October 13, 2023
Ahead of the Flyers' home opener on Tuesday, the Wells Fargo Center began showing off what'll be new for the upcoming NBA and already underway NHL seasons, starting with the expanded food options.
During a tasting on Thursday at the arena, a few hours before the Flyers opened their season over in Columbus and the Phillies took down the Braves across the street in the NLDS, Evan Macy and I got try some of the new menu items and wanted to offer a rundown of what stood out.
Keep in mind that we didn't – well, couldn't – try everything that was available, and outside of one exception that we'll get to at the end, pricing wasn't at the forefront for much, so keep in mind that some of these concessions could burn a hole your pocket should you go for them this year.
With all that being said, let's get started with the marquee concept the Wells Fargo Center wanted to introduce...
The Launch Test Kitchen: Starting with Han Dynasty (Section 107)
Throughout the year, the arena will now have a stand that rotates through a selection of local and diverse vendors, starting with Han Dynasty for Sichaun-style Chinese cuisine.
Here's what they'll be offering during events with a brief description:
• Vegetable or Chicken Lo Mein: Stir-fried egg noodles with onions, scallions, carrots and cabbage.
• Chicken Dumplings: Pan-fried chicken dumplings with gingery soy sauce.
• Vegetable Dumplings: Pan-fried vegetable dumplings with ginger soy sauce.
• Fried Rice: Chinese-style short-grain rice stir-fried with egg, scallions, green peas and carrots.
• General Han's Chicken: Han's ultimate sweet, savory, spicy and tangy chicken chunks.
Evan went for the dumplings and said they were pretty good. They are unorthodox options for a basketball or hockey game, for sure, but they definitely stand out because of it, which is far from a bad thing.
A bit more at the traditional sports arena speed, these items were the ones I dug into, and off the top, the standouts for me were...
• BAR Burger (Sections 122, 221): A burger with melted cheddar, bacon, an avocado spread, and ranch. Extremely solid burger. Would eat the whole thing at some point (they were served at the event as sliders, but I would take those again too).
• BBQ Brisket Sandwich (Section 202): With BBQ sauce, simple but also very solid. You can get a pulled pork sandwich too.
• Mission Burrito (Garces Eats): So this was served as a quesadilla instead (I am not complaining) and has chicken adobo, black beans, poblanos, roasted corn, cheese, and had sour cream and salsa with it. I'm always up for a quesadilla, so I was a big fan.
• Federal Donuts had a display out with their donuts and chicken sandwich. I stayed away, but that's not a sleight on them at all. I just still had work to do after and couldn't afford to take a nap.
• Insomnia Cookies: GOATED.
• I also wanted to note that there were vegetarian options – a veggie cheesesteak and a veggie sandwich. Not for me, but always nice to have those choices available for the ones they are for.
• Chefs Marc Vetri and Jose Garces, in their second year of overseeing the menu, also brought some higher-end offerings into the fold – meatballs, a butternut squash pizza, and a chicken pesto sandwich – that would kinda run in stark contrast to sitting in your set with your Flyers jersey on, but at the same time, it all did look good.
• OK, so they had these things called Walking Tacos (Sections 104, 110, 122), which are bags of chips like Fritos or Doritos with taco ingredients thrown on top – the meat, cheese, lettuce, etc.
I didn't know these were a thing until the tasting and I was curious, so I grabbed the Frito bag. When I looked down into it, I saw all the taco parts, but couldn't find chip. Then I remembered Fritos are small. I should've grabbed the Dorito bag, but I was already committed. I wiggled the bag around to try and get the chips to slide out from underneath and get my hand in there, but at a certain point the taco ingredients just over take it all unless you get the scoop ratio right, and you're just left with messy fingers.
I don't know, the whole concept sounds cleaner in theory, but in practice, I found it more complicated than it needed to be (unless maybe you use a fork, but I feel like that defeats the purpose too). I also found the naming confusing. Regular tacos are already very walkable foods, and I was able to confirm this because...
• They had mini beef tacos from Buena Onda right there next to them. I ate a couple. I walked around while doing so and it was a much simpler process. Also, I thought those tacos were quite good.
This ends my Walking Taco rant. Maybe just don't understand it.
Alright, so this cheesesteak was sitting perched up on a table in the middle of the floor against a golden backdrop and with golden gems scattered all around the plate.
You couldn't not look at it.
It's listed as the 24stK and can be bought in Section 117.
It's a cheesesteak made from smoked beef rib and mixed in with truffle cheese sauce, caramelized onions, A1 demi sauce and shavings of 24k gold on a Liscio's roll.
Evan tried it. He said he was impressed with how tender the meat was and how there always seems to be ridiculous ways to continually up a cheesesteak.
I mean, visually, the gold is a pretty strong aesthetic. I do wonder how many people this year will actually go for it.
The gold is edible, by the way, but it doesn't taste like anything.
I call it this because I knew it would be the last thing I tried before leaving, and I mean look at this:
That is a milkshake that isn't here to mess around, and this was just a sample size, which even on its own was a lot.
It was quite a good milkshake, however. It was called the Cookie Jar – which had vanilla ice cream with bits of Oreos, chocolate chip, and oatmeal cookies mixed in along with whipped cream, more crumbs, and a big chunk of a cookie stuck in the top.
It was a lot, but it was really good if you ever have the sweet tooth for it.
Here were some of the other shakes you could pick from, though be warned, the price and the calorie count on them are steep:
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