Loons’ food services dept aims to tickle taste buds

by Jason Wolverton

The following is part one of a two-part series highlighting the Loons’ food services department. Click here to read part two of the feature

Half asleep and still worn out from yesterday’s 16-hour work day, Mike Koski arrives at Dow Diamond around 8 a.m. and immediately fires up the office coffee pot. Part-joking, part-serious he mentions that the task is probably his most essential daily job responsibility as he settles into his chair to prep for another game day.

Such is life for the Great Lakes Loons catering supervisor. From here he will spend the majority of his morning confirming and taking orders and making certain that everything is ready in the 12 suites he helps oversee. In less than 10 hours VIPs from the likes of Dow Chemical and Northwood University will file in for their dinner. It’s Koski’s job to make sure that dinner is a good one.

But that’s never really an issue at Dow Diamond, where the food served at the stadium is as important to the Loons as the baseball played inside of it. And whether that food is a hot dog sold on the concourse or beef brisket served on the third level, the Loons’ food service staff aims to tickle fans’ taste buds each and every game.

Fans, food, and fun

While Koski punches orders into his computer, members of the kitchen staff begin to file into the kitchen facility below. Here, prep work begins on cold foods that will be served at the suite level such as sandwiches, fruit trays, and anything else that can be finished and shoved out of the way before the afternoon cooking rush begins. One look around and you’d think you were in the middle of a commercial restaurant instead of the belly of a Minor League Baseball stadium.

In the middle of the mix is supervisor Shelly Powell, who keeps watch over everything in the kitchen. On this day Powell talks shop as she prepares a giant bowl of macaroni and cheese, a menu item bordering on mythical in the eyes of those who have tasted it.

“Our mac ’n cheese is the thing that everyone really loves,” Powell says. “Everyone thinks it’s just mac’n cheese, but when you get good mac’n cheese you know it.”

That sort of “better than the norm” thinking seems to form the foundation for the Loons’ food services. Back in his office, Koski recalls a comment he received from a suite holder last year who said that Dow Diamond serves the best high class, low class food out there. The staff probably wouldn’t phrase it quite that way, but they agree with the concept. They say their goal is to not just serve the same old hot dog or the same old beer, instead trying to put their own twist on the ballpark staples while creating a few new ones of their own. That’s why here you’re as likely to find grilled steak and a $120 bottle of merlot as you are a hotdog and a beer.

That philosophy is the product of a company called Professional Sports Catering (PSC). Most casual fans don’t realize it, but members of the Loons’ food service staff aren’t actually Great Lakes Loons’ employees, per se. Instead they work for Chicago-based PSC which is contracted to do all food and beverage services at Dow Diamond. PSC focuses exclusively on servicing Minor League Baseball franchises and was asked to consult on food services when Bill Stavropoulos was first getting the organization off the ground. Stavropoulos visited the facilities of two teams which PSC owns – the Lansing Lugnuts and the Montgomery Biscuits – and was so impressed with what he saw that the organization asked PSC to run its food business, too.

Tom Dickson is one of the faces behind PSC, serving as managing partner of the now three-year-old company. He says he’s happy most people are unaware that food services are provided by an outside company, as they aim to blend in with their surroundings and make the work they do about the Loons and not about PSC.

“We strive to be invisible,” Dickson says. “We want people to have the perception that everything provided there is coming from the Loons. We are just providing a service for them and that is the way we set that up.”

They also set it up so that the food they serve is part of the Minor League Baseball experience and not just an afterthought in the minds of those fans in attendance.

“It’s an entertainment vehicle for families,” Dickson says. “We try to price our product in such a way that the average family can afford it. Even for people who aren’t baseball fans it’s just fun. That’s really what our company is built around.”

A great partnership

Paul Barbeau couldn’t agree more with Dickson. Those who have spoken to the Loons’ general manager know that having fun and being personable are probably 1a and 1b on his list of what he looks for in Loons’ employees. Naturally, then, that’s what the organization sought when it shopped for a food services provider and that’s what it found in PSC.

“They have delivered and exceeded our expectations,” Barbeau says. “The people they have here are fantastic, the food quality and variety is tremendous. They’ve been great partners.”

Much of that partnership has been shaped by Nick Kavalauskas, who completes the bond between PSC and the Loons. The director of food and beverage for the organization, he is the leader of this food service team. The fact his name just now cracks print speaks volumes to how vital he is to a staff that approaches 150 people. Finding a moment to speak with him during a game day is a challenge in and of itself as he is everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. He bounds from level to level and person to person, asking how people are doing both inside and outside of work. Kavalauskas urges his staff to be creative and make their own decisions, yet seems to know exactly what is going on around him at all times. He speaks glowingly of those who work for him and little of himself.

“Without them, I’m not able to focus on the things I do,” he says. “They’re incredible and I’m not able to do my job without them.”

Kavalauskas’ job duties are countless. He oversees daily operations, serves as a liaison to the Chicago office, works with vendors, and handles staffing and recruiting. During the offseason he’s working on menus and budgets, checking out equipment, and reviewing procedures and results with the Loons’ organization. In the long version he handles everything. In a nutshell, he’s in charge of making sure everyone has fun and gets better every day.

“We have a rule,” he says, “and it’s something that we all have as a cohesive unit. And that is we want everyone to have fun. It’s one of our goals and it’s on our mission statement to have fun.”

Later, he chats about his staff as he watches a truck get unloaded. Someone comes up and taps him on the shoulder. He turns, listens. Nods. Then he excuses himself and is gone. He returns 10 minutes later, flashes a grin, says “crisis averted,” and then picks up where he left off in the conversation.

“The way I like to run a staff is challenge them,” he says. “Let them figure some things out for themselves. Empower them. Nobody wants to be micromanaged or only told when something’s wrong. You make your environment fun and comfortable to come to.”

One person who certainly is having fun is Shantel Johnson-Lawson. The catering and kitchen services manager, Johnson-Lawson has a passion for food she wears on her sleeve. Spend five minutes with this Chicago native and you get the impression that she doesn’t just want her customers to ask for seconds, but to demand thirds plus a chance to lick the bowl clean.

“I love what I do. I absolutely love it,” Johnson-Lawson says. “This place is a lot of fun. It’s a great place to work and I have a great staff that is willing to do whatever it takes to get it done.”

Johnson-Lawson got her passion for the kitchen from her mother, who cooked a lot of gourmet food when she was younger. On nights when her mother would work late, she would call Shantel and walk her through cooking the meals so that the food would be ready when she got home. Those calls turned into a love for cooking that eventually took her to Florida where she worked at the Club Continental in Orange Park. She later became the executive chef for the Holiday Inn before taking a job in baseball with the Montgomery Biscuits, the team owned by PSC. Kavalauskas worked with the Biscuits, too, and both picked up their roots and headed to Midland when the Loons’ organization took shape. He jokes that sometimes she has to be dragged out of the kitchen. Johnson-Lawson laughs, but doesn’t deny it.

As game time approaches, Shantel can be found in the same kitchen Shelly Powell stood in some eight hours before. The calm preparation Powell oversaw in the morning has been replaced by a circus of food, flames, and flavor. Summer workers – many of them teenagers and college kids – grill chicken breasts, burgers, and anything else the suite holders could think to order for a ballgame. An outsider would probably see it all as chaos. Johnson-Lawson would probably agree, but say at least it’s organized chaos.

“This place is a lot of fun,” she says loudly over the music of dishes. “It’s a great place to work and I have a great staff that is willing to do whatever it takes to get it done.”

At that moment she stops again and shouts instruction towards the whirling crew. Her daughter, Domanique, is one among the crowd but garners no special attention or treatment. It seems Shantel has no time for nepotism, not when there’s a kitchen to run.

“I don’t want to be in the office grind of things all the time, I want to be where the food is and where the excitement is,” she says, “I enjoy when people are eating our food that we cook. I look forward to that every day.”

Back upstairs it’s nearing game time and fans are beginning to trickle in. Koski’s office (imagine a computer, phone, and fax in your pantry) is crowded with people and carts filled with brownies and cookies: a mass of servers serving sweets to suites.

Lauren Gronden is one of the faces in the crowd, and she heads to one of the rooms to drop off linens, shakers, and plates. A Central Michigan University student, Gronden is studying sports management and is in her second year with the team. This season she’s officially doing her field study with the Loons and during games will deliver food and overall just keep tabs on everyone to make sure all is right. An admitted baseball fan, Gronden believes there is no better job out there than this.

“I think I had the best summer I’ve ever had last year,” she says. “I couldn’t think of a better place to work. I not only get to make money, but I get to have fun doing it.”

Koski knows what that’s like. He grew up a sports fan in the area and played baseball at Northwood. Towards the end of his junior year, the announcement was made that the Loons were coming to Midland. Koski ended up getting an internship for the start of his senior year before being offered a seasonal full-time job. After Dow Diamond hosted 160 special events in the offseason, he was hired full-time year round.

“There’s always something bigger or better that you’re working towards and that’s what keeps you motivated,” Koski says. “Ten steps away I’m looking at a baseball field. I only catch a pitch or two of the game, but I still get to be at 70 games a year. What sports fan wouldn’t like that?”