COVID Cancels Annual Beef Bowl Feast
Organizers have cancelled the annual Lawry’s Beef Bowl ahead of Saturday’s Rose Bowl for the second year in a row due to concerns over the rising cases and the emergence of the Omicron COVID variant.
Held at Lawry’s The Prime Rib restaurant in conjunction with the Rose Bowl since 1956, the Beef Bowl has been an annual tradition at the Beverly Hills restaurant. Players and coaches from the college football teams competing in the Rose Bowl game are invited to dine at the restaurant in the days prior to the game. Last year was the only year that it didn’t happen as the Rose Bowl was moved to Texas amid the last year’s winter COVID surge.
“The purpose of the event is to honor champion student-athletes for their achievement as a team of making it to the Rose Bowl Game,” said Richard R. Frank, executive chairman of the board of Lawry’s Restaurants Inc.
The restaurant decided to air on the side of caution to protect not only its staff but the visiting players during this current winter surge, according to a statement.
The Beef Bowl is older than all but the Rose, Orange, Cotton, Sugar and Sun bowls. It is billed by organizers as college football’s most enduring pre-bowl game tradition. Lawrence Frank and Walter Van de Kamp opened Lawry's The Prime Rib in 1938. Its unique single entrée menu features the standing rib roast.
“The meal is a large part of the celebration because these are young men with enormous appetites, but its more about celebrating together away from the practice field in a legendary setting,” Frank said.
In lieu of a traditional Beef Bowl, the restaurant will package and deliver the meals to the players instead.
The 108th Rose Bowl Game will be held on January 1, 2022. The game will feature a traditional matchup of teams from the Big Ten and Pac-12. This year’s matchup features Big Ten representative Ohio State facing PAC-12 Champion Uth Utes in Pasadena, Calif., at 5 p.m. ET, 2 p.m. PT.
