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The Carolina Hurricanes held a victory dinner at a popular Raleigh restaurant Tuesday night — and you know they brought a special guest.
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Since landing in Raleigh Monday, the Stanley Cup-winning Carolina Hurricanes have been celebrating all over the Triangle, bringing their new hardware along for the historic ride.
The Stanley Cup has appeared in sports bars, fine dining restaurants and neighborhood shopping centers. On Tuesday, most of the players on the Canes roster and their families had dinner at acclaimed Raleigh Iron Works restaurant Brodeto.
Chef and owner Scott Crawford said he and his culinary director Conor Delaney served the Canes a special family-style meal of Brodeto favorites. Along with the Stanley Cup, Jordan Staal also brought his Conn Smyth trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs.
“They really interact as a family, so that’s the kind of meal we prepared for them,” Crawford said of the Canes players. “They brought their families, there were kids here. I think everyone agrees this is just a surreal moment in time for everyone. You have to imagine how long and hard they’ve worked for this. It was an emotional night to see them celebrating something they’ve worked so hard and so long for.”
Crawford said he got the word Tuesday morning that a Canes dinner might be in the works, sparked apparently from Brodeto fan and Carolina winger Jordan Martinook. Brodeto closed to the public Tuesday and pulled the dinner together in a few hours.
“I have to give a shout out, we’re so grateful to the guests who were gracious enough to move their reservations to a different restaurant or a different night,” Crawford said. “We had to make it happen on short notice and really appreciated that. We felt like it was the right thing to do for the team, the community and the city to make that happen.”
While the restaurant was closed, a crowd gathered around Brodeto and Crawford said players would periodically take the Stanley Cup outside and meet fans.
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When he was offered a chance to hoist the Cup himself, Crawford couldn’t believe it.
“It was exactly like you would think,” he said. “I knew as it was happening, this is a once in a lifetime moment and did not take that for granted. … It was just a special night we’ll remember forever.”
The first Raleigh spot to greet the cup was Glenwood Avenue bar Teets, owned by former Canes player Bates Battaglia. The Cup also spent hours in North Hills outside the Italian restaurant Vivace.
Then Tuesday afternoon it made an unexpected stop for beers at Rudino’s Sports Corner on Edwards Mills Rd. Owner Mark Rudd, who has had Canes season tickets since the team played in Greensboro, said he had just left the restaurant a couple of hours earlier.
“They just dropped in,” Rudd said. “I got a text from a buddy and called one of my managers and said, ‘I hope you got a picture.’ It was such a thrill for our customers and staff.”
In 2006, Rudd’s kids were just a few years old as they went to watch parties and playoff games. Now, with this new championship, Rudd said a new generation of Canes fans has caught the spark, something he’s felt in his bars.
“We’re 100% a hockey bar, 100% a sports bar,” Rudd said. “We have signed sticks on the wall, Canes memorabilia….The younger generation kind of put their arms around this one. I was there in ‘06, but this one is for a different generation. But I had tears in my eyes (Sunday night).”
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