| Nick Tahou Hots | |
| City: | Rochester |
| State: | New York |
| Website: | www.garbageplate.com |
Nick Tahou Hots is a restaurant in Rochester, New York, best known for a dish called the Garbage Plate.[1] The restaurant was founded in 1918 by Alex Tahou, the grandfather of the 21st-century owner (also named Alex Tahou), and named for Nick Tahou, the founder's son, who operated the establishment until his death in 1997. While there are other Upstate New York variants, Nick Tahou's is the originator of the trademarked Garbage Plate.[2]
See main article: Garbage Plate. Nick Tahou Hots's best known dish is the Garbage Plate, which consists of a selection of home fries, macaroni salad, baked beans and French fries topped with meats of the customer's choice. The dish can be garnished with mustard, chopped onions, ketchup[2] and the venue's signature hot sauce, and is served with bread and butter.[3] The Garbage Plate is typically mixed together by the diner before being eaten.[4]
Tahou first created the dish as two hamburger patties with a selection of side dishes.[2] The dish has spawned several imitators with similar names in the Greater Rochester area, including Fairport Hots' "The Hot Plate",[5] Tom Wahl's "55 Junker Plate"[6] and Mark's Texas Hots' "Sloppy Plate".[7]
A charitable Garbage Plate Run is sponsored by the University of Rochester's Sigma Phi Epsilon. Held annually in the spring, this three-man race begins at the U of R River Campus. The first of the team members run 2.2 miles through the city to Nick Tahou's. Once they arrive, the second teammate eats a Garbage Plate as quickly as they are able, then the final teammate runs back to campus to complete the race. In a race titled the "Ironman", one-man teams attempt to complete all three tasks alone. The Mount Hope Family Center is the recipient of all proceeds collected during the event, including sponsor funds and contestant's entry fees.[8]
In the mid-1950s, Nick Tahou's hot dog stand was located in a smaller building just to the east, which is shown in the picture on this page, of its longtime location. From 1979 to 2007, there were two Nick Tahou Hots restaurants in Rochester: one in downtown Rochester in the former Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh Railway station on West Main Street, to the west of the I-490 overpass and a satellite restaurant on Lyell Avenue (NY Route 31) in Gates. In 2007, Steve Tahou and his sister Joanne Tahou-Demkou, the children of Ike Tahou (Nick's brother), assumed full ownership of the Lyell Avenue location and renamed it Steve T. Hots and Potatoes.[9] Steve Tahou returned to using Rochester-based Zweigle's hot dogs and Italian sausages, which were used in the original garbage plates at Nick's. The original West Main Street location continues to use the trademarked "Nick Tahou" and "Garbage Plate" names, and continues to use the Nick Tahou Hot Dog branded dogs in their plates. While previously open all night, the downtown restaurant began closing at 8 p.m. in 1998 in voluntary compliance with the city's effort to reduce troublesome night spots. Steve T.'s remains open 24 hours a day.
There was also a short-lived Nick Tahou's operation in Oswego, New York, that opened in September 1995 adjacent to the SUNY Oswego campus.[10]
On August 3, 2010, a second location opened at 3070 West Henrietta Road (NYS Route 15), in the town of Henrietta, New York.[11] It closed in early 2014.[12]
Nick's has been featured on Food Network's Unwrapped episode titled "Funny Foods" as well as the City in a Box Monopoly-based board game showcasing famous Rochester locales. The Garbage Plate was also highlighted in the July 2007 issue of the US Airways inflight magazine.[13]
On the November 16, 2009, episode of The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart told the people of Rochester to "get their heads out of their Garbage Plates."[14] On February 23, 2011, the Food Network filmed a segment for the show The Best Thing I Ever Ate on the recommendation of pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini.[15] Nick Tahou's was also featured on the Travel Channel series Chowdown Countdown, where it ranked No. 81 out of 101 locations. In 2011 it was featured on a Rochester episode of the Travel Channel's Man v. Food Nation, starring Adam Richman.
In the 2012 film The Place Beyond the Pines, Garbage Plates are mentioned as a "must have" for Bradley Cooper's character Avery when he travels through Rochester, New York.In 2017, Youtuber Jenna Marbles (who grew up in Rochester) mentioned Garbage Plates as her favorite food and in "My Boyfriend Cooks My Favorite Meal" got her boyfriend, Julien Solomita, to make her a vegan version. Another YouTuber and Rochester native, Andrew Rea of Binging with Babish, recreated the Garbage Plate in one of his weekly episodes, inspired by the mention of the dish in The Place Beyond the Pines.
In 2020, comedian Jim Gaffigan, while on tour in Rochester, stopped by Nick Tahou Hots and enjoyed a Garbage Plate. He subsequently talked about his experience on Conan.[16]
The dish has been featured in numerous publications, including The New York Times,[17] Saveur,[18] HuffPost,[19] and Food & Wine.[20]