Every regional food comes with an origin story that no one quite remembers—until you go looking. A sauce that can’t be beat. A burger named after its creator until Hollywood came calling to borrow it. A dish with so many copycats there’s too many to count. Onion rings hand-sliced and battered fresh daily, next to burgers still hand-pressed in a Pyrex pie plate, the same way they were the day the restaurant opened. Rochester is home to roadside institutions that don’t just serve the classics; they invented them—or put a creative twist that not only stuck, it became legend.
These hometown mainstays are places where walking through the front door is a trip back in time. While we’d be remiss not to mention Charlie Riedel’s, Bill Gray’s, or Orbaker’s in Williamson, there are four who did something no one else in Rochester can claim: they either started a Rochester food tradition from nothing, or perfected their own version until it became the one to beat.
Schallers (Founded 1956)
A Brief History: Schaller’s got its start when Eastman Kodak employees and brothers Joe and Ken Schaller decided to open a hamburger stand on Edgemere Drive in Greece, near the “swampy shores” of Lake Ontario, becoming a hot spot after a day at the beach.
The brothers went on to open a second location on East Ridge Road in Irondequoit and a third on West Henrietta Road in Brighton in 1996. While the Brighton location closed, the other two locations remain open. Not much has changed at the Edgemere Drive location, though the stand was enclosed in the 1970s and a second dining room was added.
Claim to Fame: Known for its housemade meat sauce, Schaller’s recipe is considered the “gold standard” of Upstate New York meat sauces. Paired with a ground round and self-serve pickle buckets, it’s a signature dish at the restaurant, which has previously won Rochester ROC's "Best Burger" award and continues to show up in "Best Burgers in Rochester" roundups as of early 2026, with the Democrat & Chronicle featuring it in February 2026, describing the cheeseburger with meat sauce and mustard on a hard roll as a signature order.
Fun Fact: According to multiple articles over the years by the Democrat & Chronicle, the Schaller brothers actually mortgaged their homes to open the restaurant in a small garage, which they continued to build onto as they expanded. That garage is the Edgemere location that still stands today.
Nick Tahou’s (Founded 1918)
A Brief History: Founded by Alexander Tahou, a Greek immigrant, Nick Tahou’s was originally called West Maine Texas Hots and opened on 296 West Main Street in 1918 in downtown Rochester. Eventually, it moved down the street to 320 West Main Street. When Alexander’s son, Nick Tahou, took over, he incorporated it as Nick Tahou Hots. After he passed away, his son Alex (named for his grandfather) took over and still runs it today.
Claim to Fame: Nick Tahou’s literally invented the Garbage Plate, one of Rochester’s most iconic regional dishes, much like Buffalo has its wings. “The idea was to give hardworking people a good, filling meal after a long day of work,” says current owner Alex Tahou. “You came in hungry, and you weren’t supposed to leave hungry. That’s something we’ve always carried on.”
Today, the garbage plate has spawned countless imitators, from the trash plate to the compost plate, but the secret recipe meat sauce is what keeps the original in a league of its own.
Fun Fact: Just like Nick Tahou Hots got its start under a different moniker, the garbage plate wasn’t always called the “garbage plate.” It started as “Hots and Potatoes.”
“The original was a Texas hot served over home fries and cold beans, topped with spicy mustard, diced onions and our signature hot sauce,” Tahou says. “Ketchup was optional. Over the years, the plate has evolved and now people can choose from Texas hots, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, white hots, Italian sausage, fish, chicken tenders, or grilled cheese, along with sides like home fries, macaroni salad, French fries, cold beans, and onion rings.”
In 2024, Tahou told Tasting Table that University of Rochester students used to come in and ask for the dish with “all the garbage on it.” While Nick was initially against the name, he eventually fully embraced it when he trademarked it in 1992.
Tom Wahl’s (Founded 1955)
A Brief History: World War II veteran Tom Wahl Sr. opened the first Tom Wahl’s as a trailer parked along Routes 5&20 in Avon in 1955. Originally, the menu only featured twin kiss ice cream cones and handcrafted root beer. According to the restaurant’s own history, the townspeople were skeptical a little root beer stand would amount to much.
Fortunately, the townspeople were wrong, and the institution that is Tom Wahl’s grew year after year, with Tom adding to the menu and the building. Almost two decades later, the restaurant opened a proper dining room in 1976. In the late 1980s, Bill Gray’s took over ownership and expanded the restaurant across the Finger Lakes region.
Claim to Fame: Everyone knows Tom Wahl’s root beer is one of the best, but the restaurant is also famously connected to actors and brothers Mark and Donny Wahlberg. The restaurant’s ground steak patty with Swiss cheese, grilled ham, lettuce, and the restaurant’s proprietary “Wahl sauce” makes up the “Wahlburger,” for which the restaurant held the federal trademark. In 2011, the two brothers, along with their chef brother Paul, contacted Tom Wahl’s asking to license the name for their restaurant chain. Tom Wahl’s allowed it, and the brothers’ Wahlburgers restaurant chain was born.
Fun Fact: The original Avon location was added to the New York State Historic Business Preservation Registry in 2023, being recognized as a business that had operated for at least 50 years and meaningfully shaped the community's identity.
Don’s Original (Founded 1945)
A Brief History: When Donald J. Barbato returned to Rochester after serving in World War II, he struggled to find a job in the auto industry. His brother-in-law, Bob Berl, worked at Zweigle’s and asked Don to help out at a hot dog stand. He took to the role, and later that summer leased a roadside hot dog stand at Sea Breeze on Lake Ontario.
Eventually, Don and his wife took charge of the business, with Don creating cleanliness standards that included serving food on paper plates and keeping counters spotless. After he developed his own version of the ground round steak sandwich, it became the restaurant’s signature dish.
When construction slowed business, he expanded to Monroe Avenue with a year-round Don & Bob’s. Eventually, Don would sell the Monroe Ave. location, moving his focus back to the Sea Breeze spot and renaming it Don’s Original to separate it from the restaurant he sold and solidifying its legacy.
After Don died, the restaurant passed to his son, Bob, and a once-teenage busboy named Terry Klee. Under their ownership, a second location opened in Charlotte. Then, Terry bought the original Don’s Original outright, keeping to the values that Don had started the restaurant with years before.
Claim to Fame: While Don’s Original is known for its secret meat sauce and the ground round steak sandwich that Don developed all those years ago, current owner Alayna Alderman says the colossal onion rings are what they’re most famous for. They’re hand-sliced, dipped, and battered, and made fresh daily.
Fun Fact: After 80 years of serving burgers, ground rounds, and chocolate almond custard without alcohol, Don's Original poured its first beer and wine in October 2025.
“Don’s has evolved in many ways. We are trying to pay homage to the history and past, while putting a fresh spin and face on it,” Alderman says. “From painting and expanding the outdoor seating, to removing a wall, which served as nothing more than a barrier between people sitting in the sunroom and at the counter, to introducing breakfast sandwiches on the weekends. And the most fun aspect is live music and events at Don’s Original. That specifically, we refer to as ‘Don's After Dark.’ We are hoping to continue the traditions of bringing families together and trying to entice younger folks to start new traditions at Don’s Original.”
Icons of Rochester
These four restaurants aren’t just places to eat, they’re nostalgia incarnate for many Rochestarians who have grown up eating there for first dates, little league wins, and Friday nights that turned into tradition. If we’re lucky, they’ll continue to do so for generations to come.
"The idea was to give hardworking people a good, filling meal after a long day of work."
"What’s remarkable is that every day we open... there's always someone waiting to get in! It just reinforces the fact that I didn’t buy a restaurant; I bought an institution."