For many fans, attending a sporting event isn’t just about the competition. Their experience is often a culmination of the stadium atmosphere and especially the food options that make it worthwhile.
The Phoenix Suns are leaning into that connection with food this season, offering brand-new menu items that blend everyday stadium culinary choices with the flavors and flair of the Southwest culture that the team and city represent.
Oak View Group head chef Otis Huemmer is no stranger to the relationship between food and the stadium experience. Before working with the Suns, he spent six years combining his passion for sports and food with the Arizona Cardinals.
“I played most every sport and, you know, I’m not going to miss my home team on football Sunday,” said Huemmer as he displayed the latest offerings during a recent taste test for media and guests at Mortgage Matchup Center.
The Suns’ new items are part of a growing trend in professional sports to showcase unique food items that generate not only conversation but all-important social media content.
The Seattle Mariners, for example, have sold the wildly popular toasted grasshoppers (chapulines) since 2017. Two years earlier, the Arizona Diamondbacks introduced the Churro Dog, a warm cinnamon-sugar churro placed inside a split Long John chocolate-glazed donut and topped with frozen yogurt, caramel or chocolate sauce and whipped cream.
Fans still talk about it.
Concessions are big business. In the NFL, teams typically generate about $1 million to $2 million in concession sales on game day, Mike Plutino, CEO and founder of stadium concessions consulting firm Food Service Matters, told Fox Business.
Huemmer said that food plays a huge part in the sporting event experience, and regardless of which team wins or loses, the experience can still be fun if fans are eating delicious fare.
“Food and beverage really makes the experience a lot more enjoyable,” Huemmer said. “And it can ease the pain of maybe a game that doesn’t go your way.”
The Phoenix Suns unveiled a line of new food including the “Beat the Buzzer” taco and margarita challenge and an elote brisket bowl with corn ribs, topped with flamin’ hot Cheetos, on Oct. 13, 2026 at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix.
(Riley Kelton/Cronkite News)
Beyond the court, Huemmer’s goal was to pay homage to Arizona’s culture through his new menu items, drawing inspiration from many Southwestern and Sonoran flavors.
“We are trying to lean into that — the Southwestern culture,” Huemmer said. “I think that’s important to us to keep our identity.”
Huemmer’s personal favorite new item is the birria crunch burrito, which includes braised meat, a consommé to dip it in and a crispy cheese shell on the outside of the tortilla. The cheese shell is what Huemmer says distinguishes it from other birria dishes.
“I really think it’s different and amazing,” Huemmer said. “The meat that’s braised and flavorful, and then the consommé, all those things tying together, make it something I want to have for lunch every day.”
An array of other new menu options complement the burrito, including the beat the buzzer flight, which is four different tacos and four different margaritas. Fans can also dig into the mesquite-smoked half chicken, Bavarian nacho bowl, elote brisket bowl, cowboy loaded fries and peach cobbler for dessert.
Culinary supervisor Celina Haro agreed that the intersection between stadium atmosphere and food is important, and that fans should feel and smell the flavor and energy when they walk through the doors.
“It’s all about the experience,” Haro said. “When you’re coming to sports games, the first thing that comes to my mind is, ‘I want a beer in one hand, and I want food in the other hand.’”
For Haro, the food doesn’t just need to be mouthwatering. It needs to be appealing to the eyes, too, and she believes that the Suns’ new menu items successfully blend both taste and presentation.
“Food is not just sustenance. Food is everything,” Haro said. “Food is flavor. Food is supposed to be delicious. It’s supposed to be appealing and gorgeous. We all eat with our eyes first.”
Executive sous chef Darrin Bizahalani likes to take inspiration from underground spots around the city to add even more Southwestern culture to the dishes.
“What I mainly do when I try something like this is I look around the Valley, and I go around to venues, street fairs and streetfood vendors and I see what they have and try to do a twist,” Bizahalani said.
Huemmer believes that elevating game-day menus is something every arena should adopt. He notes that when fans pay money for tickets and apparel, they expect a good quality game or piece of clothing. Therefore, they should have that same expectation with food.
“If we don’t push for menu innovation and to have unique experiences, it’s letting the fans down,” Huemmer said. “We want to make sure that we are putting in the effort and time to make their experience special.”
With the NBA All-Star Game slated for Feb. 21 in Phoenix, Huemmer is open to experimenting with new foods and new opportunities, as the Valley is expected to attract large crowds from around the country for the premier event.
“Caviar with chicken nuggets is a rough idea I had in mind for that time,” Huemmer said. “Just taking your normal stadium foods and putting an exotic twist on them, kind of like what this menu represents.”
Dining and Cooking