- [Narrator] When you think of snacks
at a ballgame, you think hot dogs,
Cracker Jacks, peanuts, pretzels,
and, of course, grasshoppers.
Okay, maybe you don't, but the
Seattle Mariners and their fans sure do.
(playful music)
So, how did this crunchy critter
get a spot next to your everyday
concession snacks at Safeco field?
It all starts at this restaurant with this guy.
- My name's Manny Arce.
I'm the executive chef here at Poquito's.
The grasshoppers are grasshoppers.
You know, they're a delicacy, but they're also a snack.
I put them on the menu here as a novelty
when we opened, and we kind of just, it's been on the menu
for almost six and a half years.
I describe them, crunchy like a sunflower seed,
um, salty, a little bit spicy.
Uh, every once in a while, you get one
that's a little squishier than you'd like.
We just toast them and then we put salt
and some lime and some chili on them.
That's about all that we do to them.
- [Narrator] It's one thing to see
restaurant success, but Manny's grasshoppers
became the highlight of going to Mariners' games.
- [Manny] When Mariners were saying that
we'd be a fit for them, I sent some out.
- [Narrator] The response was unreal.
As in 300,000 plus grasshoppers sold.
- [Manny] We were selling out, you know, before even the first inning,
and I started off with 50 pounds,
thinking like, oh, this'll last us, you know, a month or two.
It lasted us one day.
To date, we've probably gone through
about a thousand pounds.
People want more than, you know, hot dogs and popcorn,
and nobody else had been doing it at the stadium,
so it's kind of one of these things
that I think people just really latched onto
and the popularity far exceeded my expectations.