Following the Spiedie Trail to Binghamton and Endicott, New York

When dishes travel, they often change. It’s why the spiedie, a simple sandwich of grilled marinated meat, popularized by Italian immigrants farther upstate, is now being served in Brooklyn with the addition of American cheese. “WTF?!” our commenters responded.

Though many natives were delighted to hear a version of their beloved sandwich had made landfall here–despite its cheesy perversion–others found it violated the very rules of spiediedom. And they declared the hot dog roll an unacceptable vehicle for the sandwich.

We haven’t completely mapped our itinerary, but we’ve decided to follow this sandwich trail right out of Brooklyn and up into Spiedie Land on an upcoming road trip, and we’ll be sure to stop at some of the places you shouted out in the comments.

The trip will take us to Endicott, where it all started, and right next door to Binghamton, Brooklyn Bird’s inspiration and home of the annual Spiedie Fest, which has been running for the last 30 years. Of course we’ll document our visit with pictures and stories.