The Big Book of Regional Brands

[Jaycat.again]

@carnut

Regionally, Old Dutch potato chips out of St. Paul and its sister company out of Winnipeg make the best potato chips IMO.

I always treat myself to Zapp’s when in New Orleans. They’re pretty damn good too.

[Dewey_Finn]

For some reason there are a lot of regional potato chip brands.

[DesertDog]

@Slow_Moving_Vehicle

There’s a hot dog restaurant, Skip’s, in Avondale Estates, Georgia, that uses Vienna dogs. But Skip’s intentionally brands themselves as a “Chicago dog” restaurant

Ditto here in Arizona. There are several places that offer Vienna Beef dogs and Italian beef but put themselves forth as Chicago-style restaurants. There are a lot of Chicagan winter visitors every year – the Cubs were our first string training team – and a number of them have moved in year around. Spring training you can’t get a ticket to the Cubs-Sox games to save your life.

Edit: It’s Vienna Beef, not Sausage. Those things Armour and Libby’s can are in no way, shape, or form the equivalent. We tried some as pill-hiders for the dog’s tablets. He wanted nothing to do with them.

[silenus]

Chris & Pitt’s BBQ sauce is not only regional, but damn near local. Only Southern Californians “of an age” will have ever heard of it, but it’s still around, long after the restaurants were gone.

Potato chips are highly regional, which is why I get mine mail-ordered from Pennsylvania. Beers, too, although sadly most of them are also deceased these days. Anyone from SoCal would know Brew 102 and Lucky Lager.

Blue Plate is a very good mayo. Duke’s is better.

[Slow_Moving_Vehicle]

@DesertDog

Those things Armour and Libby’s can are in no way, shape, or form the equivalent. We tried some as pill-hiders for the dog’s tablets. He wanted nothing to do with them.

They’re disgusting. They look like the penises of five year old boys, covered in goo and packed by a cannibal for a midnight snack. I can’t imagine how my Dad ate them with enjoyment.

[lel]

The other thing is would you include brands that have much more presence in one region than in other regions, but have some availability outside that region? In New England, Table Talk Pies and Polar Seltzer come to mind there. It looks like you could find them in California for example, but they wouldn’t be nearly as ubiquitous as in Massachusetts.

[TRC4941]

Minnesota -

Old Dutch potato chips and other snacks
Kemps ice cream and other dairy products
Top the Tater sour cream & chives chip dip

I’m guessing that there are a lot of bread brands that are regional. Does anyone else have Country Hearth Breads? We used to have Taystee and Master breads but I think they’re gone now.

[bump]

We get a fair number of Southern brands here in Texas, as well as some that originated here. Some may be nationwide by now… I’m not sure.

Stuff like Blue Bell ice cream, Community coffee, Duke’s mayonnaise, Wolf Brand chili, Shiner beer, Pace picante sauce, Gebhardt’s chili powder, Mrs. Baird’s bread, Luzianne tea, and something else I’m sure I’m forgetting about.

[pulykamell]

It’s reasonably available here in Chicago. It is good for some things, but it’s not my favorite mayo. It’s got MSG (which I have no issue with), but I don’t always want that MSG umami in my mayonnaise.

Some Buffalo brands I like are Weber’s yellow horseradish mustard and Sahlen’s hot dogs. I have seen the latter at Woodman’s across the border in Wisconsin, but I don’t think I’ve seen Sahlen’s dogs here in Illinois. They (or at least the pork-beef blend, not the all-beef dog) are my favorite hot dog for grilling (sorry, Vienna Beef.) But for steamed or boiled hot dogs, a natural casing Vienna Beef is my favorite (though a little difficult to come by – I go to the factory store to buy them – everywhere else in groceries they only sell the skinless version.)

Other Chicago brands are S. Rosen hot dog and hamburger buns, Turano rolls (used for Italian beef, though they have an array of products), Plochman’s mustard, and Moo & Oink’s various cookout items (hot links, in particular, though their website suggests they are also sold east of here).

[silenus]

Does anybody still see Roman Meal bread? It used to be my favorite out here, but disappeared a few years ago when the brand was bought by the Home Pride people.

[carrps]

@silenus

Chris & Pitt’s BBQ sauce is not only regional, but damn near local. Only Southern Californians “of an age” will have ever heard of it, but it’s still around, long after the restaurants were gone.

Potato chips are highly regional, which is why I get mine mail-ordered from Pennsylvania. Beers, too, although sadly most of them are also deceased these days. Anyone from SoCal would know Brew 102 and Lucky Lager.

Yeah, I’m a SoCal native, and I recognize those brands. Brew 102 was a really cheapie one IIRC. Although I don’t think Lucky Lager was much higher on the scale.

[Hatchie]

@Q.Q.Switcheroo

And the same bread is sold as Arnold’s on the East Coast, Oroweat on the West Coast, and Brownberry in the Midwest.

But is it really the same bread? There’s one bakery that bakes it all, and it’s shipped out in different wrappers to different regions? That doesn’t seem right for something that has to be fresh.

Recently mentioned: Shiner beer and Plochman’s mustard, both attainable in Boston. (More regional beers seem to be showing up outside of their home bases. Anyone outside of New England spot Narragansett lately?)

[ISiddiqui]

@Slow_Moving_Vehicle

There’s a hot dog restaurant, Skip’s, in Avondale Estates, Georgia, that uses Vienna dogs. But Skip’s intentionally brands themselves as a “Chicago dog” restaurant - Cubs, Bears, Bulls, and White Sox pennants, caricatures of Black Hawks greats, pictures of Burnham Harbor and the city skyline on the wall, that sort of thing.

You can get Vienna sausages in Kroger (just a few miles from Skip’s even).

My vote is for Cheerwine, a cherry soda which is still mostly found in NC and in some surrounding states (at least IME)

[silenus]

I can find Cheerwine at my local “boutique” grocery. Of course, they are a yuppified market with a dedicated Beer Cave (x2) and a huge assortment of regional sodas. They even have Moxie.

[Slow_Moving_Vehicle]

@ISiddiqui

@Slow_Moving_Vehicle

There’s a hot dog restaurant, Skip’s, in Avondale Estates, Georgia, that uses Vienna dogs. But Skip’s intentionally brands themselves as a “Chicago dog” restaurant - Cubs, Bears, Bulls, and White Sox pennants, caricatures of Black Hawks greats, pictures of Burnham Harbor and the city skyline on the wall, that sort of thing.

You can get Vienna sausages in Kroger (just a few miles from Skip’s even).

My vote is for Cheerwine, a cherry soda which is still mostly found in NC and in some surrounding states (at least IME)

Very, very different critters - see post 14.

Bell Street Burritos has Cheerwine on tap, by the way. It’s what Mrs SMV always drinks when we go there.

[Hatchie]

Cheerwine now at Wegman’s in MA.

[Dewey_Finn]

@ISiddiqui

My vote is for Cheerwine, a cherry soda which is still mostly found in NC and in some surrounding states (at least IME)

Soda brands are another product (like potato chips) that can be very local. (Foxon Park is a brand local to Connecticut.)

[ISiddiqui]

@Slow_Moving_Vehicle

@ISiddiqui

@Slow_Moving_Vehicle

There’s a hot dog restaurant, Skip’s, in Avondale Estates, Georgia, that uses Vienna dogs. But Skip’s intentionally brands themselves as a “Chicago dog” restaurant - Cubs, Bears, Bulls, and White Sox pennants, caricatures of Black Hawks greats, pictures of Burnham Harbor and the city skyline on the wall, that sort of thing.

You can get Vienna sausages in Kroger (just a few miles from Skip’s even).

My vote is for Cheerwine, a cherry soda which is still mostly found in NC and in some surrounding states (at least IME)

Very, very different critters - see post 14.

Bell Street Burritos has Cheerwine on tap, by the way. It’s what Mrs SMV always drinks when we go there.

Ah, I see…

And yeah, Georgia would be a surrounding state . We do border NC after all.

[DesertDog]

Does it have to be food? Here i Arizona we have a chain of movie theaters, Harkins, that was started by one Red Harkins back in 1933 and eventually expanded to five theaters. When he died in 1974 it was passed on to his eldest son, Dan, who expanded it to some 33 theaters mostly in Arizona but also four in California, two in Colorado, and one in Oklahoma.

[WildaBeast]

@silenus

I can find Cheerwine at my local “boutique” grocery.

Yeah, I can find Cheerwine at specialty retailers in California, but I have to seek it out. And it’s always the “real cane sugar” variety in glass bottles. It’s not like North Carolina where literally every grocery store carries it, and you can get it in a 12 pack of cans, or plastic bottles, etc.