Nick Tahou Hots facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Nick Tahou Hots |
|
|---|---|
| Restaurant information | |
| Established | 1918 |
| City | Rochester |
| State | New York |
| Website | www.garbageplate.com |
Nick Tahou Hots is a famous restaurant in Rochester, New York. It's super well-known for a special dish called the Garbage Plate. The restaurant first opened way back in 1918. It was started by Alex Tahou, whose grandson (also named Alex Tahou) runs it today. The restaurant got its name from Nick Tahou, the founder's son, who managed the place until he passed away in 1997. While other places in New York have similar dishes, Nick Tahou's created the original and even trademarked the name "Garbage Plate"!
Contents
What is a Garbage Plate?
The most famous dish at Nick Tahou Hots is the Garbage Plate. It's a big meal with a mix of different foods. You get to choose from things like home fries, macaroni salad, baked beans, and French fries. On top of these, you pick your favorite meats, like hot dogs or hamburgers.
You can add toppings like mustard, chopped onions, ketchup, and the restaurant's special hot sauce. It also comes with bread and butter. Most people mix everything together before they start eating!
Nick Tahou first made this dish with two hamburger patties and some side dishes. Many other restaurants in the Rochester area have tried to copy it. They have dishes with similar names, like "The Hot Plate" or "Sloppy Plate."
The Garbage Plate Run
The University of Rochester's Sigma Phi Epsilon group hosts a fun event called the "Garbage Plate Run." It's a charity race that happens every spring. Teams of three people compete in this unique event.
First, one person runs about 2.2 miles through the city to Nick Tahou's. Then, the second teammate quickly eats a whole Garbage Plate. Finally, the third teammate runs back to the university campus to finish the race! There's also an "Ironman" challenge where one person tries to do all three tasks alone. All the money raised from this event goes to the Mount Hope Family Center, which helps families in need.
Other Nick Tahou Hots Locations
In the mid-1950s, Nick Tahou's hot dog stand was in a smaller building nearby. From 1979 to 2007, there were actually two Nick Tahou Hots restaurants in Rochester. One was the main downtown location on West Main Street. The other was a satellite restaurant on Lyell Avenue in Gates.
In 2007, the Lyell Avenue location changed its name to Steve T. Hots and Potatoes. It's now owned by Steve Tahou and his sister Joanne. This new place started using different hot dogs and sausages from a local Rochester company called Zweigle's. The original West Main Street location still uses the "Nick Tahou" and "Garbage Plate" names. It also uses its own special hot dogs. The downtown restaurant used to be open all night, but now it closes earlier. Steve T.'s, however, stays open 24 hours a day.
Nick Tahou Hots in the Spotlight
Nick Tahou's and its famous Garbage Plate have been featured in many TV shows and magazines!
- It was on the Food Network show Unwrapped in an episode about "Funny Foods."
- It's also part of the City in a Box Monopoly-based board game, which shows famous places in Rochester.
- The Garbage Plate was even highlighted in the US Airways inflight magazine in 2007.
- In 2009, Jon Stewart mentioned Garbage Plates on The Daily Show.
- The Food Network filmed a segment for The Best Thing I Ever Ate there in 2011.
- The Travel Channel series Chowdown Countdown ranked Nick Tahou's at No. 81 out of 101 places.
- It was also on the Travel Channel's Man v. Food Nation with Adam Richman in 2011.
The Garbage Plate has even appeared in movies and online videos!
- In the 2012 movie The Place Beyond the Pines, the Garbage Plate is mentioned as a "must-have" dish.
- In 2017, YouTuber Jenna Marbles, who grew up in Rochester, said Garbage Plates were her favorite food. Her boyfriend even made her a vegan version!
- Another Rochester native, YouTuber Andrew Rea from Binging with Babish, recreated the Garbage Plate in one of his videos.
- In 2020, comedian Jim Gaffigan visited Nick Tahou Hots and enjoyed a Garbage Plate. He later talked about it on Conan.
The dish has also been written about in many well-known publications. These include The New York Times, Saveur, HuffPost, and Food & Wine.
See also
In Spanish: Garbage plate para niños
