KIRO NEWSRADIO OPINION

‘Hot dogs out of a backpack’: Jake weighs in on vendor crackdown at Lumen Field

Oct 24, 2025, 5:02 AM | Updated: 3:26 pm

More than a dozen unpermitted food vendors were shut down outside Lumen Field, many of which were operating without sufficient refrigeration or handwashing, KING 5 reported Wednesday.

KIRO host Jake Skorheim shared his own experience with a food vendor outside the stadium.

“My son and I went to a Mariners game, like, a month and a half ago, and we walked right by one, and I see this guy, he’s like, flinging up hot dogs. He’s pulling hot dogs out of a backpack, shoving them on the grill. And I’m thinking to myself, there’s just no way that this is a safe way to store food,” Jake said on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio.

According to KING 5, there has been a surge in illegal food carts, with King County shutting down 27 carts in 2023, but then shutting down 111 in 2024 — a 300% spike.

“They’re not licensed, they’re not legal, they’re not healthy,” KIRO host Spike O’Neill remarked.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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‘Hot dogs out of a backpack’: Jake weighs in on vendor crackdown at Lumen Field