U.S. Open offers fans full plate of culinary options at Oakmont Country Club

As soon as the U.S. Open’s final putt is sunk, Susan Lacz starts thinking about the next year’s tournament.

Lacz is CEO of Ridgewells Catering in Maryland, the United States Golf Association’s longtime catering partner for the event. She’s one of the people in charge of making sure hungry U.S. Open fans have plenty of options.

And how, indeed, do you feed the more than 200,000 fans estimated to attend the Open?

It takes a combination of factors. Ridgewells handles higher-end food options at sponsorship tents and VIP areas, while Philadelphia-based Aramark supplies food for gallery ticket holders and the Open’s Trophy Club.

Both have taken on local businesses as vendor partners.

The vast majority of fans in attendance will be gallery ticket-holders, who will have access to on-course concession stands operated by Aramark and vendor partners such as Caliente Pizza & Draft House and National Grind coffee of Ellwood City.

Caliente will operate a stand between Holes 11 and 12 holes, where they will serve Sicilian-style pizza along with Pennsylvania Dutch-style ice cream, a recipe that came from Caliente owner Nick Bogacz’s grandmother.

“We worked the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, and where we were set up was actually a golf course, so it’s very similar in terms of on-site cooking,” Bogacz said. “When I was pitching us, I sort of leaned into our experience with the Grand Prix.”

Pittsburgh-based Mancini’s Bakery also is partnering with Aramark, and those walking the course are likely to find its bread wrapped around a shaved kielbasa sandwich, chicken sandwich, cheesesteak or barbecued pork sandwich near the No. 16 fairway.

Gallery ticket holders also can find pepperoni rolls near the No. 1 fairway and No. 6 green, and veggie wraps, turkey sandwiches and Caesar salad at Aramark’s “Market Grab & Go” locations on the grounds, along with a host of concessions at the “Fan Central” area between Holes 2 and 3.

All the kitchens on-site — and the ones built specially for the occasion — will be big and busy.

“We’ll have a compound on-site which has a full Ridgewells production kitchen inside,” Lacz said. “We’ll have 17 semi-trucks there to handle receiving and production of the food. Then once it’s done, it goes back into our refrigerated trucks to be dispatched to the on-course locations.”

After more than three decades working with the USGA, Lacz said, Ridgewells has a good idea of what people like.

“We try to make it regional and specific to wherever we’re going,” she said. “We’re using some local favorites along with standards that people love. We have more than 150 items in our menu book that clients can select from. We create the menu, and then USGA gives it the official thumbs-up.”

For those wanting more of a VIP experience, Ridgewells makes sure to boost its culinary offerings appropriately.

Champions Pavilion ticket-holders have a wide variety of items to choose from, including Oakmont Bakery biscotti for breakfast, grilled jalapeno shrimp and jasmine rice for lunch, pierogies made by Gosha’s Pierogies in Latrobe, and a Philly cheesesteak slider station for dinner.

The most exclusive ticket, for the U.S. Open’s 1895 Club, features a menu that changes daily.

A continental breakfast includes smoked salmon, Oakmont Bakery bagels, sage-and-cranberry chicken sausage and more. Lunch could be tri-tip steak with chimichurri sauce, pan-seared branzini, bao buns and more. And the club’s snack station includes street tacos, Buffalo cauliflower, shrimp cocktail, crab claws and more.

And that’s just on Wednesday — the day before the tournament begins.

In addition to a group of about 100 people that regularly travel with Ridgewells to USGA events, they hire 750 local residents to assist with food prep and service.

“This is the first year that we’ll really be taking over the clubhouse at Oakmont,” Lacz said. “That happens normally at other places like Shinnecock and Pinehurst. It’s really up to the club to determine if they have the manpower to do everything that needs to happen.”

Many of those local hires will be people who already work at Oakmont Country Club.

“The staff all apply the same way anyone else would,” Lacz said. “Certainly it’s in our interest to hire people who already work there and know it well. But some of those folks just want to take the day off and enjoy the golf.”

In addition to Oakmont Bakery and Gosha’s Pierogies, Ridgewells is working with Breadworks in Pittsburgh’s North Side, Mediterra Bakehouse in Robinson and others.

The only thing caterers can’t control is the weather.

“The big storm that came through (on April 29) tore the roof off one of the tents being built for us,” Lacz said. “And the heat is always a challenge.”

But with decades of experience under their belts, Lacz said Ridgewells, Aramark and their local partners will be prepared.

“I love Pittsburgh, especially because my background is Polish and it’s got some great Polish food, some of which we’ll be incorporating into the menu,” she said. “People can expect to eat some really good food.”