From humble hot dogs to lobster dinners to full, ready-to-eat holiday feasts, members and guests are hungry for ways to enjoy their favorite foods beyond traditional dining rooms. Club and resort chefs are responding with inventive ways of providing to-go meals and snacks for those who want to pick-up-and-play at the golf course or pool, or bring them home for the entire family to enjoy.
Twenty-three tournaments a year means a lot of on-course breakfasts for golfers who need to fuel up without taking the time for a traditional sit-down meal. And for the kitchen staff at Bookcliff Country Club in Grand Junction, Colo., that means preparing a ton of breakfast burritos with the trimmings.
Executive Chef Matt Edgerley sends a staffer out with an insulated bag to drive around the course delivering the warm and hearty signature burritos, with a choice of sides such as house-made roasted red pepper or green pepper salsa. Even the chorizo and enchilada sauce are made from scratch in the club’s kitchen, Edgerley points out.
Summing It Up • Don’t forget breakfast as a takeout/to-go opportunity, and valued service, for members and guests. • Make ordering and pick-up or delivery easy. • Offer variety that goes well beyond typical to-go menu items. • Include lighter choices, such as tuna and chicken salad in to-go cups without bread, as options to traditional takeout sandwich choices. |
“We make everything except the tortilla itself,” he says. “Our members know they’re getting the best burrito around—much better than any they could get from a restaurant down the road.”
For lunch, golfers at Bookcliff CC can use the phone on the ninth hole to place their orders for pickup, without missing a beat.
“They’ll say, ‘We’ll be coming around the corner in about 20 minutes—could you have a couple of cheeseburgers or deli sandwiches ready for us?’” says Edgerley.
From Muffins to “El Rojo”
At Boulder Pointe Golf Club and Banquet Center in Oxford, Mich., on-the-go breakfast from the property’s Gimmies Grille usually includes a freshly baked muffin and coffee. For summer, Executive Chef Russell Zampich offered zucchini walnut muffins. For fall, he switched off to pumpkin-walnut.
“We try to keep our muffin offerings seasonal, to mix it up for our members and guests,” Zampich says. “Breakfast takeout consisting of coffee and muffins is very big at the club.”
After breakfast, Zampich offers a choice of five to-go sandwiches per day, including a rotating selection of specialty selections such as the Cuban sandwich and battered fish with a lemon caper remoulade on focaccia bread. To respond to requests from some members for lighter lunch choices, he plans to offer tuna and chicken salad in to-go cups next season.
But one thing that doesn’t change at Boulder Pointe is the beloved signature chili, “El Rojo” (The Red). A secret ingredient is the beer that comes from a brewery owned by Zampich’s boss.
Pizza is also a popular takeout choice among golfers and other guests at Boulder Pointe, says Zampich. Next year, he plans to make it even easier for players to get their pies, by offering delivery on the course via golf cart.
“Elvis” Leaves the Building
Guests also like to take out the specialty pizzas from the Dockside Lakeside Lounge at Breezy Point (Minn.) Resort, says Executive Chef Tom Johnson. Most popular is the “Elvis,” a classic combination of pepperoni, fresh mushrooms, black olives, onions and cheese.
Other pizza options at Breezy Point include the Vegetarian; Hawaiian, with Canadian bacon and pineapple; Jack Daniels, with a special spirit-spiked sauce, chicken, caramelized onions, bell peppers and Monterey and mozzarella cheeses; Chicken Ranch, with bacon, onion and tomato; Meat Lover’s, with sausage, pepperoni, hamburger and Canadian bacon; and Buffalo Chicken, with buffalo sauce, caramelized onions and bleu and mozzarella cheeses.
Green To-Go About six or seven years ago, Breezy Point (Minn.) Resort went 100% compostable with its to-go/takeout packaging. “We were hearing a recurring request by many of our conference groups for environmentally friendly packaging,” says Executive Chef Tom Johnson. While using eco-conscious packaging can be more expensive—adding somewhere between $6,000 to $8,000 per year to the resort’s packaging costs, according to Johnson—the good-will payback from the satisfaction that guests get when they see how the property has “gone green” is immeasurable, he says. “Our guests like the idea that they don’t have to feel guilty about adding more trash that will sit in landfills forever,” says Johnson. “They expect us to do the right thing and the environmentally conscious thing—so we thought it was a smart, sensible move.” |
Although all-American hot dogs have never toppled from their number-one best-seller position at Breezy Point, an increasing number of guests are trading up for takeout, says Johnson. The Hot Palmer—a one-half-pound Kobe beef burger topped with pepperjack cheese, onion strings, jalapenos and spicy mayo—and the Deacon’s Club Sandwich are now among the most popular to-go items from the menu at the resort’s Palmer’s Grille at its Deacon’s Lodge Golf Course. Golfers and other guests also have the option of going lighter with a selection of salads, including house and Cobb versions, and sandwiches such as grilled chicken breast.
The newly acquired Arnold Palmer-designed course at Breezy Point is so highly regarded that groups of 10 to 12 golfers will book one of the property’s overnight units and play until the sun goes down. For the resort’s kitchen, that means a rush of to-go dinner orders between the hours of 8:30 and 10 p.m.
And those groups often want something heartier than a sandwich, salad or pizza, Johnson reports. Many golfers want rib-eye steaks or barbecued ribs, with corn on the cob or baked potatoes. One top-selling takeout package, Johnson says, is the Cabin Cookout from Palmer’s Grill, which consists of barbecued ribs, baked potatoes, salad, rolls and dessert. It serves six and costs $35 per person, and is usually prepared for eight to 16 guests.
“These takeout packages are for guests who would rather dine in their own unit, but don’t want the hassle of a trip to the grocery store,” Johnson says. “By offering these options, we’re able to keep the golfers and their families in-house, rather than having them go out to a restaurant, so we capture those revenues.”
Another popular request, Johnson says, is for lobster, or a platter that combines lobster with steak or prime rib.
“We are probably the largest buyer of lobster outside of the Minneapolis/St. Paul market,” he says. “Many of our golfers are on an all-inclusive package, and because of this, we probably sell more takeout lobster on any given night than most restaurants will sell with in-house dining.”
They’ll Take It from Here
Even as properties continue to provide more elaborate and convenient to-go packages, some guests still prefer to receive the basic ingredients that they can grill or cook themselves.
At Bookcliff CC, Sunday dinner is a big takeout time for member families, according to Edgerley. A single order can include everything from 16-ounce rib-eye steaks for the adults to chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers for the kids.
And golf isn’t the only sport that works up appetites among members and guests. Bookcliff is in the heart of Denver Broncos territory, and during football season, local fans consume a lot of chicken wings, another signature item for the club.
“On game day, we can serve as many as 200 to 300 wings to go,” Edgerley notes. Members can have their wings plain, with a Cajun rub, or dressed with a number of sauce choices, including buffalo, sweet chili and a house-specialty “O” sauce.
“ ‘O’ sauce came about when a member whose last name began with O asked me to make up a spicy barbecue sauce for him,” Edgerley explains. “I did, and then other people began ordering it as well, so I named it after him.”
Wives of golfers participating in tournaments at Bookcliff often want to venture out for a little recreation of their own, such as touring the local wineries. To make sure they take a little bit of Bookcliff on their excursions, Edgerley makes up pretty platters of cheeses, hummus, and crackers decorated with strawberry roses for them to snack on along the way.
Staying Prepared
Most times, takeout orders at Bookcliff are incorporated into the regular a la carte line in the club’s restaurant kitchen. During the four-and-a-half-month summer season, a satellite kitchen operates at the grill by the pool. When the demand for takeout is particularly high at Boulder Pointe, Zampich appoints at least one cook to the golf area downstairs from the main dining room to prepare the orders.
Breezy Point has five different dining concepts, from white tablecloth to coffee shop, and all of the property’s kitchens were designed to accommodate to-go orders, Johnson reports.
“We don’t actively promote takeout, but we are well-prepared for it and never want to be in a position where we would have to deny a sale at any of our restaurants,” he says.
When Thanksgiving comes around, it’s all-hands-on-deck at Bookcliff when the club prepares full to-go holiday dinners for its members. Sales of these turkey-to-trimmings feasts have increased every year since the club began offering them about four years ago, Edgerley notes.
Members can choose to pick up their orders, which include a fully cooked turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, rolls, butter and stuffing, on one of two days—the day before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Day. Last year, five members wanted to pick up their dinners the day before the holiday and another 25 wanted to come and get them on the day of the event.
The Bookcliff kitchen staff must begin cooking at around 2 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day to meet the demand. The food is packaged in foil pans, so members can just pop them in the oven to reheat. Because food safety is a priority, Edgerley emphasizes, each order comes with explicit instructions on how to handle and reheat the meals.
Recipes:
Bookcliff CC Signature “O” Sauce for Chicken Wings
Oven “Smoked” Loin-Back Ribs
Pumpkin-Walnut Muffins
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