‘More beer than water.’ How many pork sandwiches, other items sold at RBC Heritage?
While following RBC Heritage golfers from the seventh to eighth hole, a throng of plaid-clad visitors descend upon a concession stand halfway.
They buy plates of spicy tuna rolls and lox rolls made to order, chicken sandwiches and beer bottles more often than water bottles
It’s all orchestrated by The SERG Restaurant Group of Hilton Head, which has provided food for the concessions since 2020. Last year, they sold 20,175 Michelob ULTRA beers compared with 12,000 Dasani water bottles, according to Director of Operations Alan Wolf.
The group has 15 local restaurants, and the food served at Heritage this year is from many of the restaurants’ menus. For the first time this year, there is sushi, which is on Poseidon, Skull Creek Boathouse and Char Bar’s menus.
“For the most part, the rest is just (our catering),” Wolf said. “A chicken sandwich is a chicken sandwich. It’s not too hard. It’s not specific to one restaurant.”
Tim Nelson is one of the SERG Group general managers who heads each of the eight concession stands. For the past five years he’s owned and operated Charbar Co. and Holy Tequila.
“It’s really awesome because its on our home turf,” he said. “I could hit a golf ball (from here) and hit my two restaurants.”
He said they decided to introduce sushi this year instead of the other “not cool overpriced items” at other golf tournaments, and it’s one of the fan favorites.
“(It’s) something fun and different,” he said. “Being out in this beautiful weather sushi works really well.”
At each concession stand there are two to three volunteers and two to six people preparing food, according to Nelson. He said all proceeds and tips from the concession stands benefit the volunteer’s organization, in addition to the $200 they are paid each day to work.
These local civic and non-profit organization volunteers are different than Heritage’s volunteers, who have roles mainly related to the golf course and players.
“We’re all local businesses, we all operate in this community and give back to the community,” he said “All the money stays. It’s not some huge conglomerate.”
The stands also have two to three runners, whose job is to deliver needed food supplies to each of the concession stands via golf cart.
“We have a central location where we have refrigerated trucks,” he said. “We pretty much operate through text and email, back to the main commissary where they track everything.”
Back at the main commissary, near the media tent, SERG employee Alex Newton tallies how many boxes of hot pretzels, french fries and brownies, among other food items, that each concession stand needs on a white board. He erases or crosses out items to keep up.
“This is like the war room,” he said. “Each location will call with what they’re getting low on and what they need.”
Boxes are then marked with hole numbers so that runners know where to take them.
Other than “more beer than water,” how many other big food items did SERG Group serve last year, according to Wolf?
- About 3,750 cherry-smoked pork sandwiches
- Over 4,500 turkey club sandwiches
He said it translates to:
- 3,500 pounds of pork
- 4,000 pounds of cheeseburgers
- 1,200 pounds of chicken
They still don’t have numbers for 2023, but Wolf said they planned for a little more this year because the elevated field of the tournament with the PGA is expected to bring stronger crowds.
“The good news is we can adjust as we go,” he said Thursday, stepping away to help unload boxes off of a truck.
This story was originally published April 13, 2023 at 1:37 PM.
