With Messi’s Arrival Comes a Gourmet Upgrade to Stadium Food at Inter Miami’s Chase Stadium

Mike Grinberg remembers the July day two years ago when the soccer gods smiled upon the South Florida sports community. On this humid afternoon, Grinberg’s hometown MLS team, Inter Miami CF, announced the groundbreaking signing of seven-time Ballon d’Or winner and World Cup champion Lionel Messi to a multi-year deal. To the average soccer fan, the acquisition of this once-in-a-generation player of Messi’s magnitude was a nice headline. But to Grinberg, a Miami-based realtor and lifestyle content creator who has been a long-time Messi fan, this move was epic.

“I was so excited, I bought season tickets right away,” Grinberg says.

He wasn’t alone in his excitement. By November, season tickets for Inter Miami’s 2024 MLS regular season were sold out, proving that the Messi effect was real.

Ticket sales were not the only area that felt the global star’s impact. Come match time, when eyes were not on the pitch, it was on the gourmet food and drink options found inside the sports stadium.

“When we got word that Messi would be joining the team, we turned our focus as an organization into exceeding expectations,” says Laurence McMillon, the senior director of food and beverage at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, where Inter Miami plays its home matches.

That meant eschewing the typical menu of ballpark French fries and chicken tenders. Their replacements? Elevated options by celebrity chefs Bradley Kilgore and Michelle Bernstein. The James Beard finalist and award-winner (respectively) were tapped to present a rotating menu of nuanced dishes inside two of the stadium’s coveted sections, Midfield Club lounge and at East Field Club, the latter of which includes field-level seats with a dedicated food and beverage service.

Inter Miami scored, like, three goals while we were eating omakase. That’s a powerful combo there.
—Mike Grinberg

A third premium section, the Northwest Club, features a 16-seat omakase experience, with floor-to-ceiling views that overlook the pitch from its second-floor location. Powered by Miss Crispy Rice, a Japanese-inspired restaurant with an outpost in Coral Gables, the omakase meal includes about 12 courses of sushi, nigiri and handrolls prepared at the custom-designed sushi bar.

“It was surreal,” Grinberg says about his most recent omakase experience at the Northwest Club. “It’s everything you love about the omakase experience on its own, but then Inter Miami scored, like, three goals while we were eating omakase. That’s a powerful combo there.”

Reactions like that are what push Chase Stadium’s McMillon forward. As the visionary behind the arena’s culinary scene, McMillion is no stranger to stadium service. He helped open the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in 2012 before becoming the senior director of premium F&B at Petco Park in San Diego (home of the MLS’ Padres) and then was tapped to oversee the food and beverage direction at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. Along the way, McMillion says he began seeing the strength of pairing elevated dining within a live sports arena. Like Japanese omakase with soccer. “It’s like a surprise for the guests,” McMillon says.

Don’t have tickets to those premium sections but still want gourmet food at the stadium? No problem, McMillon has you covered. Three hours before each match, the Fan Zone opens, which features an asado experience from Mr. Chory, an Argentinean concept. Grilled meats and platters are cooked on an open wood-fire grill inside the stadium.

Concession stand meals at Chase Stadium are also amplified, with Mr. Chory serving authentic Argentinian sandwiches and Quimera by Dayanny De La Cruz (the first female chef ever for a Super Bowl) preparing handcrafted arepas and empanadas. Chef Michelle Bernstein’s globally recognized cocktail bar Sweet Liberty has two outposts at Chase Stadium, serving fun drinks called Can I Kick It and The Goat, nods to Messi’s soccer prominence. And, when the team moves into Miami Freedom Park, the ambitious 25,000-seat stadium with 58 acres of public space that opens in 2026, McMillon expects the food and beverage options to get even more exciting with the extra space and infrastructure, including “a bigger and better version of what we’re doing now.”

Do these unique dining characteristics surprise Miami-based fans like Grinberg? Not really. “What I’ve seen Inter Miami do is really so ‘Miami,’” Grinberg says. “They glam it up. You don’t want to not spend money when you go there now.”

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