How Have Binghamton’s Famous Spiedies Not Gone National Yet?

In the wake of my very first Spiediefest, a question occurred to me. Why haven't the famous Binghamton Spiedies spread beyond the Southern Tier region?

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They can't be a big secret of the area. I mean, we hold a giant festival every year called "Spiediefest" and it looked pretty packed to me. Sure, the hot air balloons are a pretty big draw. But they don't call it "hot air balloonfest" and I find it hard to believe that the people coming strictly for the hot air balloons wouldn't at least give the namesake of the festival a try.

Not to mention the fact that Binghamton University welcomes students from not just the Binghamton area, not just the state of New York, but from all over the world. And in all the years that Binghamton University has been open, not one student has returned to their home and spread the message of Spiedies? It just doesn't add up.

And on top of that, we live in a world more interconnected than ever thanks to social media. A good portion of that social media landscape is occupied by foodie accounts always interested in whatever weird new foods pop up at Brooklyn food trucks. We even have a "Foodie Friday" article every single week on WNBF. Yet until I moved to Binghamton I had never once seen so much as a picture of a Spiedie.

It's not a difficult meal to prepare either. Spiedies are just marinated meat sandwiches. I'm sure even the fine people of Iowa or Montana would be able to whip up a pretty good Spiedie if given the right ingredients. Then again, bagels and pizza are easy to make too but it's pretty tough to find a good slice outside New York City. And yet, people from other parts of the country still enjoy bagels and pizza even if they aren't as good, so why don't they enjoy Spiedies in the same way?

The regional lock on the Spiedie is a mystery to me. Maybe one of the fine people of the greater Binghamton area can explain to me why that secret is apparently kept under lock and key. Because there is no way that you can look at that picture above or taste that delicious marinated meat and deny that a Spiedie food truck in New York City or Los Angeles isn't a million dollar business easily.