Hot Beef Commercial

[snopes]

Comment: Food Origin -- How did the Open Faced Beef Sandwich, smothered in gravy, get the name, "Hot Beef Commercial?"

Eh? I've never heard of a Hot Beef Commercial. A Google search only turns up six unique hits. Here is a blog that mentions it.

[Bee]

I think it's a regional thing. I never heard that term until I moved to Minnesota. (I previously lived in PA, NY, and IL.) You can also get pork commercial and turkey commercial. No one I've asked has any idea why.

Bee

[Pseudo_Croat]

Can't help you with the origins of the term, but I must say that "Hot Beef Commercial" sounds like a great name for a porn flick.

- Pseudo "it's juicy and delicious" Croat

[Iludium Phosdex]

Originally Posted by Bee

I think it's a regional thing. I never heard that term until I moved to Minnesota. (I previously lived in PA, NY, and IL.) You can also get pork commercial and turkey commercial. No one I've asked has any idea why.

Bee

Garrison Keillor alludes to such in his 1984 novel Lake Wobegon Days, in particular as the noon-hour speciality of the Chatterbox Cafe.

Which, if anything, is just your basic hot beef-and-gravy sandwich with mashed potatoes and brown gravy, string beans, and coffee on the side.

From personal experience as a Minnesota resident, though, I've yet to see "Hot Beef Commercials" referred to as such on the menus of places I've eaten @; it's usually just "Hot Beef Sandwich" rather than "Hot Beef Commercial."

(Including the ever-decreasing numbers of dining halls operated during the Minnesota State Fair.)

[Bee]

Originally Posted by Iludium Phosdex

From personal experience as a Minnesota resident, though, I've yet to see "Hot Beef Commercials" referred to as such on the menus of places I've eaten @; it's usually just "Hot Beef Sandwich" rather than "Hot Beef Commercial."

Huh. I see it regularly (not frequently, but often enough) and I've only lived in Minnesota for about 18 months. Maybe it stands out to me more because it's new? Or maybe it is more common in certain areas?

I did a quick Google search, which turned up menus at the following restaurants (not to mention several schools):
Mike's Cafe in Marshall, MN
Hollywood Ranch House in Hollywood, MN
Millie's Deli in Chanhassen, MN
Whiskey River Emporium in St. Peter, MN
McCormick's in Hutchinson, MN
Speak Easy in Detroit Lakes

Hmm, they don't seem to be in a small region, although all are West of the cities (West or Southwest, if you leave out Detroit Lakes). There goes that theory. But it was pretty interesting that I didn't turn up any restaurants outside of Minnesota with my little (not at all exhaustive) search.

Bee

[bjohn13]

Originally Posted by Bee

Huh. I see it regularly (not frequently, but often enough) and I've only lived in Minnesota for about 18 months. Maybe it stands out to me more because it's new? Or maybe it is more common in certain areas?

I did a quick Google search, which turned up menus at the following restaurants (not to mention several schools):
Mike's Cafe in Marshall, MN
Hollywood Ranch House in Hollywood, MN
Millie's Deli in Chanhassen, MN
Whiskey River Emporium in St. Peter, MN
McCormick's in Hutchinson, MN
Speak Easy in Detroit Lakes

Hmm, they don't seem to be in a small region, although all are West of the cities (West or Southwest, if you leave out Detroit Lakes). There goes that theory. But it was pretty interesting that I didn't turn up any restaurants outside of Minnesota with my little (not at all exhaustive) search.

Bee

This topic is starting to nag me a bit. Here I am saying "not in my part of Minnesota", and then then Bee goes and names three restaurants I've actually eaten in before.

I'm a semi-regular at the Speak Easy, and though I don't know if the Speak Easy here in Moorhead (across the river) is owned by the same franchise as the one in Detroit Lakes, but I can say that they use the same menu (I strongly recommend the Eddy Eggplant). I've never seen a "Hot Beef Commercial" on either, and I couldn't find "Hot Beef Commercial" on the menu linked either.

I've never seen the term used in Marshall, MN or Chanhassen, MN either. I see they both have turkey commercials as well as beef commercials. Now, I know the memory can be deceiving, but I could have sworn I had eaten at these two places as well, and a term as corny as a "beef commercial" would seemingly stand out. Of course, there is always the possibility that I just ordered a hamburger and didn't look at the menu.

Fact is, I've visited a lot of small Minnesota towns and diners from all four corners of the state, and I've never seen this term used. I guarantee, though, that if I ever do see it, I'm going to ask them to stop using it. I stumbled across a definition for "Commercial" on dictionary.com that really makes me question what the heck that actually means.

Commercial noun

(In U.S. government grading of beef)
a. a low-quality grade of beef between standard and utiility.
b a cut of beef of this grade.

b "I'll just have a salad" john13

[Eddylizard]

If I had to guess, and a guess is all it is, perhaps the "commercial" originally indicated originally that it is not of the finest ingredients, but is tasty and nutritious, and within the budget of the less well off. Not aiming for the gourmet market, but those with only a small amount of cash for a meal.

Not a major draw maybe for those with more to spend, by neither maybe is the name of the 'poor boy' sandwich.

[Bee]

Originally Posted by bjohn13

This topic is starting to nag me a bit. Here I am saying "not in my part of Minnesota", and then then Bee goes and names three restaurants I've actually eaten in before.

It's starting to nag at me, too. I am starting to wonder why I'm the only person in this thread who has seen it on a restaurant menu when I've only lived in Minnesota for a short time. The only explanation I have is that perhaps since the term itself is really new to me (and I find it funny), it stands out more than it might for a longtime Minnesotan. Also since I'm going to lots of restaurants for the first time, I might be inspecting their menus more carefully than the regulars are. I dunno.

RE: the Speak Easy-- if it makes you feel better, I see that Turkey Commercial is no longer on their menu; it's on the Google cached page, but not the current page. It seems to be an occasional special.

Bee

[bjohn13]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

If I had to guess, and a guess is all it is, perhaps the "commercial" originally indicated originally that it is not of the finest ingredients, but is tasty and nutritious, and within the budget of the less well off. Not aiming for the gourmet market, but those with only a small amount of cash for a meal.

There are still quite a few restaurants in this neck of the woods that buy beef directly from the farmers and employ their own butchers. The last one locally (a steakhouse by the name of Smokey's....best steak I've ever eaten) closed down about 3 years ago when the owner passed away, but I'd be willing to bet that there are still a few rural areas that employ this technique. Minnesota has a booming tourist industry with a lot of busy rural steakhouses that offer great steak at a great price, and even the "commercial" grade cuts would be better than Burger King.