What are the best foods to try in Upstate New York?
A few years ago, I wrote a book called “A Taste of Upstate New York.” I spent an entire summer traveling across Upstate NY regions, seeking out, researching and tasting many of the unique foods.
Some are regional, and some are micro-regional. Several are so famous they have their own historical markers to boast of their legacy. All are delicious.
Here is a baker’s dozen of my favorites:
Salt Potatoes from Haddock Paddock on Restaurant Row at the 2017 New York State Fair. SYRSYRSalt potatoes (Liverpool)
A mainstay at Central New York picnics for more than 100 years. In Syracuse, they spell salt potatoes H-I-N-E-R-W-A-D-E-L-S. A historical marker located at 106 Lake Dr. in Liverpool dedicated to this food reads: “Salt Potatoes. Popularized by Salt Industry Workers. Potatoes Boiled in Brine and Paired with Melted Butter. Served in Local Taverns as Early as 1883.” Make time to stop at the Salt Museum where this historical marker is located.
Address: 106 Lake Dr., Liverpool
Napoli’s tomato pie is a Utica favorite for more than 50 years, only at Napoli’s Italian Bakery & Deli, 412 Culver Ave., Utica NY. Gary Walts | syracuse.comGary Walts | syracuse.comTomato pie (Utica)
Legend has it that this iconic Upstate New York pizza was born at O’Scugnizzo’s Pizzeria in Utica. Owner Eugeno Berliner created this square-cut, tomato-sauce-on-top pie and sold his original versions for a nickel apiece. Skip the mozzarella cheese, but go ahead and give it a light dusting of parmesan. O’Scuggnizzo’s is still in operation with the same family and, according to various sources, it is either the oldest or second-oldest pizzeria in New York state.
Address: 61 Bleecker St., Utica
A complete plate ready to be served including, macaroni salad, home fries, two cheese burgers, chopped onions, mustard, and meat hot sauce at Nick Tahou’s Home of the Garbage Plate, Rochester, N.Y., Friday, March 4, 2016.
Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.comGarbage plate (Rochester)
It looks like a mess, but it’s surprisingly tasty. The classic “one-meal-on-a-plate” dish invites diners to pile it up. Everyone does: hamburger patty, two hot dogs, potato salad, chili, macaroni salad, onions, hot sauce and more. All together. First created at Nick Tahou Hots in 1918, where it’s still served today. It’s Rochester’s official food.
Address: 320 Main St., Rochester
A classic beef on weck at Ellicottville Brewing Company, just outside of Jamestown. Sunny Hernandez | ahernandez@nyup.comSunny Hernandez | ahernandez@nyup.comBeef on Weck (Buffalo)
This roast beef sandwich comes with horseradish and au jus and is served on a special salt-crusted kummelweck roll. According to Buffalo lore, early German bartenders served these sandwiches, whose rolls were covered in coarse salt and caraway seeds, at their taverns so the working-man customers would want to wet their lips “with one more for the road.” Picking the best beef on weck is dangerous, but I’ve had it at Schwabl’s in West Seneca, and I have never forgotten it. They have been serving this food legend for more than 90 years.
Address: Schwabl’s, 789 Center Rd., West Seneca
Annie Mills of Saratoga Springs shows her local beer and potato chip inspired hat for the 25th Annual Hat Contest Sunday at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs. Ed Burke | NYUp.ComEd Burke | NYUp.ComPotato chips (Saratoga Springs)
America’s favorite salty snack began at the Moon Lake House in Saratoga Springs. Capital Region legend says that in 1853, the chef at this upscale restaurant had a finicky customer one night who demanded that his order of potatoes be sent back and cut thinner. A disgruntled chef then decided to prank the customer by cutting the potato slices so thin you could almost see through them. He threw them in his fryer, drained and salted them, and served them up. They became a big hit, and the potato chip was born. Some say the Native American chef’s name was George Crum, and the picky customer was one of the richest men in America, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.
The McSweeney’s Red Hots Michigan has a mild meat sauce and the onions are sprinkled on top, rather than the more traditional “buried” style found throughout the city. Conveniently, the dish is served with a fork to pick up the fallen sauce and onions, as McSweeney’s puts a generous helping of toppings on their hot dogs. Mustard is found underneath the dog and adds a little zing to the whole creation. Grace Carlic for newyorkupstate.comMichigan hot dog (Plattsburgh)
Nobody knows how this hearty hot dog got the name “Michigan.” So, it adds to the mystery of this popular dog, found in the far northern Plattsburgh area. You may find similar hot dogs being served around the state, but the Michigan is still the go-to hot dog along the Adirondack Coast. Get the original at Clare and Carl’s, where they have been serving them up since the 1940s. Ingredients include a steamed hot dog, split top white bread roll, spicy meat sauce, chopped onions and mustard. Don’t even think about ordering cheese on it.
Address: Clare and Carl’s, 4729 Route 9, Plattsburgh
Sponge candy from Buffalo, NY. Courtesy of Visit Buffalo NiagaraCourtesy of Visit Buffalo NiagaraSponge candy (Buffalo)
If you get too far outside of the greater Buffalo area and ask for sponge candy, you are likely to be met with a blank stare. Sponge candy is made at many places throughout the city. Sometimes referred to as “little pillows of goodness,” sponge candy consists of a chocolate-covered square filled with caramelized toffee. The mixture of the smooth chocolate on the outside and the crunchy taste inside is a perfect mix. Fowler’s Chocolates lays claim as Buffalo’s original sponge candy shop, open since 1910. Watson’s Chocolates is also a favorite, making 45 tons of sponge candy a year.
Address: Fowler’s Chocolates, 100 River Rock Dr., Buffalo; Watson’s Chocolates, 738 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo
Chicken for spiedies sizzling on the grill at Lupo’s S&S Char-Pit.SYRSpiedies (Endicott)
The official sandwich of the Southern Tier. This simple “peasant sandwich” from the old country features chicken, beef or veal that’s marinated, charcoal-grilled and served in a soft bun. The spiedie has two historical markers proclaiming its legacy. One, at 125 Oak Hill Road, reads: “Parkview Restaurant. Birthplace of the Spiedie. On this site in the 1930s, Camillo and Acostino Icovelli created the iconic sandwich of the Southern Tier.” A second historical marker is located in Binghamton’s Otsiningo Park, where more than 100,000 people attend an annual Spiedie Festival. This marker reads: “Spiedies. A Broome County specialty as early as 1938. Marinated meat, charbroiled, and served on bread. Celebrated here at Spiedie Fest since 1983.”
A tray of vanilla half-moon cookies from Harrison Bakery in Syracuse. Jacob Pucci | nyup.comJacob Pucci | NYUp.comHalf Moon cookies (Utica)
These upstate New York favorite cookies are sometimes confused with “black and white” cookies, which is a New York City term for a similar but distinctly different cookie. Half moons were born in Utica at Hemstrought’s Bakery in 1920. The bakery still makes them every day and hand-frosts each cookie with chocolate fudge on one side and vanilla buttercream frosting on the other. You can also get the cookie with chocolate or vanilla cake “bottoms.” The cookies have gone national over the years, but Central New York claims them as a native creation and as one of the most beloved foods from the region.
Address: Hemstoughts Bakery, 900 Oswego St., Utica
A plate of chicken wings at Duffs Friday, May 15, 2015, in Amherst, N.Y. Joed Viera | newyorkupstate.comJoed Viera | newyorkupstate.comChicken wings (Buffalo)
One of the most familiar “food tales” in all of Upstate New York. It is said that on March 4, 1964, Dominic Bellissimo was tending bar at his mother’s tavern when a group of his hungry friends came by near closing time. Mama Teressa had just about closed up the kitchen, but she turned the fryer back on, found some chicken wings in the cooler, and deep fried them. After coating the wings with a spur-of-the-moment hot sauce, she served them up to the kids. They were gone in a minute, and America‘s top-selling appetizer was born. The buffalo wing had arrived. The family’s Anchor Bar is still there, and today it is estimated that more than 3 billion wings are sold annually throughout the United States.
Address: Anchor Bar, 1047 Main St., Buffalo
Chicken riggies a la vodka from Avicolli’s Restaurant in Liverpool.Jacob PucciChicken Riggies (Utica/Rome)
One of the newer “Upstate foods” on this list. Chicken riggies first started popping up around the Utica/Rome area in the 1970s and early 1980s. The “riggies” in the name refers to the type of pasta, rigatoni. The sauce, poured over the sautéed chicken, is a creamy, heavily spiced tomato sauce with black olives, mushrooms, onions, bell or cherry peppers and a variety of other ingredients, depending on the chef. The dish is usually served with chopped basil on top. If you go to an Italian restaurant near Utica or Rome and it doesn’t have chicken riggies on the menu, you should leave.
Nora’s Candy Shop, maker of turkey joints, is in a neighborhood in Rome, N.Y. You can visit the little store — but you can’t see how owners continue the nearly century-old tradition of making this candy. Teri Weaver | tweaver@syracuse.comTeri Weaver | tweaver@syracuse.comTurkey Joint candy (Rome, NY)
An amazing story. The Haritatos family emigrated from Greece to America in 1919. In Rome, they opened a small candy shop producing a unique candy with a recipe they brought with them. The sweet treat is called Turkey Joint candy — yes, they really do look like a turkey’s leg joint — and a century later, they are still made by the same family. The candy, sold from their little shop in a residential city neighborhood, is made with a long, shiny silvery “tube” made of sugar and filled with a mixture of chocolate and hazelnuts. They are sold in a glass jar and are available only from October to May, so the heat doesn’t diminish the delicious flavor of the candy.
Address: Nora’s Candy Shop, 321 Doxstator St., Rome, NY
Oneonta-style cold cheese pizza from Carmine’s in Netcong. (Jeremy Schneider | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)Cold Cheese Pizza (Oneonta)
Tino’s Pizzeria on Main Street in this college town had a problem. Students would come pouring into the pizza joint in the early morning hours after a night of heavy drinking at the city’s numerous college bars for a slice to take with them on the long walk up to either Hartwick College or the State University of New York at Oneonta. Along their trek, they would wolf down the piping hot slice without thinking and inevitably end up burning the roofs of their mouths. The Garufi family, owners of Tino’s, solved the problem by taking the red-hot slice, painting it with tomato sauce and then topping it with a small mountain of cold pieces of shredded mozzarella cheese. Hence, the “cold cheese pizza” was born in 1980 in Oneonta.
Address: Tino’s Pizzeria, 180 Main St., Oneonta, NY
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