Rochester's Garbage Plate is the EPITOME of Build Your Own Adventure Text by Maggie Hicks
The Garbage Plate is the ultimate choose your own adventure experience. The dish, which originated at Nick Tahou Hots restaurant in Rochester, has become a staple in the Rochester community. Restaurants across the city honor the tradition of the Garbage Plate, and each seems to have its own take on the recipe. The only requirement is that there is a lot of food, and customers have several options for what will go on their plate. The earliest version of the Garbage Plate emerged when Alex Tahou opened Nick Tahou Hots in 1918, naming his business after his son, Nick. At the time, the restaurant called the dish
“hots and potatoes," and served it with potatoes, two hamburger patties, a choice of two sides off the menu and ketchup and hot sauce layered on top. Nick Tahou later took ownership of the restaurant, and deemed “hots and potatoes” the Garbage Plate. According to local Rochester legend, Nick Tahou concocted the name after some University of Rochester students came into the bar late one night and asked for a plate with “all the garbage on it.”
Customers who order the Garbage Plate from Nick Tahou Hots today are served a dish with their choice of home fries or french fries next to baked beans and macaroni. Then, they can choose two sides, which consist of almost everything in the kitchen — cheeseburgers, hamburgers, red hots, white hots, Italian sausage, chicken tenders, haddock, fried ham, grilled cheese, steak or eggs — topped with onions, mustard and the restaurant’s signature meaty hot sauce. Today, Nick Tahou Hots deems itself as “the home of the Garbage Plate.” The restaurant trademarked the name in 1992, forcing other establishments across the city to change the name of their own Garbage Plates. Even the restaurant’s website is listed as garbageplate.com, and only includes a statement from the restaurant claiming the dish as their own. "Nick Tahou Hots is a Rochester, NY landmark restaurant famous for its Garbage Plate,” the website states. “Despite many regional variants all based on the same theme, Nick's is widely regarded as the original Garbage Plate." But trademark laws haven’t stopped restaurants across the state from serving some version of the dish. Bill Gray’s, a burger joint with locations across upstate New York, has several variations of the “Great Plate,” including a cheeseburger plate, the chicken tender plate, the red or white hot dog plate or the veggie burger plate. Each comes topped with two sides and a dinner roll. DogTown Hots, a hot dog restaurant in Rochester, serves its take on the Garbage Plate as well — the Junkyard Dog Plate. Customers have
38 | baked
