Yes, you can bring your own food into Fenway

In Fenway Park during the bottom of the third inning of a May game, lifelong Red Sox fan John O’Friel found himself with a predicament. It wasn’t what beer to order or how to grab the attention of the hawker with the Fenway Franks. It was how to crack open the dense claws of the 5-pound Market Basket lobster he had brought in as a game-day snack.

He finally stomped it open in a bag on the concrete floor and the surrounding fans cheered. Others slightly upwind wondered where the seafood smell was coming from.

This season, O’Friel has been getting serious about his ballpark meals and documenting them on his TikTok @John_Eats. A few of his most elaborate include the whole turkey he hauled in for a Thanksgiving-style feast, a fully dressed charcuterie board, a bag of spaghetti and meatballs, and a steak dinner complete with broccoli and mashed potatoes.

The videos, filmed by his best friend, Wesley Call, capture everything from the T ride to the stadium and the walk through security, to the dining experience. The idea occurred to him after watching a college friend bring PB&J sandwiches into Yankee Stadium to save money. What would fly at Fenway?

“The wheels started turning,” says O’Friel, who has been relying on the standing room passes to attend as many games as possible. “I posted because I thought it was funny, but then I really was like, where do they draw the line?”

He’s not the only one testing the limits. A recent New York Times piece explored the impressive range of BYO concessions fans have been enjoying at ballparks across the country, while McDonald’s is getting in on the action with the launch of a stadium-friendly clear takeout bag called the McValue Pack (or MVP).

In fact, it’s something of an open secret among fans that many MLB ballparks have lax — if any — rules regarding outside food, whereas NFL and NBA stadiums generally prohibit it. When the Globe asked for clarification on the policy, the Red Sox declined an interview but referred us to their Fenway Park information guide, which doesn’t include any information about bringing in outside food. (O’Friel’s TikTok tagline, “The guy who sneaks food into Fenway Park,” reads like a wink-and-nod confession.) What is forbidden: glass containers, bags larger than 12-by-12-by-6 inches, hard-sided coolers, and beverages other than one unsealed 16-ounce bottle of water.

Pharmacist and partial season ticket holder Susan Downard of Watertown likes that the BYO option allows her to bring in salads and fruit, as well as Italian snacks she picks up from the North End during the neighborhood’s late summer feast season.

“You can only eat so many Fenway Franks,” says Downard, who noted that the food flexibility is particularly helpful for fans with food allergies. “I can’t eat like that all the time so I started bringing my own food.”

Other fans, like Donald Rando, are testing Fenway’s “spaghetti policy.” Inspired by the beloved scene from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and the viral stunt at a Milwaukee Brewers game earlier this spring, he and his wife, Sabrina, showed up with a Ziplock full of pasta. That meal sparked some healthy debate on Reddit about whether their pasta dinner could be considered Italian food without a red marinara sauce. Either way, the Randos say they had a spectacular time eating it — and did it to demonstrate a point.

“A lot of people just assume you can’t bring food in,” says Donald. “I decided to bring in spaghetti to get some attention to it and prove that you can bring in food.”

The Randos are die-hard fans — last year they commuted from Amherst, N.H., for 67 home games — and they’re eager to spread the word about BYO food at Fenway. But while they’ve gotten plenty of support for their efforts, they’ve also encountered pushback and skepticism. Particularly Sabrina, who says she’s taken more flak than her husband.

“I am a woman on the internet talking about sports, and men come right into my comments to tell me that I’m wrong, no matter what,” she says. “It lent some credibility to it when it was my husband doing the bringing of the food in. He was not told that he was wrong.”

O’Friel has also faced concerns from his own family. He lives in Newton with his 94-year-old grandmother, who lovingly helps him prepare his elaborate ballpark meals while sharing her reservations.

“Every time I leave the house, she’s like ‘John, please don’t get arrested’,” says O’Friel.

There have been a few over-the-top instances where Fenway security turned away O’Friel. With the whole Thanksgiving turkey, he was told the bird had to be broken down and carried in as individual portions. So O’Friel and his buddies cut it up in the parking lot and packed up the turkey parts in plastic bags. The second time, O’Friel attempted to bring in 100 hot dogs, and was told there’s a 10-hot-dog-per-person limit.

Heading into the last few months of summer games, he’s already planning his next move.

“Sushi is an obvious one,” he says. “Soup is tough because of the liquid rule, but I’d love to cook ramen in the stadium. There’s only one way to find out.”