EP-205 Brian Carriveau of Bon Appétit Management Company

On every home game day, tens of thousands of baseball fans filter into the San Francisco Giants’ ballpark. Many of them will buy beer, and thanks to Brian Carriveau, their options now include more than the predictable lineup of macro lagers. Last season, after convincing the eco-conscious ballpark managers to allow him to sell aluminum cans, baseball fans found they could buy 16 ounces of locally-made craft beer by nearby breweries — some of which weren’t available elsewhere in the city. Carriveau is the Director of Catering at Bon Appétit Management Company, which handles food and drink menus at Oracle Park — formerly known as AT&T Park — as well as the attached Public House restaurant and a posh, members-only bar inside the park called the Gotham Club. After beginning his career in hospitality at the famed Awahnee Hotel in Yosemite, he took to San Francisco. Now with Bon Appetit, he handles concessions for an average of 40 thousand people every home game during the baseball season. It’s a busy, exciting job, not just because the Giants have won three World Series titles since he began working at the park, but also because it gives Carriveau a major league platform to share his love of craft beer with a huge audience. That’s not without its challenges. Buying alcohol for a bar is one thing; buying beer for a literal stadium full of people is quite another — and it’s Carriveau’s job to do both. Can a ballpark cater to every kind of drinker? I don’t know, but Bon Appetit is sure going to try. This is Brian Carriveau, Director of Catering at Bon Appétit Management Company for the San Francisco Giants’ Oracle Park. Listen in.