Before the concerts, carnival rides and crowds were filling Otsiningo Park each summer, there was a simple question with a surprisingly complicated answer: Who makes the best spiedies?
The debate makes perfect sense in Greater Binghamton, where the spiedie is more than a sandwich. It is a family recipe, a backyard tradition and a point of hometown pride. For anyone outside the area who has never encountered one, Rob Salamida offers a simple explanation.
“If you really want to know what spiedies are, there’s just one word: flavor,” the Rob Salamida Co. founder said. “Spiedies are flavor.”
The basic ingredients are chunks of marinated meat grilled on a skewer and served with Italian bread. But that description does little justice to the combination of oil, vinegar, herbs and spices absorbed by the meat before it ever touches the grill.
The dish traces its local roots to the Italian immigrants who came to work in the Endicott-Johnson Shoe factories in the late 1800s.
They brought with them a tradition of cooking meat on skewers, then adapted it to the family picnics, clambakes and community gatherings that were part of life in the “Valley of Opportunity,” as Greater Binghamton was known at the time.
Lamb was the traditional choice, though beef and pork were common as well. Chicken came later.
Spiedies eventually moved from family grills to local restaurants and taverns.
“A lot of different families would have their retired grandfather cook spiedies at night in front of a tavern,” Salamida said. “And there’s nothing better than these workers having their beer after work, and here’s the guy cooking spiedies – I saw that.”
“I relished the fact that I was in a community that had this unique thing,” he said.
As a teenager trying to save money for college, he followed the advice of a local businessman and began selling spiedies outside area taverns. His ambitions led him to a booth at the New York State Fair – at the time he was the youngest vendor. It was such a hit that Salamida’s ambitions grew even bigger.
He began experimenting with a marinade recipe and bottling it in his parents’ basement. Bottles moved across a pool table as coffee urns with spigots dispensed vinegar and oil. There was only one problem: grocery stores did not know what to make of the new product category.
Salamida needed to introduce and educate the masses. He would need something bigger than an ad to sell Salamida’s Original State Fair Spiedie Sauce. The opportunity came during a phone call from his friend Paul VanSavage.
“Why don’t we have our own festival here?” Salamida recalled saying. “Let’s do a spiedie festival and let’s have a spiedie cooking contest.”
The first Spiedie Cooking Contest was held at Binghamton’s newly opened Otsiningo Park in 1983. Home cooks brought the recipes they had perfected in backyards and kitchens throughout Broome County. Proceeds benefited charity and thousands of people showed up to celebrate a food that belonged distinctly to their community.
Then, another idea took the celebration to new heights.
Binghamton native and founding Spiedie Fest Event Director Dave Pessagno and a local balloonist had traveled to other hot air balloon rallies and believed they could bring that kind of spectacle home.
In 1985, the event became the Spiedie Fest & Balloon Rally. The first combined festival featured about eight balloons, a local band and a small children’s area. A few thousand people attended.
“We thought it was the greatest thing and started to build it from there,” Pessagno said.
The festival grew alongside the popularity of ballooning in the area. Pilots from outside the area began booking trips to Binghamton, bringing family and friends with them.
Special-shaped balloons added to the spectacle. Arts and crafts vendors, a road race, children’s activities and additional food followed. National music acts and celebrity appearances eventually joined the lineup.
The spiedies and balloons remained the stars.
“The pilots and the spiedie cooking contest people were always still the kings,” Pessagno said. “People always came back to the balloons and the spiedies.”
The cooking contest continues to take over a corner of the park each Sunday afternoon of the festival. Contestants compete in traditional lamb, chicken and pork categories along with creative variations featuring everything from venison to alligator. Booths are decorated, local chefs judge entries and families gather around grills to defend recipes passed down through generations.
That generational connection is central to an event designed from its earliest days to be safe, accessible and welcoming.
“Spiedie Fest & Balloon Rally has always been about family,” Pessagno said. “That’s the way we started this: safe, fun, affordable, for the community and being proud of.”
The festival now offers something for nearly everyone, from concerts and amusement rides to races, volleyball, wrestling, vendors and food. The event has earned national attention and introduced countless visitors, balloonists and entertainers to Binghamton’s signature sandwich.
“Every year I say it’s all about the volunteers that make this a great community event,” Salamida said. “But the Spiedie Fest has always been important to me because people are there together.”
The balloons draw everyone’s eyes toward the sky. The aroma from the grills brings them back to the ground. And somewhere in between, visitors become part of a hometown tradition that could only have taken off like this in Binghamton.
