CITYPARK, St. Louis CITY SC’s new stadium, is setting a new standard for MLS stadiums by being the first to have a totally local selection of food vendors. Matt Sebak, Chief Experience Officer of St. Louis CITY SC, and Emir Nalic, co-owner of Balkan Treat Box, joined KMOX in studio to talk about why local vendors matter.
“We're really proud about it. We're backed by just an incredible ownership group that is committed to St. Louis, and really views our time and place here is to show off all the great things going on in St. Louis,” Sebak said. “And that's the beautiful architecture of our stadium downtown here. That is the music experience. But food is really something that is international, it's communal, you can touch it, you can smell it. So it really comes as such a tenant of the game day experience.”
Balkan Treat Box is one of the first of the vendors the team announced. The restaurant started off as a food truck, offering cuisine from the Balkan region of Europe, then the owners opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant in 2019.
“Once we heard you know that we had the opportunity to be in a stadium, I mean, soccer is for us something that's number one in Europe, but in Bosnia especially,” Nalic said. “So we're crazy about that. So it was a no-brainer that we wanted to be in there and be part of this historic moment.”
At Balkan Treat Box, Nalic and his co-owners source all local ingredients. He said they want to give back to St. Louis because it gave so much to them. One stadium-exclusive offering will be the tantuni kebab.
“Imagine a flattop, thinly sliced beef on it and you know the juices are just like, oozing out and it's steaming and then you take that nice wrap and put it on and it's soaking up all the juices and the flavor,” Nalic said. “And then you roll it all up with some vegetables.”
Hear more about St. Louis CITY SC’s offerings, and what you can get from Balkan Treat Box at CITYPARK:
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