The Famous Garbage Plate

Talk about legends!

This is the infamous Nick Tahou Garbage Plate. It is known far and wide as long as you're in Rochester, NY, near my hometown. The reason there are four plates in the photo is that there were four original Garbage Plates. The main entre was either 2 red hots, 2 white hots (also an exclusive favorite in W.N.Y), 2 hamburgers or 2 cheeseburgers. Nowadays you can also get fish or eggs I believe.

For all the yummy details, just type "garbage plate" in Google. I tol' you it's infamous! Google should shoot you over to the Garbage Plate entry in Wikipedia. Or click on hyperlink.

The original Tahou's was in an old train station at Broad & Main. It was about 4 blocks west of the courts, jail and the legal and banking area of Rochester as well as the newspapers. So there were lawyers, judges, cops, newpaper folks grabbing a late night plate. To the south and west were the black neighborhoods and to the north were the German and Italian areas of the old city. So it was/is always quite a mix of customers.

One night after drinking too much, my pals and I cruised in for Garbage on the way home. The place was full and noisy. Someone had been killed out front earlier. The chalk marks were still fresh. Some wise guy had grabbed a piece of coal and etched a hop-scotch pattern inside the chalk marks!

And finally, a word about the hot sauce that covers the Garbage Plate. Although mighty tasty, it can be addictive and harmful. One of my friends had an ulcer and was told to stay away from spicy foods. He ate at Nick's at least 3 times a week. One weekend his stomach was really giving him problems. He went to the hospital and under the knife; the ulcer had perforated. When the doc opened him up, he exclaimed, "Oh no! I told him to stay away from Tahou's!" The sauce is probably included in the local Poison Control Center database.