Friday night delights: A menu of regional gridiron classics

JOSHUA KANTARGE | UNSPLASH

Grilling hamburgers and hotdogs are a staple of high school football games, but some campuses go above and beyond the usual fare with unique menu offerings inside stadiums as well as food trucks.

Concessions are a staple of high school football.

It doesn’t matter if you eat before games or plan to afterward, the smell of burgers meandering through the stands can easily overcome a fan, even of the strongest will. 

As a reporter who covers high school football, mostly in Charlotte, but other counties, I have had the opportunity to sample a lot of different schools’ concession offerings, and a few media spreads as well. 

There are a few that stand out.

West Charlotte fried wings and fish

At West Charlotte High School, the Lions serve up piping hot fried chicken wings — with Louisiana hot sauce and ranch dressing. Also, fried fish served with white bread, hot sauce and tartar sauce. 

Not only is this unique for high school concessions, but the Lions also have food trucks as well. It’s becoming a bit more common, but the type of food truck at West Charlotte on game nights is all too good. Endless Soul Food and Catering, which parks in front of the stadium gates, serves their entire menu.

My personal favorite is the croaker plate, a whole piece of fried crispy fish on two pieces of white bread served with two sides. I’d say go for the mac and cheese and fried okra. Get a little hot sauce and you are good to go. Watch out for bones in the fish, but the taste is out of this world good. 

If you aren’t in the mood for fish, the food truck also fries up chicken wings. Again, served with hot sauce and ranch. Or, if you are really hungry, they even have the chicken and fish combo. It’s more than one person should consume, but they give you a bag anyway. What you don’t eat, box it and take it home. 

Myers Park pretzels in a bag

It sounds odd, I know. But, once at a Myers Park High game as halftime neared, I scanned the concession options: run of the mill chicken sandwiches, burgers, chips, nachos, etc. But, as I got my chicken sandwich and Diet Coke, I saw two big words: “SOFT PRETZELS.” 

I thought to myself, “Hmm, a soft pretzel would be a nice little pairing for my sandwich.” So, I asked the lady to add it to the order. Like when ordering a pretzel at a professional sports event, I am expecting it to come out on a plate or wrapped in wax paper with salt coming off the side. 

I was mistaken. 

The lady came back and asked, “salted or cinnamon sugar?” I had a bit of a sweet tooth that evening and so I went with the cinnamon sugar. 

To my surprise, I got a big soft pretzel wrapped in a pre-packaged plastic bag, for lack of a better term. On the front it read, “cinnamon sugar.” I thought briefly to myself, “I just paid $7 for this?” Once I got back to the press box, it was all worth it. It was warm to where the sugar formed a glaze on the entire pretzel. It was a very odd, yet good experience. 

Lincolnton media spread

I enjoy covering Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools, but you best believe you won’t be eating for free as a member of the media. I don’t expect it and I don’t think anyone should, but there are schools in surrounding counties that provide better food for media than the professional teams in Charlotte. 

A few years back I went to a Lincolnton-South Point game and brought a turkey sandwich to eat assuming wouldn’t be provided. Well, the stares I got when I brought out my sandwich was quite cold. It was as if the folks at Lincolnton were insulted. 

The public address announcer came up to me and said — and I’m paraphrasing — “Son, we have all that food in the back for media and press box workers. go get you a plate.”

Ha! One plate wouldn’t fit all the options that they had. Moving from left to right across the long table where the food was spread out there was chicken fingers and wings, seasoned fries, pulled pork, brisket, potatoes and cole slaw, and banana pudding.

I thought to myself, “If it wasn’t a hike up here, I’d write about Lincolnton every time they were at home.”

Cameron Williams has covered high school, college and professional sports at The Post since 2023. 

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