History

Nick Tahou opened his hots stand at 320 W. Main St in 1918. The plate that would become the Garbage Plate took shape over decades as workers requested everything combined on one dish. Tahou trademarked the name Garbage Plate in 1991 (USPTO registration 1708448). The version served today remains the standard: two starches, two proteins, house meat sauce, yellow mustard, and chopped white onion.

Common allergens: Gluten, Eggs, Dairy

Make it at home

Yield Serves 2Hands-on 30 minTotal 45 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 4 Zweigle's white hots or natural-casing hot dogs
  • 2 cups home fries (diced potatoes, fried in oil until crisp)
  • 1 cup macaroni salad (elbow macaroni, mayo, celery, mustard)
  • 1 cup Rochester meat sauce (ground beef, onion, chili powder, cumin, paprika, cayenne, tomato paste)
  • 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
  • Half a white onion, finely chopped

Method

  1. Cook the home fries in a cast iron skillet until golden and crisp on the outside, about 15 minutes.
  2. Brown the ground beef with minced onion and the spice blend for the meat sauce. Add tomato paste and simmer 10 minutes. The sauce should be loose, not thick.
  3. Grill or pan-fry the white hots until charred. Split lengthwise if desired.
  4. Plate: arrange home fries and macaroni salad side by side on each plate. Lay the two proteins across the top.
  5. Ladle meat sauce over everything. Add a stripe of yellow mustard and a heavy scatter of raw white onion.

Tip from the editors. The meat sauce is the key variable: it should be thinner than chili, closer to a loose Bolognese, and heavily spiced.

Where to eat garbage plate

Garbage Plate in Rochester

Nick Tahou Hots ★ 4.4

Hot Dogs and Plates$downtownTue-Fri 11:00-19:00, Sat 11:00-19:00

Nick Tahou Hots on W. Main St in Rochester serves the original trademarked Garbage Plate for under $10, one of the best cheap meals in Upstate New York.

Tip: A two-item plate runs $8-$10 depending on protein. White hots, cheeseburgers, or eggs over the top. Cash preferred. Closed Mondays.

320 W Main St, Rochester, NY 14608

Dogtown ★ 4.0

Hot Dogs$monroe-avenueMon-Sat 11:00-22:45

Dogtown on Monroe Ave in Rochester serves 18 gourmet hot dog varieties for under $6 each on locally-baked rolls, with handcut fries for a filling budget meal.

Tip: Most dogs are under $6. Handcut fries are an additional $3-4. Closed Sundays. The German-style frank with mustard and sauerkraut is the fastest order.

691 Monroe Ave, Rochester, NY 14607

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