© Tabi Walters

Football Food

Holidays caters to game-day workers

by Jeff Mortimer

posted 9/11/2012

The Michigan football team plays its first home game on September 8, but the season will start a few days earlier for Rob TerBush and his staff at Holiday's restaurant.

"We start roasting meat on Wednesday, we start baking brownies and cookies and slicing cheeses on Thursday, and late night Friday we cut the fruit, assemble the sandwiches, and then assembly-line the boxes into Saturday morning," says TerBush, whose West Stadium eatery has provided box lunches for upwards of 200 Michigan Stadium workers at every home game since 2005.

"Our contract is with the [U-M] Department of Public Safety," he says. "Whether it's the fire department, Huron Valley Ambulance, the FBI, or their own officers, whoever the Department of Public Safety is employing and/or buying lunch for that day is who gets a box lunch."

TerBush says he started ramping up catering during the reconstruction of West Stadium from 2005 to 2008: "We figured, OK, if people can't get to us, we're going to have to get to them." One regular who still managed to get to Holiday's was a U-M police sergeant, who sounded him out about bidding for the football games.

TerBush is constantly contemplating improvements so he can keep the concession. As in sports, staying on the team can be as challenging as making it in the first place.   

[Originally published in September, 2012.]