COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The Crew will begin its season Saturday night at home against the Chicago Fire and fans will have a variety of new food options to try at Lower.com Field this season.

With plenty of international talent that has represented the Crew over the years, it’s only fitting that the food options this year reflect diverse flavors from around the world. And this year, the Crew has elevated some classic concession options to a whole new level.

“We want them to experience the same joy taking that first bite that they’re experiencing out on the field,” executive chef John DiGiovanni said. “We want to make sure that we’re elevating that experience for them.”

From dill pickle tater tots to a vegetarian take on the B.L.T. (where the bacon is replaced with crispy eggplant), the Crew is set to unveil a menu that’s been months in the making.

“The creative process is all year long throughout the season. We heavily encourage and involve our crew to put together different ideas,” DiGiovanni said. “We’ll try those out for staff meals and the like and those items will ultimately get refined a little further and turn into the dishes that we have out here today.”

Asian flavors found their way into the menu in the form of a pork dumpling salad and the pho brisket sandwich.

“It has some pickled onions on rye bread with a Pho dipping sauce,” DiGiovanni said. “We didn’t want to do a regular French dip. We wanted a kind of unique international flavors can we make that’s going to make it unique and our own.”

A more filling option, for the price of admission into one of the club lounges, is the brisket bowl mac and cheese, taking classic Southern food up a notch with a variety of flavors packed into one bowl.

“So that has the smoked gouda and cheddar mac. Burnt ends. Bourbon BBQ drizzle, the pickled red onions and fried jalapenos,” DiGiovanni said. “That’s probably the go-to that I’m going to be going to at the end of the night.”

The award for most creative and satisfying dish may very well go to the strawberry cream nacho.

“We’ve done a lot of different nachos as far as pulled meats and stuff like that,” DiGiovanni said. “We wanted to come up with a dessert option. Everybody loves Strawberries and cream so that’s how this came about.”

Other offerings include Dirty Frank’s Chicago Dog and Schmidts’ Crew Cream Puffs. And for the first time, Swenson’s will have a stand set up by Nordecke, selling their classic Galley Boy double cheeseburger and potato teezers.

It’s no easy feat to come up with new concepts every year that thousands of fans will enjoy over the course of a season.

“Not only do we have to think of the details. It’s one thing to make it at home right? For maybe six or seven people. But when you’re having to make it for 20 thousand people, there are certain things that you may want to consider on that,” DiGiovanni said. “We try to make everybody happy and I think as far as the selections, I think we’re going to do a really good job with that.”

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