Construction crews for Northwestern’s $850 million Ryan Field redevelopment could soon have the chance to chow down on gourmet lunches from Evanston restaurants.
The budding collaboration among Evanston eateries, the city’s economic development office and Turner Construction Company seeks to provide lunches and boost the restaurants’ bottom lines.
Economic Development Manager Paul Zalmezak said he was interested in creating an initiative to benefit local businesses and support the massive undertaking of rebuilding Ryan Field. With the stadium seeing approximately 400 workers on-site daily, he said Turner Construction reached out to the city to create a convenient way for workers to eat in a 30-minute window.
“(Ryan Field) is a massive investment, and that construction window is relatively short,” he said. “So to the extent that we can get as many restaurants involved during that short period of time, it helps them.”
Zalmezak said the city had received 56 respondents when the form closed Feb. 17, from the French-Moroccan cuisine of LeTour to the Mexican-inspired food of downtown brunch spot Frida’s.
Workers will be able to buy lunch from restaurants that opt into the program, but the partnership is not a catering opportunity with guaranteed purchases.
LeTour owner Amy Morton said she wanted her restaurant to participate in the initiative as a way to offer its service with the stadium construction.
“We are huge supporters of Northwestern, and we love what’s happening with Ryan Field,” she said.
Morton said LeTour pitched a lunch menu to the city that would deviate from its typical fork-and-knife dishes. She said the upscale eatery aimed for meals that would be quick and easy to munch on, like a chicken Caesar wrap.
“To really have the stadium work and all that they want with it, everybody wants it to be a joint project,” Morton said. “It can’t just be the so-called city and Northwestern, but it’s really the community, the businesses.”
For the hot dog and burger joint Mustard’s Last Stand, located right next to Ryan Field, serving workers quick lunches isn’t anything new.
Co-owner Lonnie Starkman said the joint already sees five to 15 Ryan Field workers coming in daily. He signed up for the initiative as a lucrative business opportunity.
“We’re so close, we’re like next door,” Starkman said. “Anything we need, we can bring over with us or prepare on-site.”
The initiative would feed crews working on one of Evanston’s most controversial construction projects. Neighbors have long scorned NU’s plans to commercialize the rebuilt arena.
Still, the project has also created new local partnerships. Zalmezak said the lunch service initiative serves as another strategy to bolster the downtown economy as the district recovers from the blow of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Frankly, it helps the city generate sales tax — that way we can continue our community service, all the things that we continually maintain in a really difficult environment,” Zalmezak said. “It’s important. Restaurants are a big part of our economy.”
This story has been updated to clarify Lonnie Starkman’s role as co-owner of Mustard’s Last Stand.
Email: claramartinez2028@u.northwestern.edu
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