Suite Relief: A look at our big day in the sun at the Subway Series

I’ve been busy all this week studying for a whole heap of Microsoft certified application specialist exams, so I haven’t gotten a chance to squawk about our great time at Saturday’s Subway Series game. Squawker Jon did a great blog entry on the subject, so let me try to match that.

Thanks to the good folks at Blimpie (with an assist from the YES Network), Jon and I got to sit in the Stadium’s Legends Suite seats, right by the third base line, and get all the amenties (unlimited food and soft drinks) included with the tix. So how was it? It was pretty darned awesome, and something we will never forget!

Here’s how the day began. When you go into the Stadium (via the Suite entrance by home plate), they give you a wristband to mark your access, and then you head to the restaurant. There are two floors; we ate at the top floor (you can see people eating through the glass if you’re on the main level.) It was a nice-looking place, with all sorts of great TVs showing the pre-game (my fave clip was that one of Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher showing kids how to vote in the All-Star Game!)

The food is buffet-style, with stations set in a big square. You go around to whatever you stations you want, and tell the server what you would like.

I didn’t eat for most of the day before, just to prepare myself for this lunch. And it was worth it – the food was so much better than the rest of the Stadium fare it’s not even funny. Even the soft drinks ruled – I drank San Pellegrino Limonatas with my lunch, and it was both fantastic. I knew it would be the best food I would likely ever get at the Stadium, so I was determined to enjoy it all! Here were some of the standouts:

* Prime rib
* Shrimp tempura sushi roll (it also had tuna in it)
* Rao’s seafood salad (with crabmeat, lobster, and shrimp)
* Rao’s meatballs and penne
* Haricots verts with crabmeat

I was really excited to meet Frank Pellegrino of Rao’s. As we’re most likely never going to get into that place, it was awesome to get a taste of it!Make that two tastes – I went for seconds!

I skipped the whole omelet stuff, as I don’t eat eggs, and I skipped eating the type of food I would be able to get in the ballpark any other time, like the pretzels. Did get pigs in the blanket, though. Tasty! They should offer that in the stadium.

As if that weren’t enough, there’s a dessert station set up, with not only ice cream, but all sorts of cool candy treats – gummi bears, sour candies, truffles, and the like. You can get the candy in one of those plastic Yankee helmets. Very cool!

Oh, and the bathrooms are pretty plush – best part are the plasma screen TVs embedded in the bathroom mirrors! I wanted to take a picture, but thought better of it. Suffice it to say that the TVs look pretty cool!

Jon and I finally pushed ourselves away from the food table at around 12:55 p.m., only to see that there were even more food items/selections at the restaurant downstairs, including pasta by Fresco by Scotto. We didn’t grab anything then, but I went back there later to bring some crawfish and jumbo shrimp (an oxymoron, I know!) back to our seats.

Just before you leave the downstairs restaurant to head to your seats, there is a whole wall of treats, with everything from potato chips to Three Musketeers to Skittles to all sorts of candy available for the taking. And yes, you can take as many as you’d like!

When we got to our seats in front of the moat, we saw that there are big coolers containing soft drinks for the taking – with diet Pepsis, Sierra Mists, San Pellegrinos, and the like. There’s also a DKNY Lounge, with private restrooms and stadium-type food and snacks. And you can get free food delivered to your seat as well, although Jon and I were too full to partake in it.

So how was the view at our seats? They were so good that our section was next to the photographers’ pit! We would have been close enough to shout to A-Rod – if he had not started the day at DH, that is. Jon snickered over Kevin Russo starting at third over Alex!

I got a little teary-eyed at first when we got to our seats, just taking it all in. The day seemed like a dream – and it still does! It was one of the most amazing experiences in my life, from the food to the view to watching the Yankees beat up on the Mets!

Now, I don’t know if you can say that seats with a face value of $225 each are a bargain. But considering everything that came with the seats – the great view, the unlimited food and soft drinks, the snacks, the great service, the waiter service at your seats – it’s the closest I’ve ever come in my life to feeling like an VIP. If you ever get the chance to buy such tickets, I would definitely say to do it. It was a simply wonderful experience!