Cincinnati Chili

Macedonian and Greek immigrants brought this to Cincinnati in the 1920s, and it is a Mediterranean-spiced meat sauce rather than chili in the Texan sense: cinnamon, allspice, sometimes clove and a little chocolate, cooked thin and loose, and ladled over spaghetti. You order by ways. Three-way is spaghetti, chili and a heap of finely shredded cheddar; four-way adds onions or beans; five-way adds both. Oyster crackers and hot sauce sit on the table. The Empress and Camp Washington parlours are among the older ones, and Skyline and Gold Star are the chains. It is divisive nationally and entirely normal locally, which is roughly the correct way to approach it.

What you actually see

• A thin, sweet-spiced meat sauce - cinnamon and allspice, not Texan chili.
• Served over spaghetti - under finely shredded cheddar.
• Ordered by ways - three, four or five.
• Oyster crackers on the table - standard, not optional.

When to go

Year round. A meal.

Honest expectations

It divides opinion sharply and the spicing surprises people expecting chili. The cheese quantity is not a mistake. Chain versions dominate; independent parlours vary. Nothing about it is spicy-hot unless you add the sauce.

Nearby

Over-the-Rhine is central; the riverfront is south.