Buy Me Some Peanuts and Veuve Clicquot

A lighter, healthier sauce on pastas? Ethnic hard-crusted breads on the buffet?

Not what you’d expect in a building where large men grunt and smack into each other for a living. Seems the Staples Center is bringing refinement to arena cuisine, that culinary subset formerly dominated by mustard and large doses of salt.

“There will still be hot dogs and pretzels and beer,” says general manager Bobby Goldwater. “But there will be plenty of other choices.”

The priciest fare goes to 200 fans who buy memberships in the Grand Reserve Club, a $10,500-a-year lounge featuring oysters on the half-shell and a private wine cellar. Several thousand more--the suite and Premier ticket holders--can make reservations at the Arena Club with its menu of steaks and pastas, a stylish buffet and tables that overlook the arena. Wolfgang meets puck.

Waiters will scurry through the arena’s more expensive seats, taking orders and calling for runners to bring the food. Even the Upper Concourse, the nosebleed section, has an unexpected bit of luxury: a refreshment stand on the terrace for peanuts al fresco with a view of downtown.

It’s enough to put a guy off his belching.

At least die-hards can seek refuge at the Fox Sports Sky Box, a vast sports-themed restaurant and bar perfect for gulping cheeseburgers and buffalo wings in the nictitating glow of television monitors. There are also 23 refreshment stands that run the fast-food gamut from McDonald’s to Pizza Hut to Panda Express to Camacho’s.

Arena executives want the average Joe to know they spent all summer at tastings, not only for the Arena Club’s $29.95 Chef’s Table buffet, but also for the $2.75 hot dogs, $2.50 pretzels and $4.50 small beers. Goldwater says, “We’re not taking anything for granted.”