Horseshoe Trail: New travel pass bringing business to Springfield restaurants
Claire Grant, Springfield State Journal- Register
5 min read
Scoop Du Jour has a shoe in the race — a horseshoe to be exact.
In fact, business has been up at the store located at 95 Plummer Blvd. in Chatham ever since Springfield launched its new foodie scavenger hunt, the Springfield Horseshoe Trail in January.
“A lot of people who don’t normally get a horseshoe are doing the horseshoe trail trying to hit every single place,” Scoop Du Jour owner Fran Abbott said. “I think some of those people didn’t know we even had horseshoes.”
This scavenger hunt for deep fried cheesy sandwiches is a smart marketing move by the city of Springfield official tourism group, Visit Springfield, who is offering discounts and prizes to anyone who joins the program with a few simple button taps.
Donna McCullough of Des Moines, Iowa eats a horseshoe meal for lunch at Charlie Parker's Diner on West North Street in Springfield Friday, January 26, 2024.
“For us it’s really a marketing opportunity to utilize and feature Springfield,” Springfield Visitors Bureau Marketing Manager Amy Beadle said. “To tell visitors why to come to Springfield and all the unique things and experiences they can have while they’re here.”
The idea for a food travel pass has been in development since early 2023 when the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau was looking to add a travel passport and eventually partnered with Bandwango, a tech company designing free and paid passports for tourism.
Bandwango is primarily used by destination marketing groups to keep track of passports sold, combined revenue from the passports and behavioral visitor data to better understand which demographic utilizes the passport.
“There is no financial goal,” Beadle said. “We have been in contact with the company we work through to do this and they said we are exceeding what they would normally see by way of sign ups. So we’ve had over 800 passes that have been signed up for.”
Anyone can go online to the Visit Springfield website to join the trail so they can receive a text pass. The mobile passport can then be redeemed at any of the 29 participating restaurants. There is no app required, just a valid phone number and email address.
Essentially, participants could do a circuit visiting over two dozen horseshoe shops, if they’re keen to eating their week's worth of calories in one afternoon.
The pass lasts until Dec. 31, 2025, so Springfielders have plenty of time to take each stop a month at a time even to still hit their goal.
Des Moines, Iowa native Donna McCullough and Dennis Irvin came to Springfield for the Eagle Wings Motorcycle Association and chose to grab lunch at Charlie Parker’s Diner on West North Street, which was featured on season 3 of Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” with some friends.
“We like to go out and get the flavor of the area where we’re at,” Irvin said. “Whatever happens to be the big thing or specialty of that area. I’m a homemade hash guy, so that stood out to me today.”
McCullough ordered a tater tot hamburger horseshoe with gravy and cheese, which she shared bites of at the table.
“It just seemed fun,” McCullough said. “We don’t like to go to chain restaurants, we like to go to places like this.”
Each store visited will grant 100 points on the account when using the website check-in or text. Points can be exchanged in the rewards section of the website, ranging from 500-1,500 points per redemption.
Current stock for prizes includes a cork-back coaster, stemless wine glass, hardcover bound notebook and white stainless steel wine tumbler, all of which have the Horseshoe Sandwich Trail logo on them.
What is a horseshoe?
A horseshoe, or ponyshoe if you want a smaller serving, is a signature Springfield open-faced sandwich which involves usually a piece of Texas toast on the bottom with a meat of choice, ham or a steak burger if it’s classic, with a heaping load of French fries and drizzled cheese sauce on top.
A horseshoe doesn’t have to be classic however, in fact branching out making something unique is encouraged.
From pulled pork to buffalo chicken, even sweets shops like Scoop Du Jour have put their own twist on the culture with an ice cream horseshoe.
“I always thought the stories of the horseshoe were always kind of funny,” Scoop Du Jour owner Fran Abbott said. “And it was just one of those things where I was just ... what if we made it out of ice cream? Then I’d eat the whole thing.”
According to Visit Springfield, the horseshoe sandwich was created in 1928 at the old Leland Hotel by Joe Schweska. The name "horseshoe" was derived from the shape of the cut of ham used in the original sandwich.
The French fries represent the nails of the shoe, and the sizzle platter represents the hot anvil.
It wasn't until the 1939 Christmas Edition of The State Journal-Register that Chef Schweska finally revealed the secret recipe that’s widespread today.
The full list of participating restaurants and hours of operation can be found online on Visit Springfield. Posts on Instagram with the hashtag #horseshoes and #Springfieldil have the chance to be featured for all foodies whose camera eats before they do.
Contact Claire Grant at CLGrant@gannett.com, X (Formerly known as Twitter): @Claire_Granted
