John Bednarowski: New sports editor-approved flavors coming to Truist Park

Mar. 28—As sports editor of the Marietta Daily Journal, there are a few times a year when the job has its tasty perks.

The beginning of baseball season at The Battery Atlanta is one of those times, and in preparation for opening day, the Braves held media day Tuesday to allow members of the media to see what is new coming to Truist Park for the 2023 season. They wanted us to tell our readers about the new uniforms, merchandise, promotional items, ballpark upgrades and what's new around the stadium.

The other thing the Braves featured was the new food choices, and as someone pushing 270 pounds — and not by accident — let's just say that caught my attention Tuesday.

Under the direction of new executive chef Louis Martorano, Delaware North, the company that handles the Braves' ballpark concessions, is bringing new dining options for the fans.

Martorano said he wanted to bring the taste of Braves Country — different areas within the Southeast — to the ballpark. If someone from the Carolinas or Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama or Tennessee were to make the drive in to see a game, Martorano said he wants there to be a food option to remind them of home.

With an increasing Latino population in the region and on the team, Martorano said he created additional items for them as well.

These new items will be made to order at various concession stands so they will be as fresh as possible. They are also designed to be prepared quickly. Speed will be of the essence with the new pitch clock rules that have shortened games by 20 to 30 minutes on average during spring training.

"It's a good playing field of taste profiles," Martorano said.

In fairness, if I would have tried everything available, I wouldn't have fit through the gate on the way out. But I did try four of the new high-profile items. Hopefully, this review might help as you make your culinary choices at the park this spring and summer. In the order consumed, here they are:

1) The Submarine Sandwich — House-smoked turkey carved in front of the fan, topped with Red Dragon cheddar cheese sauce, applewood bacon, fried green tomatoes, butter lettuce and avocado crema.

Let's just say Subway, Jimmy John's and Jersey Mike's has nothing on this.

The turkey-bacon combo is a favorites of mine, and the bacon flavor really comes through. It is served on tasty, crusty bread that holds up throughout the eating experience. It can be purchased two ways — a single portion for $13.99 or a full 3-foot sub that is supposed to feed eight.

Truly, if you are a big guy like me and my friends, there's four good chunks in there. Cost for the full sub is $79.99 and either option can be found at The Carvery near Section 112.

Fat sports editor rating: 4.5 doughnuts on a five-doughnut scale.

2) The Triple Play — This is comfort food to the next level.

It is a play on the Caribbean staple of papas rellenas — a creamy potato-filled ball with chicken and then fried golden brown. I wasn't sure of the spices in the batter, but it added a little kick on the back end. It's simple, it's filling and it's good.

The price is $20, but it looked as if the serving size was three baseball-sized orbs. It will be available at the Section 313 and Section 343 markets.

"I don't care what country you're from. You're going to want to eat it," Martorano said.

Rating: 4 doughnuts. I'm not a chef, but I am married to one. I think it could have used a little jalapeño mixed in, but that's just me.

3) The 'Douille Dog — It's an Andouille sausage topped with chili, onions and cheddar cheese. I could feel my arteries hardening with every bite.

The snap of the sausage casing was what really got me. There is just something about that snap that separates good sausages from average.

This heart attack waiting to happen is $9.99 and worth every cent. It's available at the Section 313 market.

Rating: 4.5 doughnuts. Spicy mustard would have put it over the top.

4) The Closer — An all-beef hot dog wrapped in mozzarella-whipped mashed potatoes and fried golden brown. It is served with a spicy mayo drizzled on top.

It is a good outside crunch that leads into a nice, creamy texture inside. Much like the 'Doulille Dog, this frank has a good snap in the casing.

This is a good-sized hot dog and comes priced at $10.99. It can be found at the Section 343 market.

For Hannah Basinger, the Braves' senior vice president of operations, it is a new guilty pleasure.

"It's the hot dog I didn't know I needed," she said.

Rating: 4 doughnuts. For me, I liked the 'Douille Dog a little better.

There were two other featured items that I did not try.

The Cleanup Burger — Four grilled all-beef patties topped with hash browns, hickory smoked bacon, cheese and a sunny-side-up fried egg. It is served on a buttermilk Belgian waffle with maple syrup. The burger, priced at $26, looked good, but I'm not a fan of fried eggs, so I took a pass.

It was said it will serve anywhere from one to four people. I'd say it's good for two.

Finally, there was the Georgia BLT, a sandwich of bologna, butter lettuce, tomato, pimento cheese and garlic mayo on a brioche bun. It's another item that looked good, but pimento cheese is not on my go-to list. Also, since when is bologna substituted for bacon?

The BLT will be found at the 1871 Grille near section 141.

If you haven't noticed, none of those items are low calories or low fat, so I will be ordering them with a Diet Coke to help balance things out.

However, as the season goes on, Ryan Crocker, the team's director of food and beverage, said there will be additional items which are grilled, vegetarian or vegan added to the menu. Those items are now going through testing and should be ready to go by the All-Star break.

A couple final things on food: the "fan-friendly pricing" for traditional items is back with many items coming in at less than $5, including regular hot dogs, nachos, etc. However, fans are likely to see marginal price increases on other items because of inflation.

Furthermore, with the games seemingly destined to become shorter, Basinger said the organization anticipated issues that could crop up with getting fans in and out of concession areas and back to their seats. All the traditional concession areas have a new point-of-sale system that should help the flow of getting in and out.

In addition, there will be five new self-checkout concession locations. One on the lower level at Section 137 will be similar to the quick stop markets in place last year. The other four — in Sections 315, 335, 313 and 343 — will also offer hot food.

There will also be one new store called the Walk off Market. It will be powered by Amazon technology and is near Section 130.

Fans enter the market area either by scanning their palm, if they have it connected through their Amazon account, or by scanning a credit card. Once approved, the patrons become a blurb on radar, which tracks their movements and adds up the items they pick up. Once done shopping, they just return to their seat. There is no stopping anywhere for checkouts.

John Bednarowski is the sports editor of the Marietta Daily Journal and the former president of Associated Press Sports Editors. He can be reached at sportseditor@mdjonline.com or on Twitter @cobbfballfri or @jbednarowski.