Bob Stefanski spent his professional career in the food and beverage industry, entering the venue side of concessions and catering at Pine Knob Music Theater, Clarkston, Mich., in 1980.
He spent the next 24 years with Ogden/Aramark. He passed away March 14, at the age of 70, in Detroit, where he and his wife Susie had retired after he spent another 10 years with Olympia Entertainment.
Word spread through the live event hospitality industry slowly, though there was no official obituary or planned memorial. Susie said Bob did not want a fuss.
But friends fuss, so John Lamkin told Chris Bigelow who told me, followed by several phone calls that included Jim Rozes, all retired or soon to retire food service historians and alumni.
The business in the 80s and 90s was shaped by some big personalities, and Stefanski was one of them. He started at the prestigious Pine Knob as GM and quickly moved up to district manager for Ogden. His trajectory was steady to regional manager, then area manager. By the time John Lamkin joined Ogden, Stefanski was area manager and his territory included the Louisiana Superdome, where Lamkin worked.
Bob and Susie Stefanski at IAAM in Reno, Nev., in 2004. (Photo by Venues Today)
When Ogden hired Fred Ordower and Doug Logan and started looking at venue management as well as food and drink, Stefanski was moved to the West Coast to handle Ogden Food Services. There he worked closely with venue managers like Brad Mayne, CVE, who was opening Arrowhead Pond (now the Honda Center) in Anaheim, Calif., Lamkin recalled.
Mayne recalls that when Ogden Entertainment decided to pursue private management as well as food and beverage for venues, Mayne was promoted to sell that service in the Western region. He often traveled with Stefanski to pitch Ogden as a one stop shop to venue owners. “Bob was an incredible individual. He was driven to grow the number of venues we had and was very strategic in how he did that. I trusted him. He took care of people,” Mayne recalled.
Mayne left Ogden in 1998, but he was there for the beginnings of ideas like Tinseltown, an experiential food and drink outlet that was envisioned as part and parcel with a venue destination. Stefanski worked hard to make Tinseltown work.
Rozes also worked with Stefanski while he was on the West Coast. “He was a good guy to work for,” Rozes noted. “He was responsible for building Ogden’s West Coast business,” including securing the Staples Center (now crypto.com Arena) contract in Los Angeles.
“He worked hard. He was always trying to acquire new business,” Rozes said, adding it wasn’t just traditional live entertainment venues. Stefanski was up for any challenge, including options like Tinseltown in Anaheim. Guests dressed up like they were attending the Academy Awards. “It was an interactive dining experience. It’s no longer there, of course,” he said. But it was indicative of Stefanski’s willingness to take chances.
In 2000, when the feds approved a $236 million acquisition of Ogden by Aramark, Stefanski was an SVP at Ogden. The transition was smooth. He became a VP for Aramark’s Sports & Entertainment division and continued to find business and service existing accounts.
Bob and Susie Stefanski were in attendance at almost every district (now region) meeting of IAAM (now IAVM), as well as the national convention, now VenueConnect. Lamkin especially remembers some good times at District 3 and District 5. Lamkin and his wife, Elaine, were often in the company of the Stefanskis, even on adventures like a trip to Hong Kong for Ogden that resulted in a visit to Macau when it was a two-casino town. Ogden had far-reaching tentacles and even operated food and drink at the airport in Hong Kong.
“He was a character. He made friends with people very easily,” Lamkin said
