Pittsburgh fans perusing the food options at the NFL Draft Experience might recognize a few restaurant names. Six local eateries are serving concessions at Point State Park through Saturday, and five more make up a Taste of Pittsburgh concessions area on the North Shore — offering food ranging from pizza and desserts to healthy options and international cuisine.
At 11 a.m. Thursday, The Roaming Bean, a coffee truck based in Venetia, opened an hour before fans poured through the gates of Point State Park to make sure everyone could grab their morning coffee. Though the business is three years old, it spun out of coffee served at the historic Tom’s Diner in Dormont more than 40 years ago.
“It was an early rush for us,” said owner Penny Folino, who made specialty iced lattes ($10) — including a waffle cone flavor — created for the NFL Draft.
The process to become a Draft vendor through the NFL’s Source Program began more than a year ago. One hundred NFL Draft vendors were chosen out of more than 1,000 applications, Folino said, with a “local first” philosophy that favored Pittsburgh businesses. According to Folino, the program also selected noncompetitive food vendors for each site so Draft visitors could experience a range of local concessions.
“We were the only coffee vendor chosen (for Point State Park), and we’re very blessed for that,” Folino told TribLive. “The (Source Program) has been so amazingly, unbelievably helpful for the small businesses.”
On Thursday, a line also grew for Secretos De Mis Abuelos, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Homestead known for its traditional dishes.
Jose Amador, a Miami Dolphins fan visiting from Florida, pulled his friends, Pat Steele and Tony Guzik of Latrobe, into the Secretos line.
“I’m familiar with that Spanish food, and so I was like, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m eating here,” he said.
Following Amador’s lead, they ordered a pernil plate ($18) featuring slow-roasted pork, yellow rice and maduro (fried plantains).
Pershal Jackson and Jack Robison, friends from Denver — and fans of the Las Vegas Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs, respectively — opted for traditional pepperoni pizza slices. The slices came from Vitalia Wood Fired Oven, a wood-fired pizza truck with a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Cranberry Township.
Other local vendors at Point State Park include P’s Bird Wagon from Washington County, a family- run soul food truck, Remo’s Catering, and Street Fries.
Morgan Helfrich of Live Fresh Juicery, which has four locations in the region, said they’re proud to provide fresh “all-natural” options, including cold-pressed juices ($13) and a build-your-own acai bowl ($18).
“We’re enjoying it — showing off Pittsburgh, showing off our juice,” Helfrich said, also praising the exposure for the business. “Lots of people coming from all around is really neat. There are a lot of people hearing about us and what we do.”
Sandeen Turner of Churchill didn’t need to be convinced. While her husband peeled off for pizza, she bought a green juice.
“I’m very happy to see that the (NFL) did local places and local chains and not more franchises,” Turner said. Though she’s been to two previous NFL Drafts at Radio City Music Hall in New York, the Draft in Pittsburgh brought her to the Point for the first time.
At the Taste of Pittsburgh area on the North Shore, Fry Bar served up a full menu of jerk chicken and beef-topped fries ($23), along with the day’s bestseller, a classic French fry ($9). The home base for Fry Bar is less than a mile away from the draft site in the Allegheny West neighborhood.
The fry restaurant joins Mobile Chef International Foods, South Side-based Steel City Hot Dogs, Crazy Horse Coffee and Tennessee Crush Water Ice (created by former Steelers player Avery Williamson) for a Taste of Pittsburgh.
Back at Point State Park, Gino Perella, president of operations at Patti’s Pastries, described the opportunity to be an NFL Draft vendor as “once in a lifetime.”
“Because for a lot of us, we won’t be here the next time (the Draft) comes back to Pittsburgh,” he said. The Imperial-based bakery pared down its menu to serve eight gourmet cupcakes for the Draft, along with lady locks, considered a Pittsburgh cookie table staple.
“The energy, the people coming — everybody’s happy,” Perella said. “So come down. If you don’t want to deal with the insanity, come Saturday. I feel like Saturday is going to be the local day. It’s beautifully set up. You have everything you need in one spot. Come on down and be a part of it.”
Rachel Wilkinson is a TribLive staff writer. She can be reached at rwilkinson@triblive.com.