There is a strong and reasonable case to be made that the White Sox’s biggest star the past couple seasons — and perhaps the franchise’s brightest since Paul Konerko — has not been a player, at all, but a milkshake. No ordinary milkshake, mind you, but the “Campfire Milkshake,” which the team introduced in 2024 in all its creamy, chocolatey glory.
It went viral back then, and became a highlight of a long, dismal season in which the Sox set a modern Major League record by losing 121 games. But who was counting, anyway, with arguably the best milkshake in baseball right there for the taking at Rate Field, ready to ease the pain of defeat and provide comfort — like a campfire, indeed — on so many tough nights at the ballpark.
Talent retention can be a challenge for even the most savvy and successful of Major League teams these days, and so give the White Sox their due: The Campfire Milkshake will be back for a third season the team confirmed Wednesday during its annual “ballpark preview” event, though the shake spent the offseason hitting the proverbial concession fare weight room.
It’s a little bigger. With more to love. And amid the presentation on Wednesday, sitting there in resplendence with a thick layer of chocolate lining the rim of a souvenir plastic cup, with toasted marshmallows floating atop a concoction of whipped cream and graham-cracker-infused chocolate ice cream, was a small, new detail: There was not one straw, but two.
“We’re introducing our Campfire Milkshake 2.0,” Nick Toth, executive chef at Rate Field, said with some measure of pride while he stood in front of all the new offerings. The 2.0 version of the shake is not all that different from the original, but “we twisted it up a little bit,” Toth said, “to make it shareable for two guests.”
On the field, the Sox have not done a lot of things all that well in recent years. Eleven of the past 15 seasons have ended with losing records. They’ve lost at least 101 games in each of the past three seasons. Hope has dimmed amid the losses, and good seats are regularly available at Rate Field, and usually on the cheap through third-party ticket vendors.
Where the White Sox have succeeded in recent years is at the concession stand. The team’s offerings in 2024 ranked among the top 10 in Major League Baseball, according to a USA Today fan survey and, as unscientific as perceptions and vibes might be, a hit like the Campfire Milkshake does wonders for a team’s concession cuisine street cred.
“We’ve always been rated very high, and taken a great deal of pride in our food and beverage offerings,” said Brooks Boyer, the White Sox’s chief revenue and marketing officer. “We rank very high in Major League Baseball. We always try to reset the bar every year. And what can we do that can be just a little bit better, that can offer something a little bit different?”
Boyer on Wednesday helped introduce some of those new offerings in front of a gathering of media members and content creators, some of whom maneuvered GoPro cameras over plates piled high with rookie stadium food, ready for its closeup. Among the items on display were a who’s-who of caloric heavyweights and fried fare that wouldn’t have been out of place at the most gluttonous of state fairs.
Some of the items were even available to taste, like a chicken and waffle (delectable) and a Tonkatsu Dog (even better) that was, more or less, a high-end corn dog featuring the following: a Vienna beef hot dog, panko, kewpie mayo (whatever that might be), teriyaki sauce and bonito flakes. All around, the content creators tasted the bite-size samples and reported the flavor notes — “this one tastes like a very good corn dog,” they could’ve said — to their audiences.
There were items that were not especially unhealthy. The Italian Scallion — a pepperoni, prosciutto and ham sandwich, with the fixins — figures to be a hit, and was among those available to taste on Wednesday. The Machete, which is what the White Sox are calling a “giant quesadilla” with chicken chorizo and white queso, tasted good enough to belong in any worthwhile Mexican restaurant.
And then there were many new offerings the Sox didn’t make available to sample, for the benefit of guest and media waistlines. Among those that were for show (but not taste): the “All-Star Chicago Lineup,” which is a sampler that includes a Chicago-style hot dog, Italian beef and a sausage, with a small bag of popcorn; offerings from the Bridgeport Taquería, with street tacos and an elote bowl that looked dangerous (in a good way); a Street Wok, with wok-fried chicken; and The Southside Supreme, which is a pizza and Italian beef mash-up served in a box shaped like home plate.
“It’s a lot of eating,” Toth, the chef, said of getting the ballpark menu, and new offerings, just right.
Toth noted that a few new sandwiches, including the Italian Scallion, are straight off the original menu of D.B. Kaplan’s, a longtime Chicago deli that closed in 1995. It lives on through Levy Restaurants, which is based in Chicago and handles catering in stadiums and arenas across the country. For the Sox, though, it’s more personal.
Toth considers himself a South Sider. So does Jesús Vásquez, the executive sous chef at Rate Field, who grew up in Little Village. The new Mexican food-inspired offerings, like the Machete, came from him, as well as the new foot-long fajita dog, which is exactly what it sounds like.
“It sounds simple, right?” he said. “A fajita dog. But really, I’m just combining really good Mexican food, which are fajitas, and the protein would be really good hot dogs.
“So it was like a no-brainer.”
Outside, through the windows of a lounge and hospitality area behind the left field fence, it did not look much like baseball season was near. A little bit of snow covered the diamond. The outfield and infield grass carried a dull shade of green, as if it, too, had been beaten down by the cold. But there will be baseball here, nonetheless, on April 2. The Sox home opener, against Toronto, approaches.
Hope will manifest, as it always does that time of year. Fans will come, at least for a while. And a great many Campfire Milkshakes will be consumed, the 2.0 version ready for sharing. Who knows how the White Sox will fare in the actual games. There’s nowhere to go but up. In the concourses, though, and at stands in various nooks and crannies, a star or two might be born.
Maybe the new chicken and waffle. Or the fajita dog. Or the Machete.
Maybe the new carrot cake or Tonkatsu Dog or the Italian Scallion.
“We can’t control what happens between those lines when grown men hit a round ball with a round bat, but we can control what happens outside, right?” Boyer said. “So that’s what we try to make as good as possible.”
And so the Campfire Milkshake returns, again, and is back with some new additions.