Philly Cheesesteak. Chicago Deep Dish. New York Pizza. These are some of the heavy hitting famous delicacies based out of a particular locale.
What are some others people should know about, and perhaps try if they happen to be in the area?
How about Edmonton Style Green Onion Cake:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/green-onion-cakes-edmonton-lets-find-out-siu-to-1.4566603
I give you Spiedies. I had never heard of them before moving to Upstate NY.
Central and West Michigan’s olive burger. Almost every restaurant in West Michigan that has burgers on the menu offers an olive burger. That’s my go-to if there’s no patty melt available.
The only place I’ve ever found Finger Steaks is in Idaho. The Wiki article says they’re found throughout the Pacific Northwest, but not in my experience. Only Idaho, and Boise in particular.
Haven’t had 'em for 50 years. And won’t miss them for another 50.
For Chicago (where I live) I would nominate:
Maxwell Street Polish - A grilled Polish sausage on a bun topped with grilled onions and yellow mustard, named after the historic Maxwell Street market area.
If you have ever seen the 1980’s movie “The Blues Brothers” the scene where John Lee Hooker sings Boom Boom was on Maxwell Street. The Aretha Franklin song Think was not on Maxwell Street but based on a real deli from Maxwell Street (Nate’s Deli).
I’ve heard the Jibarito, a Puerto Rican sandwich, was invented in Chicago in the 1990s that uses flattened, fried plantains instead of bread. Usually filled with steak, lettuce, tomato, and garlic mayo. Not 100% sure about that though.
Delicious.
Some foods special to Washington, D.C. and the surrounding suburbs are half-smokes and mumbo sauce, and some more common there than in other places in the U.S. are Ethiopian food, Vietnamese food, and pupusas.
Everything local to Luxembourg is lesser known. 
Which is too bad, because gromperekichelcher are delicious.
Cashews on pizza. It’s an Olympia, WA original.
(Well, technically it’s a Redlands, CA original, but the guy whose pizzeria started it moved here in the ‘70s and brought the restaurant with him.)
Chicken Booyah is a Wisconsin food, and especially a Green Bay food. It’s probably based on a Belgian recipe (the Green Bay area was historically settled by Walloon Belgian immigrants), and the name appears to be based on a bastardized phonetic spelling of “bouillon.”
It’s a slow-cooked stew, made with chicken (and sometimes beef) and vegetables, and is often made in very large pots, and sold at church festivals and cookouts as a fundraiser. You can also buy it (in refrigerated, family-sized containers) at most of the local grocery stores in Green Bay.
Reminds me of an annual summer festival they have out in the sticks near here, except that the meat of choice is bear.
100+ pounds of meat go into the stew with a small portion of that being beef if there is a lack of bear meat that season. There are also hundreds of pounds of potatoes, carrots, onions and a large kettle of “special” spicy sauce cooked just right with seasonings that are added just before serving that is prepared by community volunteers. The stew is cooked in enormous iron kettles on stoves in the City Park kitchen by our volunteer fire fighters. This is one case where too many chefs don’t spoil the stew, for it takes about 40 people to handle the cooking chores; McCleary Fire Department taking ’round the clock shifts watching and stirring and adding the right ingredients at the right time to make the stew just right. The menu also calls for a ton of watermelon, 3,000 rolls, and baked beans by the kettles full. It is served immediately following the Grand Parade, which always starts at 12:00 noon on Saturday.
Interesting. I grew up in Upstate New York, I’m from there, but haven’t heard of spiedies before. But, it’s been many years since I moved away from there. I’m not disbelieving you, it’s just… interesting.
I used to travel to STL MO a lot for work. There they have St. Louis–style pizza with provel cheese.
It’s good, it’s different, and provel cheese is unique.
Some of my youth years were spent in New England. Grinders were a thing back then.
Wiki says they’re a submarine sandwich but local pizza shops have them as hot pizza sandwiches. Not quite a calzone, grinders are somewhat similar but distinctly different. They’re especially good on a cold winter’s day.
There’s a bar in Leavenworth, WA that serves “steak strips”. Sort of like chicken tenders made of steak, onion rings on the side. But they aren’t battered so it’s not quite the same.
They’re on the menu at their web site.
Certified Angus steak strips, grilled and served with onion rings & a side of tartar.
Pretty delicious. That place is a hidden gem. (Literally hidden; you go into a dark doorway that looks like an entrance to an apartment building and up a flight of stairs. My wife and I found it by accident on a vacation in the town.)
Pinconning Cheese in Michigan. (Cheddary with an extra tang)
RI style clam chowder (clear broth, unlike New England or Manhattan style). Apparently there are a few other regional varieties that I’ve never encountered, like Long Island style.
Also from RI, Clam cakes.
Not so much of a ‘lesser known’ food than it is a very popular tradition in my area, Hot Ham and Rolls. I always forget how local it is until I hear a customer mention that they just moved to Wisconsin and had never heard of it. In any case, at least in Wisconsin, it’s a very common Sunday (and Saturday) tradition. Just about every deli and grocery store will sell a pound of hot ham and 6 rolls for some set price. My little mom and pop store will sell 600ish pounds between Saturday and Sunday with 300-400 pounds of that being sold just between 8am and noon on Sunday.
Similarly, Friday fish fries. Many restaurants will have a Fish Fry which is usually fried fish and a few sides for a set price. A very popular supper type restaurant in my area has a drive through specifically and only for Friday fish fries and they’ll sell 500-1000 each Friday. Starting around 4 in the afternoon, they end up with a line of cars wrapped around the block.
Pączki, or more specifically Pączki day. This isn’t specific to my area, but from what I understand it’s really only this popular in a handful of specific areas with large Polish populations. For all intents and purposes, it’s a filled donut. But come Fat Tuesday, it’s all anyone wants. My store sells a few donuts on the weekend to go with the hot ham and rolls, but that’s it. We’re not a bakery at all, but we’ll go through a few thousand of them that day. In fact, it’s still a month away and I know we’re already planning for it. By next week we’ll start getting calls from people to place orders for them.
Chicago, like the truly major cities, has a wide variety of ethnic foods; Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Italian, Mexican, Korean, yada yada. The trick is in separating the truly special from the rank and file.
For example, if you want really good Italian food, Maggiano’s Little Italy. The best locations are on North Clark if you are downtown and, if you are near O’Hare, Oak Brook. Mexican is trickier because there are a gazillion Mexican places because of our large Latino population. For example, there is a little place called “La Catrina’s” in Mount Greenwood that has the best Mexican food I’ve ever eaten. La Fiesta also has excellent food.
You need to do research or, even better, ask locals who demand fine dining.
Care to share what it is? I’m assuming there’s more to it than some ham heated then piled on some bread.
That’s literally all it is. I mean, they’re not made as sandwiches when you buy them, but you’re buying a pound of hot ham and some rolls to take home and make sandwiches with. Here’s a random picture I found from one of the bazillion articles about it (it’s also kinda low hanging fruit for hyper local news outlets to do fluff pieces on).
And, for what it’s worth, it’s generally a good deal, you’re not getting ripped off. My store sells a pound of hot ham and 6 rolls for the same price as a pound of cold ham bought any other day of the week.
Thank you. So it really is Grant’s tomb.
You gotta admire the upper Midwest when it comes to unimaginitive cooking.
From my 20 years (ages ~35-55) in St. Louis I know quite a few local dishes. Most of which are much better if you grew up with them. So kinda hard to put into this thread where the OP requested things worth trying if you’re visiting from out of town.
One of the standard cliches about St. Louis was “It’s a great place to live there, but you wouldn’t want to visit.” Much to my surprise I really liked it there, once I’d lived there long enough to appreciate its unique charms. Most of which did not come from a kitchen.