Hungry Super Bowl Fans Planned Ahead : Some Restaurants Are Already Booked Solid as ‘Crazy Week’ Gets Under Way

Corporate America is coming to town, and it’s hungry.

By the middle of this month, Super Bowl week reservations at several of the county’s top restaurants had become almost as difficult to obtain as tickets to the game, thanks to major bookings by such firms as ABC, NBC, GTE, CBS and other powerhouse acronyms of the American economy. Some hosts will spend as much as $40,000 on a dinner for 300 guests; such events will feature non-stop entertainment and extravagant floral displays costly enough to keep North County greenhouse operations in seed money for at least the next year.

ABC News is one of several organizations that has ordered a dessert buffet built around a yard-high, carved-chocolate representation of its corporate logo. If this decoration seems an obvious symbol of sweet success, it should. Like the lead sentence in a newspaper story, the Super Bowl game serves as a hook on which a great deal of baggage can be hung, in this case a series of lavish entertainments aimed at impressing important corporate clients and stressing the host’s own importance and influence. These sumptuous meals could be compared to a body builder’s arm curls: Both are acts of conspicuous muscle-flexing.

Restaurants Ready

San Diego’s leading restaurateurs plan to greet these free-spending visitors with heaped plates and well-oiled cash registers. Many have described the experience of preparing for Super Bowl week as one replete with novelty.

Gustaf Anders, the prestigious La Jolla eatery that enjoys a national reputation, has accepted bookings for groups from such firms as Western Union, General Electric, American Cyanimid and NFL Films. Co-proprietor Bill Magnuson said that several large bookings came in nearly two years ago, immediately after San Diego was chosen as the site of Super Bowl XXII.

The first of these long-standing reservations, said Magnuson, was made by an executive of a New York firm that intends to host a posh Super Bowl eve dinner for 20 top employees. Magnuson said that according to restaurant policy, he recently telephoned New York to confirm the reservation.

“When I called the firm, I was informed that the gentleman who had made the reservation was deceased, and a secretary told me to cancel the booking,” said Magnuson. “Ten minutes later, a man from the same company called and said, ‘Don’t cancel those reservations! We’re coming!’ It’s going to be a crazy week.”

The sentiment that the week ending Jan. 31 will be one of unexampled craziness was echoed by Kathy Berger, sales director at The Abbey, who said, “I’ll be glad when February comes. I can’t wait for Super Bowl Sunday to be a memory--a wonderful memory--but definitely a memory.”

One of very few free-standing local restaurants capable of serving a crowd of 400 or more (most banquets on this scale are catered in hotel ballrooms), The Abbey will be serving a brunch for 400 on the morning of the game, and a buffet dinner for 300 immediately following the Denver-Washington match. Both meals will be hosted by major out-of-town corporations that have specified the best of everything; Berger said that the florist’s bill alone is expected to total between $7,000 and $10,000. At the brunch, the entertainment will begin with a marching band and will continue with a jazz group, a mariachi band and a troupe of mimes and jugglers.

Asked if preparing for two elaborate functions on the same day was unusually challenging, Abbey executive chef Deborah Helm smiled and said, “May I describe it with four-letter words?”

“I’ve got to plan how much to order so that we don’t run out of food, but don’t wind up with too much left over. I don’t want to sit on 500 oysters the next day,” said Helm. (Her shopping list for the dinner for 300, for example, specifies 75 pounds of large shrimp, 1,200 oysters, 1,500 clams, 800 pieces of sushi, 75 pounds of beef tenderloin, 600 chocolate-dipped strawberries, and 100 lemons, each one cut in eighths. The list includes several dozen other items.) She added that suppliers have been calling regularly to discuss her needs, since they, likewise, wish to have enough, but no more--business is expected to be relatively light the week following the game.

Helm said that the magnitude of these two parties will require an innovative and inconvenient reorganization of the kitchen. “I have two large walk-in refrigerators, one of which usually stores produce, and the other meat and dairy items,” she said. “But we’ll have to put all the food for the brunch in one, and the supplies for the dinner in the second, which will be kept locked until the brunch group has left for the stadium. That way, if the first party runs out of oysters, the waiters won’t be able to serve those planned for the dinner.”

Other large establishments, however, have said that for them, the rush of business will just be business as usual. Scott Anderson, president of Hotel del Coronado, said that although 14 NFL team owners will be staying at his establishment and hosting functions of various size (as will such firms as GTE, ESPN and CBS), he expects the week before the game to be much like any other.

“We’re used to having crowds, and Super Bowl week isn’t much different from a typical week for us,” said Anderson. “We’ll have a full house, but we usually do.”

The Sheraton Harbor Island and Sheraton Grand hotels, on the other hand, anticipate unusually thirsty and hungry guests. Sheraton spokesperson Nancy Eckis said that the Harbor Island had ordered an extra 300 cases of miniature liquor bottles with which to stock the guest room bars, and said that both hotels would offer special “fun fast-food” room service menus Jan. 28-31. Available on a 24-hour basis, these will feature such items as pizza and chicken nuggets.

Protecting Business

In a 1987 speech to members of the San Diego Restaurant Assn., Super Bowl Task Force Executive Director Bob Payne warned restaurateurs not to accept out-of-town reservations until it had been determined which two teams would be squaring off in the Super Bowl. He also suggested that they not book large parties without substantial cash deposits. His advice, as well as warnings from other sources, prompted several restaurants to adopt different schemes for self-protection.

Anthony’s Star of the Sea Room, another San Diego restaurant with a national reputation, enacted a policy of requiring a $10 per person deposit (refundable on 48 hours notice) for the three nights immediately preceding the game. This demand evidently had no impact on bookings, since as of Jan. 20, these nights were completely reserved.

Kipp Downing of the Pacifica Grill and Cafe Pacifica restaurants, said that he and partner Deacon Brown decided in October to decline booking either of their establishments for a single large party.

“We’ve had a few calls from companies wanting us to take huge groups, but we’ve referred them elsewhere,” said Downing. “We’ll do just as much business or more by taking regular-sized parties.” Downing said that although he had not anticipated heavy business on the evening of the game, his reservations book was filling up. Like many restaurateurs, he said he expected Super Bowl eve to rival New Year’s Eve.

Paddy Rainwater, whose Rainwater’s chop house occupies the floor above the Pacifica Grill, said that her experience has been quite different from Downing’s.

“What we’re noting is that we haven’t been frenzied by requests to take big corporate parties,” said Rainwater. “We have a lot of reservations and we expect to be quite busy during Super Bowl week, but so far, our largest reservation is for a group of 30.”

Restaurants in neighborhoods located off the corporate fast-track still plan to cash in on the Super Bowl. Tommy Saska, proprietor of the long-established Saska’s steak house in Mission Beach, said that he expects a fair number of out-of-towners to be referred by local hotels.

Hotels, specifically those that employ concierges to handle special arrangements for guests, are expected to be major suppliers of restaurant patrons during Super Bowl week. The concierges themselves are courted regularly by those who desire their favor. Gustaf Anders’ Magnuson, for example, said his restaurant recently hosted one of its semi-annual concierge dinners.

According to one source within the concierge fraternity, concierges began reserving tables for unspecified guests as early as the begining of November.