St. Louis’ signature dish is toasted ravioli, but a more prosaic offering is ubiquitous at Busch Stadium, and the Cardinals claim to hawk more of it than any other MLB team: nachos. Specifically, nachos and meat. “We’re baseball heaven,” Busch Stadium executive sous chef Norman Taylor tells ESPN The Magazine. “And that’s before the game even starts.”
El Birdos Nachos | Busch Stadium | Cost: $13 (without protein) | Calories: 1,324 (serves 2)
ESPN: This isn’t bird food. You don’t lay off the high cheese — or any other ingredients.
Taylor: We go through 50 12-pound cases of chips a game. We smoke our barbecue in-house and finished off 900 70-pound cases of pork butt last year.
ESPN: So 20 different stations sell nachos?
Taylor: You can’t walk 50 feet without passing one. We’ve got beef, pulled pork, diced chicken tacos — plus condiment bars with six toppings and two types of pepper sauce. Our nachos come in a home-plate box — and take both hands to carry.
* Watch the Cards battle the Braves on May 26 (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2).