League Park in the 1920s and ’30s showcased baseball’s great legends, such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Satchel Paige. But at the concession stand, another legend was born — the spicy brown mustard that would become synonymous with Cleveland baseball.
In 1925, Polish immigrant Joseph Bertman started a pickle company in his garage on East 147th Street near Kinsman Avenue. He became known as “the Pickle King” at first. Then Bertman Foods Co., as the company would be called in the mid-30s, added salad dressings, coffee and dried foods.
Back in the ballpark and on hot dogs across the city, yellow mustard was the standard. Yet, the master spice maker and his customers wanted something with a little more kick. Bertman experimented mixing various spices with brown mustard seed but eventually found the key ingredient: vinegar. The spicy, tangy sauce offered Old World flavors of his — and many immigrants’ — youth. Eventually, the condiment, first distributed only by the gallon, debuted at League Park.
“Nobody remembered the brand of hot dog,” says Randy Mintz, who now owns Bertman along with his brother, Michael, “but they all knew the name of the mustard.”
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Bertman’s claim to the mustard throne isn’t that simple, though. Exactly when the condiment first appeared at the ball park is murky. Things get messier in the 1980s. Former Bertman employee David Dwoskin, who reportedly held the trademark for The Authentic Stadium Mustard, split off to create Davis Food Co., taking the name with him and creating his own Cleveland-based spicy brown mustard. Since then, the “mustard wars,” as one newspaper called it, waxed and waned, with disputes over naming rights and each taking stints serving both stadiums. Eventually, the dust settled with Bertman Original Ball Park Mustard and Davis’s Stadium Mustard. Today, the Browns serve Stadium, and the Guardians serve Ball Park.
In 2005, Mintz, a Cleveland native, created his own brand of mustard that won the Worldwide Mustard Competition in Napa Valley, California, in 2010 — the same competition Bertman won in 1997. When Bertman’s grandchildren chose to sell the company in 2014, they contacted Mintz because they wanted it to remain owned by a Cleveland family. He promised the recipe would never change.
“I fell in love with Bertman mustard when my dad took me to my first Indians game when I was 8 years old,” Mintz says. “It’s about memories of a Cleveland original through generations of baseball fans and introducing Bertman to the next generation.”
As far as disputes go, there is little among Bertman’s passionate followers.
The condiment is sold in nearly every local grocery store, as well as Walmart and Amazon. Great Lakes Brewing Co. collaborated with Bertman on a Dortmunder-infused version. Celebrity chef Rachel Ray called it “the best mustard on the planet,” and Michael Symon uses it as the base for his Mabel’s BBQ sauce — a request Mintz refers to as “magical.”
“Fans of Bertman’s are like family to us,” Mintz says. “They’re so loyal.”
One hundred years later, it’s still the flavor of Cleveland summers, with Progressive Field set to feature the mustard once again when the Guardians open at home on April 8. A centennial victory lap began in February, and in December, the Western Reserve Historical Society inducts Bertman Original Ball Park Mustard into its 100 Year Club, which honors Cleveland companies that have been in business for a century.
“The Bertman family, and now we, also deeply care about the product, and that’s how you get this type of longevity that has a great following,” Mintz says. “This mustard isn’t just about taste. It’s about the ballgame experience.”
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