The Islanders host the Devils in their home opener on Saturday, October 3, and when the doors at UBS Arena open, the building is going to taste different. The Elmont arena and its hospitality partner Delaware North rolled out the food lineup for the 2026-27 season this week, and it swings big: candy inside a grilled cheese, a stromboli sold by the foot, and a corner of the concourse reserved for Long Island restaurants.

Two Long Island kitchens move in

The most local piece of the plan sits at Section 105, where a new Coca-Cola Corner will rotate four area restaurants through the season, with a portion of sales going to fight food insecurity.

First up is Tap Room, the gastropub that started on Patchogue's Main Street and has grown to nine locations across Nassau and Suffolk. It opens the rotation with pastrami sliders and prime rib sliders. Following it is Wok N' Roll, the Huntington village kitchen on New Street whose egg rolls already earned a stand at Citi Field in 2024. At UBS it is bringing a vodka chicken parm egg roll and, for the brave, a birthday cake egg roll. The final two restaurants in the rotation will be named during the season.

The sandwich people will photograph before they eat

The headline item lives at the Section 220 market: a grilled cheese that pairs brie with Nerds Gummy Clusters on toasted sourdough. Sweet with savory, crunch inside the melt, it is the kind of idea that sounds like a dare and cashes out as dessert and dinner in one hand. Expect it all over your feed by the second home stand.

It has company in the curiosity category. There is an Uncrustable pulled pork tostada, which starts with a deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich and tops it with pulled pork, barbecue sauce, peanuts and scallions, and a poke esquites cup that folds raw tuna, corn, avocado, red onion and cilantro into one container.

A stromboli measured in feet

Section 108 gets the item with the most Long Island name on the menu: the Chicken Cutlet StromboLI, two feet of chicken cutlets, mozzarella, Parmesan and marinara built to be shared across a row of seats. The capital letters are the arena's own, and honestly, they earned them.

The rest of the lineup

The savory additions run deep: a Burrata Boat of tater tots, tomatoes, burrata, balsamic glaze and basil; Rangoon toast; a churrasco steak sandwich; loaded Kraft mac and cheese with a choice of jerk chicken, Buffalo chicken or pulled pork; and hot chicken and waffles from Big Chicken, the fried chicken chain co-founded by Shaquille O'Neal.

Three burgers join the board, including a Bodega Burger with jalapenos, queso fresco, grilled pineapple and chamoy, and a hot honey and pork rind pimento cheeseburger.

Dessert, and the designated drivers

Section 119 pours the South Shore Berry Boba Shake, a blue raspberry shake with blueberry popping boba, whipped cream, graham crumb sand and Swedish Fish on top. Mister Softee nachos swap chips for waffle cone pieces under soft serve, chocolate, raspberry and caramel. Magnolia Bakery is bringing its banana pudding cups, and a collectible Sparky popcorn bucket converts into a wearable dragon crown once the popcorn is gone.

For anyone skipping the beer lines, the arena is widening its alcohol-free list: a Diet Coke and orange juice float with vanilla cream, a berry cola refresher, a blackberry cola and a cherry lemonade.

Five years in, the food is the show between periods

UBS Arena opened at Belmont Park in November 2021 and hits its fifth anniversary this season, with more than three million guests through the doors across more than 350 events. The new menu reads like a building that knows the food photos travel as far as the highlights do.

The first chance to taste any of it comes Saturday, October 3 at 7:30 p.m., when the Islanders open the home schedule against New Jersey. The grilled cheese will be waiting either way the game goes.