimistic, as I didn't get a text until 4:24pm notifying me that my order had arrived.

Jacobs sighed when I told him how long it took for me to get my order.

"We're hoping for 30 minutes, but it takes some time to get that right," he said, adding that with more locations the wait times will come down and the food should be hotter.


Super Dodger Dog

They don't call it a cold dog and unfortunately the dog was not even lukewarm. Maybe I should have stuck it in the microwave? I missed the warm foil wrapped version from the ballpark but once I doused it in the ketchup and onions provided, it wasn't bad.

Carne Asada Helmet Nachos

At $15.95, this was my splurge of the night, but I could not resist eating out of a batting helmet and the portion size could probably feed a whole family. The tortilla chips were soft but fortunately not soggy, covered in cheese and generous chunks of asada. But again, the dish was cold so instead of getting the hot cheese you get at the stadium, it had coagulated into globs.

Brooklyn Dodgers Blue Gelato

I was excited to order this because it was advertised as coming in a mini Brooklyn Dodgers helmet but instead mine came in a much less exciting white plastic cup. At least this was the correct temperature though. Proving it's easier to keep cold things cold than hot things hot, the gelato was surprisingly cool and creamy. I took a few small bites and then stuck it in the freezer — one thing you can't do at the ballpark.

The game

Couldn't tell you. I don't get Spectrum SportsNet so I was planning to watch on ESPN, but the game was blacked out there. (I later read the Dodgers won 4-2 in a 13 inning thriller.)

Overall

Eating a cold Dodger Dog at home is an experience everyone should try at least once, but probably no more than that. Delivering warmer food would definitely help, but we are lucky enough to have a lot of great restaurants to choose from in L.A., so the next time I spend $50 on stadium food will be at the stadium.

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Cadence

Here’s How LA’s Tech Scene Is Reacting to the SVB Collapse

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Here’s How LA’s Tech Scene Is Reacting to the SVB Collapse

The collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has left many in sheer panic, including the tech industry, which relies on the bank’s financing.

Since the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) has taken control of the bank’s deposits, nearly half of those U.S. venture-backed tech companies pulled deposits out of the bank.

The uncertainty of the situation left the majority of people with unanswered questions, so they took their concerns and thoughts to Twitter.

Here's how SoCal is reacting to the news:
















The SoCal Companies Affected By the Fall of Silicon Valley Bank

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College and previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

The SoCal Companies Affected By the Fall of Silicon Valley Bank
An event held by SVB Private, an arm of Silicon Valley Bank, in March. (Cameron Rice)

The shockwaves fromSilicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) unexpected shutdown are rattling the tech industry writ large. In Southern California, SVB invested in several local tech companies through its SVB Capital venture arm.

Though the bank’s VC arm won’t be able to conduct future investments, founders that do have money tied up with the company in the form of debt will have to pay back the eventual new owner of SVB, and potentially would be opening themselves up to new loan terms.

With this in mind, let’s look at the Southern California tech firms that still have money tied up with SVB, and how that might affect their operations as the floundering bank searches for a bailout.

Suiteness

Walnut-based Suitness makes an app for people to book adjoining hotel rooms or suites. It took debt financing from SVB and paid it off last year, founder Kyle Killion said.

But, Killion said he almost wished they had been a bit less financially responsible: “We could have gotten an even better deal if we had waited” to pay off the SVB debt, he told me. “If we had waited the debt would be sold off to another bank at a discount and we would need to pay them [and] that new bank’s cost-basis would be lower because of the discount.”

In addition to SVB, Suiteness has also taken funding from Y Combinator and counts OpenAI founder Sam Altman as a board member and investor. Killion said that despite the current turmoil, his company had a good experience lending from the embattled bank. “We did get a very generous deal from SVB,” he said.

Pathmatics

Pathmatics is now part of app data firm SensorTower, but before itsMay 2021 buyout, the Santa Monica-based mobile ad analytics company raised debt funding from SVB. Gabe Gottlieb founded Pathmatics and served as its CEO for nearly 11 years before the buyout, and he is now Sensor Tower’s chief strategy officer.

Gottlieb said Pathmatics found SVB after its series A round. He said Pathmatics paid off its SVB debt before the acquisition and noted if it weren’t for the closing, he’d bank with SVB again. “I feel like we got a pretty good deal,” Gottlieb told me, adding it was a “low interest rate in absolute terms for a startup that was still very much in the growth phase.”

The founder also added, “I always felt like they had top-notch people working there [and] I’m really sad to see what has happened to them as they were an important part of literally generations of startups’ success.

EcoSense

In the last several years EcoSense has bought out a number of rival LED makers, including Lumium Lighting in January 2019 andSoraa in March 2020. The LED luminaire company raised a debt financing round from SVB in late June 2020, according to PitchBook Data. EcoSense launched in 2009 and is now owned by Korrus, a lighting company based in Chinatown.

Fulcrum Microsystems

A semiconductor company based in Calabasas, Fulcrum Microsystems raisednearly $17 million from investors including SVB Capital back in March 2007. The company was lateracquired by chip-maker Intel in July 2011 for an undisclosed sum. Fulcrum’s tech mainly powers Ethernet switches for data centers, and Intel’s buy gave it a valuable direct supplier to power its data centers across the globe.

HealthTap

Per Pitchbook, Sunnyvale-based virtual doctor appointment app HealthTap raised debt financing from SVB in April 2020. SVB was biotech-focused and rana healthtech investment banking division alongside providing debt rounds to healthtech companies in California.

Last November, HealthTaplinked with Samsung to bring its Eval360 tech – which lets doctors conduct virtual medical exams – to develop software that would allow people to get those virtual evaluations through their Samsung Smart TVs in the future.

Kandji

ThisSan Diego-based company builds a device management software for IT teams using Apple products. It raised $60 million from investors including SVB Capital in March 2021. Less than a year later, itraised another $100 million, also including SVB. In addition to SVB, Kandji is backed by VC firm Greycroft, which has an Arts District office, and Manhattan Beach-based B Capital. Kandji has raised nearly $90 million since its 2018 launch.

Shield AI

San Diego-basedShield AI is trying to build Hivemind, the world’s first artificial intelligence pilot to power autonomous planes. SVB backed the company in December 2022, joining Shield AI’s$225 million Series E round. SVB also invested in its $22 million Series B round in April 2019. Shield AI has raised $575 million since it launched in 2015, and is also backed by Venice-based Riot Ventures.Boeing recently partnered with Shield AI to research unmanned flight technologies for the U.S. Air Force.

Disclosure: SVB has been a sponsor of dot.LA events and recently had an article published on the site as part of a paid partnership agreement.

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