Breaking News
Local News

Hometown taste: Altoona boasts its own unique food traditions

Altoona boasts its own unique food traditions

By Colette Costlow 8 min read

Altoona-style pizza. Texas hot dogs. The Curve Burger. Mallo Cups. Are you drooling yet?

Although internet users call this food niche and a bit peculiar, these delights have shaped Altoona's culture, passing down well-loved recipes through generations.

Several longtime restaurants and companies still serve these cultural dishes, creating fans for life.

Altoona-style pizza

Each day, 29th Street Pizza bakes Altoona-style pizza, also commonly referred to as Altoona Sicilian pizza and Altoona Hotel-style pizza, owner Dina Taylor said, selling anywhere from three to six pies a day.

She said a slice goes for $3.25, something many out-of-towners usually call cheap.

Originally a corner store about 21 years ago, 29th Street Pizza began selling pies over time before eventually becoming a pizza shop about four years ago. Taylor bought the store in July 2025 from the previous owner, Steve Corklic.

"Steve always had the Altoona Hotel-style pizza here at 29th Street, and I kept that tradition on," she said.

They sell slices in a 28-cut from their homemade Sicilian dough, she said. They top it with sauce, salami, a slice of green pepper and a slice of yellow cheese.

"Which is what it was when it was made at the Altoona Hotel," she said, referencing the 110-year-old building located on 3830 5th Avenue that originally sold Altoona-style pizza before it burned down in 2013.

Taylor was unsure when or why Corklic started making Altoona-style pizza at his store on 29th Street, but he mimicked the recipe, and locals followed.

City resident Bob Stanbaugh sat in his car while waiting for his daughter-in-law to pick up four slices of Altoona-style pizza at 29th Street Pizza. He remembered eating leftover Altoona-style pizza his grandfather made while working as a chef at the Altoona Hotel.

Stanbaugh claimed that his grandfather, Charlie Stanbaugh, created the recipe in the late 1940s.

"I was eating what was left over the night before," Stanbaugh said.

While some people enjoy this regional delight, Taylor said it's not for everyone, as the internet is flooded with different opinions and takes. It's a viral internet meme.

The pizza was recently referenced on an episode of CBS' comedy series "Ghosts," with Altoona native Joe Port as the show's co-executive producer.

"On a daily basis, we have people from all over the country," she said. "We've got people from Canada, we've had people from overseas that have seen it (the pizza)."

But their reactions to the pizza are a different story, she said.

"You either like Altoona-style pizza or you don't," she said. "There's no in-between."

Three "Twilight" cast members took a bite of Altoona-style pizza in June 2025 during Sci-Fi Valley Con, and Jackson Rathbone, who played Jasper Hale in the series, was a fan.

"I quite like your pizza; I will be real," Rathbone told the Mirror in 2025. "That Altoona-style was something else."

However, many people also leave nasty comments online about the style of pizza, as some people from Altoona disown it.

Regardless of opinions, Taylor said the pizza has been a food tradition in Altoona for decades.

"It's a piece of history," she said. "It's a piece of Altoona; it's nostalgic to Altoona."

Texas Hot Dogs

Texas Hot Dogs is the oldest family-run restaurant in Altoona, according to co-owner Kate Mason.

With two locations in the area, one on 12th Street and another on 58th Street, they're best known for their Texas hot dogs made with a steamed bun, hot dog and unique chili sauce.

Kate said her great-grandfather, Peter George, emigrated from Greece before settling in Dubois for a few years. George's friend and Western movie star Tom Mix tried the sauce, which was made with meat and spices, co-owner Matt Mason said.

Mix said it tasted like the recipes in Texas, Matt said, which is how they came up with the name "Texas Hot Dogs."

A few years later, Kate said George moved to Altoona with his recipe.

"My grandfather perfected the recipe, so we've kept that time the same," she said.

Their "everything" Texas hot dog is the restaurant's top seller, sold with spicy brown mustard, chili sauce and diced onions for $2.89.

"Just about everything we have here, a good portion of it is all homemade," Kate said, mentioning that beans, chili and sauce are homemade.

Kate said their hot dogs hold a lot of memories for people familiar with Altoona.

"It's definitely nostalgic," she said. "We get lots of customers that come in and say, 'This is our first stop when we come into town.'"

Matt said many customers also purchase a pint of sauce after eating their meals, claiming that they can't get this type of sauce anywhere else.

They've also had celebrity guests enter their establishment, including Barack Obama, who swung by the 12th Street location during his presidential campaign run in 2008.

Celebrating over 100 years in the food service industry, Mason said the business was her great-grandfather's version of the American Dream. And the food that started Texas Hot Dogs continues to touch the community today.

"It's been really fun to connect with those people, and they kind of become part of the family," she said.

The Curve Burger

Food and beverage manager Ryan Long said that the Curve Burgers are the cornerstone of the Altoona Curve.

"It's been really cool to see people's infatuation with the Curve Burger," he said.

The Curve Burger, made with a 1/3 pound, 100% Angus beef patty stacked between two Pacifico roll buns, was introduced during the Altoona Curve's inception in 1999, he said. The company has been selling the crowd favorite each season since.

"If we make a slight change (to the recipe), the season ticket holders and regular fans will know," he said with a laugh. "They're very knowledgeable customers."

The company sells many Curve Burgers throughout the season, general manager Jamie Skipper said, adding that someone recently inquired about purchasing a case of burgers this Labor Day.

They also sold pre-ordered Curve Burgers curbside for $9 a piece during the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020.

"People have been known to buy a grandstand ticket, get a Curve Burger and then go home," he said.

As of Sept. 4, Long said they sold more than 17,500 burgers throughout the 2026 baseball season. It's the company's busiest stand, yet it's also one of the smallest stands in the stadium. They currently cost $14 a burger.

"It's hard to explain coming to a game without a Curve Burger, and that says a lot about the Curve's impact on the community," he said. "You can't talk about Curve baseball without talking about the Curve Burger."

Mallo Cups

To end on a sweet note, Mallo Cups of Boyer Candy Company has been in business since 1936, marking 90 years, owner Anthony Forgione said.

However, Mallo Cups were created in the 1920s by brothers Bill and Bob Boyer, he said, who rode bicycles around the city and sold chocolate bars. At some point, they came up with a chocolate-covered marshmallow treat.

"They made an incredible mess trying to cover marshmallows with chocolate; it's a messy operation," Forgione said. "Their mom suggested using a cupcake liner, and that was the birth of the Mallo Cup."

The recipe hasn't changed since then, he said, as each Mallo Cup is made from chocolate, toasted coconut and a marshmallow.

The toasted coconut gives the chocolate a crunch, he said, an ingredient not many customers can pick out from the first bite. An entire floor of the building is dedicated to roasting coconuts for that purpose.

"There are still hardwood floors in that building as it would have been in the 1930s," he said.

A 10-ounce bag of Mallo Cups costs $4.99.

They also give back to the community, he said, noting that 10% of Sunday's sales go to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as other local charities.

"We do it as our way of giving back to the community that built the company," he said.

Thinking about Altoona's food culture, he said Mallo Cups have been around for generations, mentioning that the city is built around the factory's 17th Street location.

"It's because your great-grandparents ate it, and they passed the tradition on to your grandparents, who passed it down to your parents and then to you," he said. "It's in the fabric of the city."

Mirror Staff Writer Colette Costlow is at 814-946-7414.

Starting at /week.