Upstate New York Hats

There is no official line where upstate New York begins. Westchester residents reject the label, a Yonkers resident says "we don't have cows," and a bartender points out that the Bronx is right there. One local rule of thumb says upstate is north of Schenectady and central is west of Utica. What upstaters do agree on is the food, which one writer calls a secret code. The Garbage Plate is trademarked by Nick Tahou Hots in Rochester and traditionally served with buttered bread and meat hot sauce. Chicken riggies are a Utica-Rome dish that everyone makes a little differently. In Binghamton the Rumble Ponies once played a game as the Binghamton Spiedies, and in Syracuse fans in more than 30 states ordered gear when the Chiefs rebranded for one game as the Salt Potatoes. These Upstate New York hats carry that vocabulary: two bare badges, the Adirondacks and the Finger Lakes, a shelf of local food, and two lines for the permanent argument with the city. Buffalo NY Hats owns Wegmans, lake effect and beef on weck; this page is for the rest of upstate. Every design is custom embroidered on an unstructured dad hat, for anyone who has had to explain that the city is not the whole state.