Team USA’s Gold-Medal Goalie Has a Side Hustle: She Rates Caesar Salads. Milan Got a 5.4.
Aerin Frankel set an Olympic record with three straight shutouts in February. Between games she reviews Caesar salads for 65,000 followers, from McDonald’s to Michelin, and two delis near her childhood home have put a wrap on the menu in her honor.
By Sean Anees Saifi · Capital Wealth · Published Wednesday, September 2, 2026 · Source: The Wall Street Journal, August 29–30 and September 1, 2026 editions
Key Points
Frankel, 27, allowed two goals in five games at the 2026 Milan Games and beat Canada in overtime for gold. Her Instagram account, PainByRomaine, gained 15,000 followers during the tournament.
Ratings: a Hawksmoor Caesar in Manhattan, 8.2; a chicken Caesar wrap in Minnesota, 9.5; Milan, with green olives, 5.4 — her lowest ever.
Rules of the craft: no whole anchovies on top, adequate croutons, and olives “don’t belong on Caesar.”
The salad is named for a Tijuana restaurateur, Caesar Cardini, not the Roman — “who certainly could have benefited from Frankel’s defensive skills.”
She minds the net for the Boston Fleet in a league expanding from eight teams to twelve. Four new cities, four new salad markets.
3
consecutive Olympic shutouts, a record
9.5
her top score, a wrap in Minnesota
5.4
Milan, with olives
65K
followers of PainByRomaine
Her friends told her nobody could like salad that much. “No, I actually do.”
In one line: An Olympic champion built a second identity out of a lunch order, and it is the nicest lesson in the paper about what a side gig is for.
The Caesar at Hawksmoor in Manhattan is a foodie’s dream — romaine massaged by hand with garlic, lime, Worcestershire, soft-poached egg and Cantabrian anchovies. Aerin Frankel, who set an Olympic record in February with three consecutive shutouts on the way to a gold medal, gave it an 8.2. Respectable. Lower than the buffalo chicken Caesar in Syracuse and the Sweetgreen wrap. The croutons ran more toward ice shavings than proper pucks, and there was no option to add meat.
Why should anyone care what a hockey goalie thinks about a salad? Because between minding the net for Team USA, Frankel, 27, has become one of the foremost connoisseurs of the dish. She has eaten more Caesars than she can count, formally reviewed dozens — McDonald’s to Michelin, Midwestern rinks to European hamlets — and more than 65,000 people follow along on an account called PainByRomaine, started in 2024 at a friend’s urging after teammates got tired of her bringing salads to team dinners.
The scoreboard
Caesar
Score
Chicken Caesar wrap, Minnesota
9.5
Deli near her childhood home in Chappaqua, N.Y., which added the wrap in her honor
8.5
Shrimp Caesar, Palm Beach
8.3
Hawksmoor, Manhattan
8.2
Milan — green olives, not enough croutons
5.4
Milan, the city that made her famous — Team USA went undefeated and beat Canada in overtime — is also home to her worst salad. During the Games, word got out; over dinner with her parents she checked the account for the first time in days and it had gained 15,000 followers. “I just could not stop laughing.” Followers now send reviews, recommendations and, once, a shipment of homemade Caesar-flavored butter.
What a side gig is for
Frankel plays professionally for the Boston Fleet in a league that is expanding from eight teams to twelve, and women’s pro hockey does not pay like the men’s game. The salad account is joy first and a brand second, which is the right order. It keeps far-flung teammates in touch in the offseason. It costs her lunch. It has already put her name on two deli menus. And it is a second identity that will still exist when the first one retires — which, as Jason Gay reminded readers on the same day about Novak Djokovic, happens to everyone.
What It Means For Your Portfolio
Hold — a side gig built on joy, not leverage
No portfolio note, just a planning one: the best second act is the one you started while the first one was still paying, and the best side income is the kind whose failure costs you lunch.
A hobby that earns money becomes taxable income the year it does — track it, keep the receipts for the salads, and decide early whether it is a business or a pastime, because the IRS will.
For athletes, entertainers and anyone with a short peak-earning window, the planning rule is the same as the goalie’s: build the second identity during the first one, and never fund it with debt.
