Good Eats: Street Vendors Around Slugger Field and Downtown Louisville

Most of the time when downtown Louisville is full of baseball fans headed to Slugger Field you will see a couple of pushcarts selling hot dogs, soft drinks and popcorn. With bright helium filled balloons waving in the wind and a radio blasting the pre-game show the vendors are busily slapping hot dog to bun from the carts stationed strategically around the ball park. Slugger Field has a full service eatery and more than a few food court vendors to choose from so what is the attraction that keeps the outside vendors busy all game long?

The food, while excellent, is really no different than what is inside the ball park. Jumbo sized hot dogs, cans of soda and salty popcorn dominate the food cart menus but there are a few alterations to the basic food cart menu that make them worth the stop. The food from a vendor cart tastes great and even better with a crowd. Eating from a vendor's pushcart is a much more social experience. The vendor is the owner, salesperson, chef, waiter and cashier rolled up into one. A customer is almost always treated to something much more than a hot dog on a bun with more than likely a comment or two about the upcoming game tossed in as a garnish. The customers generally come in groups and even the lone patron cannot help getting some social time while waiting for a chili dog.

Baseball parks tend to be a special place for most patrons. Somewhere they can drop the pretense of their day jobs and be a child again. Baseball, Hot Dogs and Apple Pie still ring true every spring through early fall across the country. In Louisville around Slugger Field every year you see one of the last great culinary traditions practiced every game day. These vendors push their carts from around the court complex and downtown office buildings the half mile to the ball park. Restocked with hot dogs, chili, hot cheese, onions and relish they transform the street outside the park into a carnival atmosphere when they appear. Stand back and watch the children drag parents, sometimes grudgingly, to the carts full of everything that baseball games mean to them. Then watch the parents begin the transition from soccer dad into a giant kid once that hot dog wrapper enters their hands.

Pushcart vendors are as much a part of the game as strikes, outs and home runs. There really is not a best since most of the product is from the same supplier, It is the magic of the ball park that makes them special.