A new culinary flavor is coming to Memorial Stadium for this year’s University of Missouri football season. Columbia-founded Upper Crust Food Services is partnering with Sodexo Live! to bring enhanced concession offerings to fans throughout the stadium.
Adam Guy, chief executive officer of Upper Crust, understands Mizzou game-day traditions and the heartbeat of Columbia’s food scene. He wants to preserve the foods fans love while adding Columbia flair, efficient service and face-to-face engagement.
“Food can help create energy and memories,” Guy said. “It can become part of what people share and talk about after the game. That means thinking about presentation, local partnerships, premium hospitality, rotating concepts, speed of service and even how team members interact with fans. We don’t want food to simply be a transaction that happens while you’re at the game. We want it to contribute to the reason you love being here.”
Hot dogs, burgers, nachos and barbecue are staples of any game day, and Guy doesn’t want those concession favorites to go away. Instead, he is focused on executing them well and building additional options around those traditional items.
One new option is a Columbia signature: Shakespeare’s Pizza. Bringing the handmade flavor Columbians love to a stadium serving thousands of people in just a few hours was a challenge owner Alycia Lewis tackled successfully. The solution is to serve pizzas from Shakespeare’s frozen line using a specialty oven that can heat an eight-inch pizza in approximately two minutes—not a bad wait for a Columbia favorite.
“We have an opportunity through this hospitality program to showcase and support great local businesses and give them a platform inside one of the biggest events in our community,” Guy said. “If we can make Faurot feel more like Columbia while delivering a better experience for fans, that’s a big win.”
Shakespeare’s isn’t the only local flavor fans will find inside the gates this season. It will be joined by Buck’s Ice Cream and Mya’s Gourmet Popcorn and according to Guy this is just the start.
While fans aren’t losing their go-to game-day snacks, they are gaining a number of culinary upgrades, especially in the newest premium seating areas.
From quick-service favorites and local snacks to plated dishes and premium club selections, the menu range reflects Upper Crust’s goal of making each level of the stadium experience feel thoughtfully considered.
“We want the foundation to always feel like Missouri,” Guy said. “But there is a lot of room to have fun around the edges. If we’re playing a school from Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee or Georgia, why not let that influence something we’re serving that weekend?”
Partnering with Sodexo Live! allows for more options and hospitality improvements throughout the stadium. Rather than competing, the collaboration strengthens both companies.
“I think it’s a really powerful combination,” Guy said. “Upper Crust brings a local perspective. We live here. We understand Columbia; we understand Mizzou; and we understand what this university means to people throughout Missouri.
“Our partner, Sodexo Live!, brings tremendous experience operating some of the largest sports and entertainment venues in the world. There’s a lot we can learn from that scale, technology and experience.”
When thousands of fans pour into Memorial Stadium for seven home games this season, most want a fast and efficient concession experience. Behind that experience is an extensive operation planned weeks and months before the first fans enter the stadium. While a restaurant might serve a few hundred guests in one evening, a stadium serves thousands within a short period—and halftime presents a challenge all its own.
“You suddenly have enormous demand at virtually every location in the building at once,” Guy said. “That means forecasting, purchasing, preparation, staffing, equipment, technology and service all have to work together.”
Fans throughout the stadium will see that preparation and emphasis on speed reflected in the conversion of several concession stands to grab-and-go service. Guests in the new North End Zone and Rock M Club, as well as the existing South End Zone Club areas, will also enjoy a rotating selection of elevated dishes designed to surprise and delight. These premium dining offerings complement the luxury seating experiences introduced through the North End Zone expansion.
As Laird Veatch, director of athletics at the University of Missouri, said during a recent media event, “We are asking more of our people, so we need to provide an experience that rewards that.”
For many alumni and fans, weekends at Memorial Stadium are a homecoming—an opportunity to reconnect with family and friends while revisiting favorite campus spots, businesses and restaurants. Guy’s goal is to manage the complicated logistics behind the scenes so the entire experience feels effortless.
“Our company’s purpose is to foster connection through the power of food, and there may not be many environments where you can see that happen more clearly than a college football Saturday,” Guy said. “Families, students, alumni and friends come together around something they love, and food is naturally part of that experience.”
For Guy, the partnership with Sodexo Live! and Mizzou Athletics is deeply personal, and it is a relationship he hopes will thrive well into the future.
“For me, this partnership is about much more than serving food at football games,” he said. “Mizzou is part of my story, and Columbia is home to Upper Crust. We take a tremendous amount of pride in having the opportunity to contribute to the experience of Mizzou Athletics.”
We live here. We understand Columbia; we understand Mizzou; and we understand what this university means to people throughout Missouri.
Food can help create energy and memories.
Shakespeare's pizza comes to the Stadium
One of the most notable changes to game day food this year is the infusion of some of the city's favorite flavors into the stadium. Town staples like Shakespeare's, Bucks Ice Cream and Mya's Gourmet Popcorn make the stadium experience feel more like a Columbia experience and give visiting fans a taste of the local food scene even if they are just here for the game.