SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — With thousands of baseball fans flooding downtown for Padres Opening Day, restaurants near Petco Park are looking to cash in on the crowds.
Ahead of the game, Friar fans filed into restaurants decked out in brown and gold.
"We're doing double on food, on alcohol... a lot of our products, which is great," said Ivan Munoz, the chef at Lucky's Lunch Corner.
The restaurant is right across the street from Petco Park on 7th Ave. in the Gaslamp Quarter.
Munoz said business doubles and even triples during this time of year.
With the Padres having such a great season last year, he's more excited for this baseball season to start.
"Especially last season towards the end when they went to the playoffs, it was madness," Munoz said.
Over at Union Kitchen and Tap on 5th Ave., staff curated a special Padres home game menu.
"Our staff's all excited about it, and you see people they've all got their Padres gear on, and it just brings people together," said General Manager Clem Martineau.
Martineau said they usually see a revenue increase of 20 to 30 percent during baseball season.
"That's just on average. If it's a Dodgers game on the weekend, we'll do fifteen thousand dollars more than we normally do," he said.
The restaurant has hired more staff and also bulked up on products.
Martineau adds he hopes the new baseball rules aimed at making the game shorter will free up more time for fans to explore downtown.
"It's one thing if the games end at 9:30 and you're like, I've got to go home, but if the game ends at 8:30, you're like, okay, I can hang out a little bit," Martineau said.
