The Shockingly Great Denver Nuggets Playoff Menu at Ball Arena

The Denver Nuggets are currently in the NBA playoffs, which gave the chefs at Ball Arena a chance to pull out all the stops to create a special playoff menu that is shockingly great.

The days of lukewarm hot dogs and electric orange nacho “cheese” sauce are over. Polidori sausage flights, Korean short ribs, bacon-wrapped salmon bites and jalapeno popper grilled cheese now reign supreme.

“People's expectation of food is more than it's ever been,” Ball Arena Executive Chef Adam Holt says. “It used to be, yeah, I want a burger, fries. Now it's, I want a special-grind burger. I want hand-cut fries or a Wagyu hot dog with lobster on top. So it definitely evolves.”

The Ball Arena kitchens are ready to prove they’ve evolved, at least as long as the Nuggets stay in the playoffs. After splitting the first two games of the current playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers, Ball Arena is guaranteed to host another playoff game on Tuesday, April 29.

Holt put care into the menu, teaching his team to make custom sausage from scratch and crafting ice cream in-house rather than buying wholesale gallons. He’s worked in stadium food for over two decades and loves putting together playoff menus.

According to Holt, the Ball Arena food team began planning the playoffs menu around three months ago, having faith that the Nuggets would make the playoffs despite a rocky season that ended with the coach and general manager getting fired three games before the playoffs began.
“You have to have faith,” Holt says. “And we have to have a plan for it, because feeding 20,000 people a night is not easy.”

He’s been the executive chef at Ball Arena since 2022, the season the Colorado Avalanche won their most recent championship, so he knows a thing or two about catering to fans of teams on deep playoff runs. The year after, the Nuggets won the NBA championship.

“It's easier this time having done it,” Holt says. “We learned a few things that didn't work or were difficult to do.”

Though the menu is creative, Ball Arena’s thirty-year-old facility limits the space and equipment that Holt’s team has to work with. But his crew still committed to bringing out tasty items that would appeal to every fan.

The playoff menu for high-rollers in suites and clubs offers items like seafood towers and lobster mac and cheese, but even people in the nosebleeds can enjoy special items. On the 100 and 300 levels, any fan can access a menu that includes a Polidori sausage flight with spicy Italian, bratwurst and green chili sausages. Additionally, fans can order a cheeseburger with a giant stack of onion rings built inside, or an extra-large Bavarian pretzel. The theme for general concessions was to go big and have fun, Holt says.

“I think that pretzel is a great thing to roll in with a family of four and have this giant pizza box,” he adds. “Everybody's having a good time. Hopefully, you're bringing kids. … I love the big, shareable stuff. I think it's just fun. It adds to the atmosphere of what's going on in the rest of the arena.”

Fans can also head to the Michelob Ultra Mountain House, the restaurant attached to Ball Arena that you don't need a ticket to enter (though reservations are highly encouraged). There, the playoff menu includes a gyro burger slider, bacon-wrapped salmon bites and lobster bisque.

At the Fanatics Sportsbook located inside the arena, you can get the jalapeno popper grilled cheese and fried peanut butter and jelly cheesecake bites.

According to Holt, most people would be surprised how many athletes run on peanut butter and jelly (the Denver Broncos famously eat the most Uncrustables in the entire NFL), so the cheesecake bites are a very fancy way to act like a top athlete. In the Fanatics VIP lounge, patrons can also snack on sushi.

Those willing to spend the money on club-level seats are treated to top-notch Korean short ribs, blackened shrimp tacos and a mega nacho box that weighs three pounds. In luxury suites, lobster mac and cheese, buffalo shrimp wraps and carved beef tenderloin are high-level options. For the big ballers in Club Lexus, Ball Arena’s tasty house-made sausage complements the seafood tower as an exclusive option.

If you think food at a basketball game cannot possibly taste as good as this sounds, we triedoptions from every level of the playoff menu and weren’t disappointed. The short ribs were tender and flavorful, the homemade sausage a toothsome hit, and the grilled cheese comfort food at a whole other level.

But the best thing we tried will only be available if the Nuggets make the NBA Finals — and then it will be available to everyone in the arena. The surf & turf hot dog is a Wagyu hot dog topped with lobster, and it is life-changing.

So we're rooting for the team to get it together and make it to the very end...so that we can get another bite of that dog.