playThe first round of the 2025 US Open got underway on Sunday, putting tennis’ top talent center stage in New York — as well as some distinctive culinary creations.
The refreshment array at the US Open is second to none. The event’s website lists a staggering 44 different spots to grab a bite to eat or a drink, with food options ranging from barbecue to lobster rolls to ramen.
The crown jewel in Queens, however, is the honey deuce cocktail. The drink combines vodka, lemonade, raspberry liqueur and honeydew melon balls — and in 2024, the US Open sold over 500,000 of them (per Grey Goose).
The honey deuce cocktail has been around since 2006 and has emerged as a major part of the spectator experience at the annual tournament. The US Open isn’t the only sporting event associated with a signature concession item, though. Here are some other notable sporting experience/snack pairings:
The Kentucky Derby and the mint julep
The bourbon-based cocktail is likely the most iconic sporting event drink of all, with the mint julep having been associated with the Derby since the nineteenth century. And even before its relationship with Churchill Downs, the cocktail was a staple of the Bluegrass State, known for its quality bourbon.
In 2025, the going rate for a mint julep at the Kentucky Derby was $22 (plus tax). Racegoers with a bit more loose change could also opt for a $1000 (served in a polished pewter cup) or $5000 (served in a 24-karat gold-plated sterling silver cup) julep, with proceeds from each limited-edition version of the drink going to charity.
Wimbledon and strawberries and cream
Wimbledon is another sporting event with a legendary food layout, but the top item on the famed tournament’s menu is its strawberries and cream dish, which draws impressive lines of customers on a yearly basis.
The tradition dates to the first editions of Wimbledon in the late 1870s and centers around the event’s timing on the calendar. Occurring in July, the tournament would take place during the brief window of the year when strawberries would be available in England.
Baseball games and crackerjack
Attributing a single snack as connected to an entire sport feels ludicrous at face value, but it’s difficult to deny crackerjack’s case as the unofficial food of baseball.
The snack — a concoction of caramel-coated peanuts and popcorn — is famously name-dropped in the 1908 song “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” which has long since become a staple of seventh inning stretches around the country. And while modern ballparks include just about every food conceivable, the over-a-century-old crackerjacks remain a staple.
The Masters and the Masters menu
At the Masters, the iconography lies not with the food or drinks themselves (though those are plenty memorable as well) but with the pricing.
Despite a seemingly unending waiting list for event tickets — and accordingly an unending amount of demand once inside Augusta National — the Masters menu (and its prices) remains frozen in time. A pimento cheese sandwich will set a buyer back $1.50. Bottled water on a hot Georgia day? $2. The Masters’ bargain prices are one of the most legendary traditions in the space of sports and food.
The Super Bowl and wings
Admittedly, this one might be a stretch. Super Bowl parties, notoriously, come with a ton of food and drinks. But if you were to pick out a single staple, you’d be hard-pressed to dethrone wings.
Just check the numbers. According to a January 2025 survey done by Statista, chicken wings ranked as the most common food eaten on Super Bowl Sunday in the United States. The National Chicken Council projected Americans would consume 1.47 billion chicken wings ahead of Super Bowl LIX this past February.