This Famous Spicy Mustard Has Been A Staple At Cleveland Ballparks For Over 75 Years

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Eating hot dogs has become a part of the baseball stadium experience. Many ballparks have their own traditions when it comes to serving up stadium dogs. In LA's Dodger Stadium, it's all about the Dodger Dog — while at Boston's Fenway Park, nothing but an iconic Fenway Frank will do for Red Sox fans. For baseball enthusiasts in Cleveland, Ohio, though, it's not so much about the dog as it is about the mustard.

Spicy brown mustard has been the only acceptable kind to slather on a Cleveland stadium frank for many decades. From historic baseball parks like Cleveland's former Municipal Stadium and League Park, to other types of sports venues like Rocket Arena and Huntington Bank Field, a brand called Stadium Mustard has long been a go-to frankfurter topping for Cleveland sports.

Spicy brown mustard first appeared as a hot dog condiment at Cleveland Indian games in the 1920s, back in baseball's glory days, when legendary players, like Tris Speaker, were on the field. Over the ensuing years, the mustard became famous as an offering distinctive to Cleveland ball parks, though it didn't have an official name — it was just "that brown mustard from the stadium." 

In 1970, a man named David Dwoskin changed that. He approached Bertman Foods Co., the distributor that had been providing the mustard to Municipal Stadium since the 1950s, and gained exclusive rights to become the product's wholesale distributor. He eventually went out on his own and created his own version, which he christened The Authentic Stadium Mustard ("Stadium Mustard" for short), a moniker under which the product is still distributed.

While Stadium Mustard has gained notoriety as a Cleveland ballpark staple, a mustard rivalry has simmered between Stadium Mustard and a competing brand for over 40 years. In fact, Bertman Foods Co. was the original maker of Cleveland's brown mustard, and still makes the condiment, now offering it under the name Bertman Original Ball Park Mustard. For Clevelanders, you either eat Stadium Mustard or you eat Ball Park Mustard — there's no middle ground.

While the details get dicey, as is often the case with history, the mustard contest between the two brands reportedly ensued when David Dwoskin and Joe Bertman had a falling out. Some accounts say Dwoskin was an employee of the Bertman company, while others state he merely represented the brand while selling its mustard to retailers. Some say Dwoskin broke off and created his own recipe, while others state he absconded with Bertman's secret formula. 

Even individual teams and stadiums have become part of the mustard contest. For instance, Bertman's Original Ball Park Mustard is the official condiment offered at Cleveland Guardians games, while Stadium Mustard is the featured sauce at Cleveland Browns matches. If you want to avoid a potential conflict when ordering your hot dog, it's safest and most diplomatic to simply ask for "Cleveland-style" mustard in order to sidestep a bias for one brand or the other.

While the two spicy brown mustard brands are quite similar, right down to the bottles' red labels and red lids, diehard fans can tell the subtle differences. Both products are vinegar-based and utilize #1 mustard seed, but Stadium Mustard includes red pepper (but no spices) and has a mild kick, while Ball Park Mustard adds sugar and spices into the mix and is a bit sweeter as a result.

For those who call Cleveland home, the mustard mania doesn't stop at stadium dogs. In addition to topping off their frankfurters with whichever spicy brown sauce is their mustard of choice, Clevelanders have widened the condiment's application to include using it as a pretzel dip; topping things like grilled cheese sandwiches, hamburgers, and corned beef; mixing it into egg salad and deviled eggs; and using it as a barbecue baste.

Celebrity chef Michael Symon, who is from Cleveland, uses Bertman Original Ball Park Mustard as the base for his barbecue sauce, which has been part of his efforts to establish Cleveland-style barbecue as a recognized regional food offering. He joked on "The Rachael Ray Show" that tomato-based barbecue sauce was out of the question, since the Cleveland Browns' football rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers, played at Heinz Field (which has since been renamed Acrisure Stadium). "If you're from Cleveland, your Browns have been getting beat up by the Steelers for a lifetime," he stated (via YouTube). "Steelers field is named Heinz Field, which makes ketchup, so ain't no way a Cleveland boy can eat a ketchup-based barbecue sauce."