Red Wings’ Mascot Spikes with Golden Fork. Photo courtesy of Rochester Red Wings
BY DEB AND TIM SMITH
The Syracuse Mets will be visiting Rochester next week for what shapes up to be an interesting series of baseball games. The Thruway rivalry has always been one of the more intense match-ups on the Red Wings schedule but recent years have added a new element of intrigue to the series. It’s definitely a forkful of fun and frivolity.
While we’re amping up the alliteration, let’s delineate the details of the Duel of the Dishes. The second game of this year’s duel will take place next Thursday, June 26th at the Red Wings’ home park, Innovative Field. What exactly are we dueling for? Well, that would be the largest sports trophy in the world, as well as bragging rights in what has become a culinary competition between the signature dishes of Rochester and Syracuse.
Rochester Red Wings General Manager Dan Mason collaborated with us on this article, as well as the baseball component in our most recent book which was called Royally Regaling Greater Rochester ~ Taking Stock of the ROC. We will be calling upon Dan throughout this article to provide inside insight on how the Duel of the Dishes came to be and why the marketing strategy has played out to such national acclaim.
For the past eight seasons the Red Wings have played every Thursday home game as the “Plates,” a nickname that has nothing to do with home plate, and everything to do with Rochester’s most famous food creation, the Garbage Plate, as introduced by Nick Tahou’s restaurant.
Calling upon all of our connections in the ROC, we’ll next bring in current restaurant owner Alex Tahou. “When my grandfather opened the business in 1918, they called the menu item ‘Hots and Potatoes,’” Alex told us, “then in the 80’s we started to get a bunch of college kids who came in and didn’t know what it was [called], so they would just say, ‘Gimme a plate with all that garbage on it,’ and the name stuck.”
So when the 100th anniversary of the Garbage Plate rolled around, Naomi Silver, CEO of the Red Wings, decided that a collaboration between Rochester’s baseball team and Rochester’s signature dish could be like hitting one out of the park.
Apparently she was right. The Wings went all-in on the concept with three alternate Plates jerseys and a Plates cap. These all have a logo with a side view depicting all the layers included in a Garbage Plate, namely home fries, mac salad, baked beans, and your meat of choice topped with a spicy mustard onion sauce. They even have a Garbage Plate mascot named Mac! The concept has played out so successfully that it has frequently garnered national TV coverage, often on ESPN.
At this point, we’ll defer to Dan Mason to put the Plates in proper perspective. “Our fans from around the globe have embraced our Plates alternate identity since we debuted it in 2017 and it’s so great to see our town and our team getting some national recognition,” he told us. “It’s the perfect way for our team to showcase our community’s most iconic delicacy while simultaneously eliciting civic pride. When our fans wear their Plates gear, they are letting everyone know they’re from Rochester and they’re proud of it!”
So next, we need to delve into the details of the duel. Rochester did not have a monopoly on the concept of minor league baseball teams developing hometown-related culinary alternative nicknames. As it turned out, down the Thruway in Syracuse a similar initiative was evolving whereby the Syracuse Chiefs were in the process of establishing a second identity as the “Salt Potatoes” which serves as their iconic hometown dining delicacy, a dish initially popularized by Irish immigrants working the Syracuse salt mines in the late-1800’s.
A best-of-both-worlds convergence was initiated in 2018 when Mason, along with Syracuse GM Jason Smorol, collaborated to conceive of the “Duel of the Dishes” with the Plates playing the Salt Potatoes in an on-going competition for the tallest trophy in professional sports. Exactly what does the winner walk away with? Well, that would be the Golden Fork!
We couldn’t resist asking Dan about the engineering concept behind the trophy, so here’s the inside scoop provided specifically to the Sentinel. “Collectively Jason and I concocted the concept of the trophy and the Red Wings made the trophy. We wanted it to be very unique and have some tie in with food. So we decided to create the largest trophy in the history of professional sports, the 8-foot-tall golden fork. The Red Wings bought the wood, made the fork out of a sheet of plywood, and painted it gold. We added plaques with the scores and the dates of the games.”
Ownership of the Golden Fork is determined by a best two-out-of-three series of Thursday games played between the Rochester Plates and the Syracuse Salt Potatoes. Syracuse won the first game in Syracuse on May 22 so they can clinch the Fork with a win next Thursday. If the Red Wings win, then the Fork will be awarded to the winner of the deciding game which will be played on August 14 in Rochester.
Let’s go back to Dan for his explanation of the unique things that will happen at next Thursday’s game. “Typically, we bring the fork out onto the field pre-game and remind fans what we’re playing for. Then we display it in the concourse so that fans can take photos of it and share on social media. At the end of the game, if it’s the deciding game, and if one team has won two out of three games, then that team is awarded the Golden Fork on the field.”
“We hope to do a Plates-themed giveaway that night, as well as more Plates-themed cuisine than a normal game. Our hope is to also have a special Duel of the Dishes t-shirt available for fans to purchase in the Team Store this year. Stay tuned!”
“Coaching staffs and players have gotten into the Duel of the Dishes to varying degrees. One time when we won in Syracuse, their GM Jason Smorol presented our manager, Joel Skinner and pitching coach Stu Cliburn with the fork in a post-game ceremony. The two of them then proceeded to stab the fork into the infield grass in Syracuse, much to the dismay of their GM and groundskeeper! Another time, when we won at home, our hitting coach Brian Daubach raised the fork triumphantly and carried it around foul territory as if he had won the Stanley Cup.”
“It’s been a fun symbol for our rivalry that our fans can get behind,” Dan concluded. So now that you know the whole story, why not plan on joining us for a chorus of “Take me out to the ball game” next Thursday when hopefully we’ll see the Red Wings, er… the Plates, prevail in the Duel of the Dishes!
