I’ve always enjoyed a Hot Brown when I can get one. Unfortunately that isn’t very often.
And now you all have me wanting to try Beef on Weck. I actually found a restaurant in Chicago that serves something called a Boeuf on Weck. It’s on the lunch menu and seems to have all the required ingredients but since this looks like a hipster-ish joint I’m not sure how authentic it will be. I have to admit, this picture looks tantalizing.
If you have a Wegmans near you, they will sometimes have kimmelweck rolls in the bakery.
And thus end the Wegmans ads. Maybe.
Motorgirl, proud member of the cult of Wegmans since 1987.
I became familiar with the Spiedie when I was living in Binghamton many years ago. People would be selling them out on the street when you went bar-hopping*. The ones on the street often used pork. I was told that the traditional ones were lamb. But the ones you got in the fixed-restaurant “char pits” were beef, which I preferred.
Take the meat, marinate overnight (or longer) in spiedie sauce, put it on a skewer and grill it, then scrape it off onto a Kaiser roll.
The spiedie was confined to a rather small area. They had they all over in Binghamton (and the other cities in the tri-city area, as well as nearby place like Elmira). They had them in Ithaca. But I hadn’t heard a word about them in Rochester, where I had been living, even though it’s less than a 2 hour drive.
Apparently there had been a spiedie shop in Melrose Massachusetts sometime in the 1970s or 1980s – I saw it on an old map. How it migrated there, I don’t know.
It used to be that I had to pick up spiedie sauce on trips through Binghamton, because you couldn’t get it elsewhere. But (as someone noted in another thread), State Fair brand spiedie sauce is expanding its region. I can now buy it in the supermarket dowbn the street from me (in Masachusetts). I have an open bottle in my fridge right now.
*I’ve been in Binghamton recently. I wouldn’t go bar-hoping there now if my life depended on it.
There’s a small take-out place in West Mifflin, PA (near Pittsburgh) that sells a a special hot dog that features Jim’s famous sauce. My gf grew up near the restaurant and has told me how special the dogs are.
On three occasions I’ve come close to trying one, but every time something weird happens that makes it impossible for me to have one. One day.
I’ve also been told that the traditional way to eat a spiedie is not on a bun, but on a piece of Italian bread like this. And, while there are spiedie places in town like the ones mentioned in this thread, it’s really a backyard/fair barbecue sort of thing.
Interesting about the beef spiedies. I didn’t even know that was an option! I’ll have to try it.
I’ve been using the Spiedie Sauce I bought recently on chicken on my backyard grill. I don’t think I’ve ever seen chicken spiedies in Binghamton, or anywhere else.
Really? That’s pretty much the only spiedie I saw available, with the exception of pork.
For example, here’s the menu for Spiedie and Rib Pit (mentioned before). Chicken and pork are the only options there. Lupo’s (perhaps the most famous of the spiedies spots) menu also has chicken and pork. Sharkey’s also only chicken and pork. When perusing the local Wegman’s or whatnot for spiedie marinated chicken to throw on the grill, it was only chicken spiedies I saw. Same with the spiedie on the spiedie pizza. Chicken. Or just do a google image search on “spiedie.” Most pictured are chicken, with some pork in there.
Damn! Things have changed.
as I said, I don’t recal ever seeing chicken spiedies when I lived there, back in the Pleistocene era. Lupo’s served ONLY beef spiedies, as I recall.
Now they’re not even on the menu? scandalous!
I’ve just done a quick search on the internet, and no one makes beef spiedies anymore, although places giving recipes still talk abolut it.
I re-iterate – I recall beef spiedies at the char pits, and no chicken spiedies. This was circa 1982.
Oh, I do believe you. Supposedly there were lamb spiedies around back in the day, and when I visited, I tried to find some, but it seems nobody makes them anymore. Some Yelp reviews made it sounds like on of the char pits still served lamb, but I didn’t have any luck when I went there. Only chicken and pork. I’ve actually got some beef marinating right now in Salamida’s State Fair sauce thanks to this thread. 
Gonna have to make some lamb ones for myself, too, eventually.
I’ve heard about Spiedie sandwiches, but only because there is a place in Atlanta (Ticonderoga Club) that had them for lunch (and it was raved about). About a year ago they took it off the lunch menu, but the outcry was so loud that they brought it back for Monday dinner.
Yes, it’s pretty much “Italian dressing,” though perhaps with a bit more vinegar (although Lupo’s isn’t as vinegary as Salamida’s.) I’m sure you can get a reasonable facsimile just using straight-up off the shelf Italian dressing.
The Ms, who grew up catholic, also rhapsodizes about the Friday fish fries in Buffalo. I wonder if that’s still a thing.
Pretty much everywhere around the Great Lakes. Fried perch. Fucking delicious. I’ve had it in Wisconsin and east Ohio so I assume it’s still around in Buffalo. It was a big thing before and shortly after Vatican II; nowadays it’s not limited to Friday nights.
When I was a kid you received a massive pile of perfect cleanly-fried perch along with fries and cole slaw. Nowadays you may get three or four little pieces. What happened, did they overfish?
I use Paul Newman’s (doesn’t need refrigeration) as a quick n’ easy marinade for grilled chicken, pork, and even flank steak. Like a chom, it voiks!
My wife says that when she was young, she used to go to the fish market and buy pike for the fish fries. Regional, perhaps?
It burned in 2015, but the Sky Vue drive in in Lamesa, TX used to serve a sandwich called the Chihuahua. Two tostado shells, pimiento cheese, chili, cabbage, onion, and jalapeno. Messy and impractical, but good. Tastes like home.
Lamb is definitely a great spiedie meat, though growing up we didn’t eat lamb and when you bought pre-marinated at the supermarket they never had lamb. Now it’s my favorite spiedie application.
That will be my next try.
In Alaska, it’s fresh halibut sandwiches, either grilled or breaded/fried. There’s one podunk cafe called White Spot Cafe that really nails it. They also have biscuits & gravy, chicken fried steaks, and killer burgers. They’ve been around at least since I was a kid there in the 50s, and it was a really tiny place wedged in between two buildings. They catered to cab drivers and drunks, mostly, and the occasional curious teen who discovered their burgers and fries.
In Florida it’s all about grouper sandwiches, apparently.
On the topic of beef on weck…
There’s a restaurant chain called BW3’s - stands for Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck. I had no idea until just now that the chain started here, in discussion at least, at Kent State and first opened in Columbus.
I guess the Weck part is old news, and not only did they change the name to Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar, but there is also no trace of any beef on weck sandwiches in the menu.
People still call it BW3’s, or B-dubs.
Had no idea it actually has no relation to Buffalo - other than, I assume, the founders had a thing for Buffalo’s wings and sandwiches.
Never heard of spiedie, though!