A big state with a sprawling culinary personality, Ohio is home to outstanding Polish and Hungarian food in and around Cleveland and to the unique layered-spaghetti Cincinnati chili known as Five-Way. Cincinnati, which also happens to be a great ice cream city, is the place to visit Old World butchers who still make their sausages from scratch and to sample goetta, a pork and pin-oat loaf that is outstanding breakfast meat. Barberton, just outside Akron, is famous for its super-succulent fried-in-lard chicken dinners; and the tiny town of Waldo has gained great fame for its world’s-best bologna sandwich. If you are making it your business to visit America’s greatest steak houses, the Pine Club of Dayton belongs near the top of your itinerary.
WITH THE EXCEPTION of the hot dog bun, there has never been an edible invention as useful as the ice cream cone. Eat it all and leave nothing behind...
One essential characteristic of any worthy hamburger is democracy of spirit—it should be accessible to all and not cost an arm and a leg. That's why our list of...
In 1901, there were fewer than 7,000 cars on America’s roads. Just 40 years later, Duncan Hines’s guidebook Adventures in Good Eating was pinpointing hundreds of gems worthy of a detour....
Denny Gray, proprietor of Al’s Quality Market, in Barberton, Ohio, opens the door of his smoker. Hot, white clouds billow out forcefully enough to fog glasses and make eyes...
We’ve never met a cooked potato we didn’t like. Baked with butter, salt-boiled, fire-roasted, puréed with cream, au gratin, dauphinois, frittered, and french fried—all are surefire transformations of the homely...
A YEAR IN THE south of France is nice, but it cannot compare to a week in the south of Ohio. For us, a short vacation in Dayton and...
If Dr. Seuss had been a restaurant reviewer, he would have liked soda fountains best, for they are where Pink Elephant punch and rootbeer Black Cows line up alongside...
Road trip through Ohio Along this coastal road tip through Ohio, you will cover 119 miles in a little under two and a half hours of drive time. Driving from...
Road trip through Ohio A jewel of a city on the Ohio River, Cincinnati once was known as the Paris of America, home of diverse culture and a thriving culinary...
Roadfood knows Cincinnati best for its unique five-way chili, which is nowhere better than at Camp Washington Chili Parlor, open round the clock. In this city that has earned...
Scenery-wise, it's not the Pas de Calais or the Beartooth Highway, but an Ohio road trip from the shores of Lake Erie to Rubber City (Akron) is an eager...
Cincinnati chili is an American icon, but north of the Queen City is an array of great eats, both funky and fine. This road trip starts with a plate...
Great Soft Serve There is so much inferior soft-serve ice cream (aerated, chemically-flavored), that soft-serve in general has a bad reputation among ice cream lovers. But there are exceptions, soft-serve...
Grilled Cheese From pressed-flat, wafer-thin, white-bread-and-Velveeta cooked on a lunch-counter flattop to effulgent bouquets of imported cheese melted between halves of an artisan bun, the best grilled cheese sandwiches have...
Things Have Changed Long ago, a slider was just one thing: a dime-thin patty of griddle-cooked cheap beef from 1 to 2 ounces nestled in a mini bun less than...
Airport Food Food in airports is better than it used to be, but when we arrive by plane, we can't get out of the terminal fast enough. By rental car,...
Unique Regional Dishes After 40 years and 5 million miles spent on the road looking for America's best regional food, we've assembled a list of the quintessential, must-eat food in...
For some passionate eaters, a great cafeteria can be a source of tremendous anxiety. How on earth can a person choose from among dozens and dozens of good-looking desserts,...
First, we apologize to the Stockholm Pie Company in Wisconsin, to Nick's Kitchen in Huntington, Indiana, to the Bang Bang Pie Shop in Chicago, and to Beardsley Cider Mill...
Chili is like DNA: everybody's is different. Texans claim (rightfully) that history proves theirs to be the first. Or at least they were the first to make a big...
Bologna sandwiches are common. Great bologna sandwiches are rare. The very best of them, in particular the one served at the legendary G&R Tavern of Waldo, Ohio, are worthy...
Although ice cream tends to be more butterfatty, frozen custard tastes richer because it traditionally is made with egg yolks. Even when eggs are not part of the formula,...
Goetta, which rhymes with feta, is as much a Cincinnati signature dish as five-way chili. A distant relative of scrapple, it is a loaf of pork mixed with steel-cut...
Many restaurants serve steak, but some places are dedicated to it. Although no great steak house is cheap, some of the best are extremely informal (like Doe's Eat Place...
Fried chicken is popular all across America and so different everywhere that it is not possible to say what city, state, or region does it best. While the process...
When people think of good corned beef sandwiches, they tend to envision New York, or maybe Miami or Los Angeles. But in fact, the Midwest's best corned beef sandwiches,...
The turtle sundae is not unique to the heartland. Its sublime combination of crisp nuts, hot fudge and caramel sauce atop vanilla ice cream can be found from coast...
Texans, read no further! Cincinnati chili is nothing like a bowl of red. Each serving starts with a bed of well-cooked spaghetti noodles. On top of them goes ground...
