The Five Best Meals I Had At The Mets 'What's New For 2019' Event

by Nick Giacone March 22, 2019

Everyone who attends the ‘The New For 2019 At Citi Field’ event goes for one reason: To hear about the new corporate partnerships. Just kidding! It’s to stuff their face with whatever the Citi Field chefs have decided to deep fry this year. Yes, the pièce de résistance of the event is sampling all of the ballpark’s culinary delights. On Thursday, I had the pleasure of partaking in this gluttonous buffet for the second year in a row and it was just as glorious as last year.

This year’s menu proved mouthwatering and delicious, but as always, some items stood out amongst the lot. Below are the five best things I ate at this year’s event:

#5 - Margherita & Pepperoni Cupcakes by Pizza Cupcake

The Pizza Cupcake was the equivalent to eating a nice pocket of love. The hearty pizza ingredients rolled up into a conveniently-sized cupcake yields an unexpected marriage of baking and italian comfort food. These will be the go-to meal during the 7th inning, perfectly paired with Lou Monte’s Lazy Mary playing in the background.

#4 - CBR by Fuku

David Chang’s Fuku has become a culinary behemoth at Citi Field, and its latest offering continues the greatness. The CBR sandwich packs Fuku’s patented spicy chicken on a sandwich and adds crispy bacon and a succulent ranch sauce. It’s a simple, yet titillating offering from Fuku, who’ve got the crispy chicken game at Citi on lock.

#3 - Meatball Hero by Nicoletta

Who doesn’t love a meatball sub? Nicoletta drops literal bombs into this sandwich, putting their homemade meatballs on a sesame roll and adding their classic marinara sauce, stringy mozzarella cheese, and a parmesan gremolata. I bet I could put down three or four of these in one sitting. Anyone wanna throw down?

#2 - Colony Squared Pizza by Emmy Squared

Emmy Squared offered two different pizza options on the day, but their best slice was the Colony Squared. It features a square, focaccia-like crust with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperonis, jalapeño peppers, and honey. It’s the perfect slice of pizza that Citi Field needs and Mets fans deserve. I wake up every morning and thank God for a number of things. Added to that list is the fact that this pizza will be available at Citi this year.

#1 - Le Big Matt Burger by Emmy Squared

Simply Divine. The combination of flavors in this burger enchanted my taste buds like nothing else has ever done. Le Big Matt takes a double stack of Pat LaFrieda beef patties and adds american cheese, Sammy sauce, some leafy greens, and pickles - all on a pretzel bun. Before I left the event, I put a $500 deposit down with Emmy Squared in anticipation of how many of these I’ll put down this year. Bold statement time: This is the best burger I’ve ever had.

Honorable Mention: Arancini Bros. and Marty’s V Burger "Beyond Meat" Options

If you’re unfamiliar with Beyond Meat, they offer plant-based burgers, sausages and other meatless substitutes that fit vegan and vegetarian diets. They collaborated with two of Citi’s eateries this year. First, they linked up with Arancini Bros. to make a “meatless” sausage and pepper rice ball. Had Darren not tipped me off before I ate it, I wouldn’t have noticed the sausage was not actually meat.

Beyond Meat also partnered with Marty’s V Burger to create the Shroom Steakhouse Burger, a plant-based burger with melted vegan “cheese” and steak sauce. Once again, it tasted and felt like the real thing. Both options were not only delicious, but a nod to the progress of ballpark food. I’ll be having plenty of both this season.