1st trip to Buffalo!

[Augie]

4 minutes ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

My Filipina wife is a good mimic.  When we have a good meal at a restaurant, be it Cambodian, or Oaxacan, or French, or whatever, she'll come home and imitate the dish, often with great success.  But we decided Beef-on-Weck would be impossible because you can't buy Kimmelweck rolls where we live.  Stupid us, we never considered making our own.  This would be a great 4th of July project.  

 

Awesome for you on your wife the amazing mimic!

 

I used to buy the weck at the grocery store (Publix), but they came in a plastic bag and the salt would melt. At best, they were OK. I think they dropped it.

 

 There is a Buffalo guy with a restaurant a mile away with BoW, but his rolls are also hit or miss depending upon when they last came in. I ordered BoW once and they were out of rolls. They understood why I passed entirely.

 

The roll is very important, and the best way to control that is to make your own. It also makes it easy to do sliders, which can be a nice option depending upon the crowd. 

[chris heff]

1 hour ago, yall said:

Nearly everything you've described (save for perhaps a few of the niche asian cuisines) can be found here.

 

No ***** LA has more options? Thanks Captain obvious. Hard to believe a metro area of 13-14 million has more choices than one of roughly 1 million.

 

You clearly haven't been back long enough or explored enough to give the local fare a fair shake in the last 10 years, but hey, defer to your awards and magazines.

But but.... the awards!

I don’t disagree with anything you have written. I have not spent much time in Buffalo since I left a long time ago, still have family there, I get back every few years. This is conjecture on my part, based on observations over years. I’m curious as to your opinion. Buffalo had serious economic problems for decades, starting with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, my family was involved with shipping on the Great Lakes. The Seaway made Buffalo superfluous. Heavy industry like steel blew themselves up. In the 1970s there was a sign on I-90 East that said, “Last one to leave turn out the lights”. My point is restaurants are a luxury, not a necessity. Economics and disposable income play a role .

 

Buffalo is and has been making a comeback. With that comes entrepreneurs. Even the crazy ones that are restaurateurs. Hard business, bad margins, bad hours, you have to love it. Awards and recognition help put people in the seats and believe me everything helps. Michelin stars used to be hard to get, way easier today for a multitude of reasons. A city like Buffalo gets lost in the shuffle. It was on hard times for a long time. So I’m not putting much weight on Michelin stars, or the lack there of. I’m sure there are young creative chefs there. 
 

I admire the ferocity of your defense of that city. Since this is a Bills site, my question is, can you play defensive tackle?

 

 

 

[yall]

22 minutes ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

Well, I guess we won't be sharing a beer the next time I'm in Buffalo.  That's okay, I'm not a beer guy anyway.  

In the meantime, I'm going to eat well and hope you do, too.  

Balvenie Double Barrel at Hammer's Lot it is then.

[hondo in seattle]

12 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

Awesome for you on your wife the amazing mimic!

 

I used to buy the weck at the grocery store (Publix), but they came in a plastic bag and the salt would melt. At best, they were OK. I think they dropped it.

 

 There is a Buffalo guy with a restaurant a mile away with BoW, but his rolls are also hit or miss depending upon when they last came in. I ordered BoW once and they were out of rolls. They understood why I passed entirely.

 

The roll is very important, and the best way to control that is to make your own. It also makes it easy to do sliders, which can be a nice option depending upon the crowd. 

 

I don't usually cook at home.  But the wife likes me to handle the proteins three times per year: The Fourth, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  With the idea of making our own Kummelweck, you've got me thinking: Beef on Weck would be cool for a holiday.

 

Just found this:  

 

 

[yall]

2 minutes ago, chris heff said:

I don’t disagree with anything you have written. I have not spent much time in Buffalo since I left a long time ago, still have family there, I get back every few years. This is conjecture on my part, based on observations over years. I’m curious as to your opinion. Buffalo had serious economic problems for decades, starting with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, my family was involved with shipping on the Great Lakes. The Seaway made Buffalo superfluous. Heavy industry like steel blew themselves up. In the 1970s there was a sign on I-90 East that said, “Last one to leave turn out the lights”. My point is restaurants are a luxury, not a necessity. Economics and disposable income play a role .

 

Buffalo is and has been making a comeback. With that comes entrepreneurs. Even the crazy ones that are restaurateurs. Hard business, bad margins, bad hours, you have to love it. Awards and recognition help put people in the seats and believe me everything helps. Michelin stars used to be hard to get, way easier today for a multitude of reasons. A city like Buffalo gets lost in the shuffle. It was on hard times for a long time. So I’m not putting much weight on Michelin stars, or the lack there of. I’m sure there are young creative chefs there. 
 

I admire the ferocity of your defense of that city. Since this is a Bills site, my question is, can you play defensive tackle?

 

 

 

Not with my walking boot on. 

 

Also, it's not so much a knee-jerk defense of the city as much as it is being a bit of a food guy and getting a little fed up with the notion the the only thing of culinary significance around here is spicy chicken and a beef sandwich. There are so many incredible options that rival some in bigger markets, you just have to know where to go.

 

Another factor is the often fleeting nature of restaurants. Even great ones come and go in a competitive industry with razor thin margins.

 

[hondo in seattle]

5 minutes ago, yall said:

Balvenie Double Barrel at Hammer's Lot it is then.

 

I'm hoping to catch a game next year at the new stadium.  Maybe you can point me to the culinary wonders I've apparently been missing in Buffalo.  

 

I'm old enough that I recall a time when the only Mexican food in Buffalo was Mighty Tacos (when they had that dirty location on Elmwood manned by pimply kids with greasy hair - though the food was better back then) and Chi-Chi's.  To get Chinese food, you had to cross the bridge to go to Happy Jacks in Fort Erie.  While I do get back to the city periodically and do my best to explore, I may not be entirely up-to-date with Buffalo's renaissance.  Maybe next time I'll do fewer of the Buffalo classics (pizza, wings, BoW) and more of the newer stuff to see how it compares.       

[yall]

10 minutes ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

I'm hoping to catch a game next year at the new stadium.  Maybe you can point me to the culinary wonders I've apparently been missing in Buffalo.  

 

I'm old enough that I recall a time when the only Mexican food in Buffalo was Mighty Tacos (when they had that dirty location on Elmwood manned by pimply kids with greasy hair - though the food was better back then) and Chi-Chi's.  To get Chinese food, you had to cross the bridge to go to Happy Jacks in Fort Erie.  While I do get back to the city periodically and do my best to explore, I may not be entirely up-to-date with Buffalo's renaissance.  Maybe next time I'll do fewer of the Buffalo classics (pizza, wings, BoW) and more of the newer stuff to see how it compares.       

Since you seem to indicate a bent towards latin cuisine, supposedly La Puertas has a 7 course Spanish-themed degustation menu. Haven't been but have dying to try.

[hondo in seattle]

3 minutes ago, yall said:

Since you seem to indicate a bent towards latin cuisine, supposedly La Puertas has a 7 course Spanish-themed degustation menu. Haven't been but have dying to try.

 

Thanks for the recommendation.  I used to keep a list of the restaurants I wanted to try the next time I was in town.  I guess I need to restart that and add La Puertas.  Also, I'm a big fan of mole ***** from Oaxaca.  Somewhere I heard there's a restaurant in/near Buffalo with excellent made-from-scratch mole.  I need to try that, too.  

 

One restaurant that I think is gone now was a French place downtown where you could make your own crepes on a table-top mini stove.  My mom was French, so crepes were nothing new to me.  But I'd never cooked my own crepe batter in a restaurant before.  Cool experience.  

By the way, you mentioned the razor-thin profit margins in restaurants.  You work in the biz?  

[chris heff]

23 minutes ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

I'm hoping to catch a game next year at the new stadium.  Maybe you can point me to the culinary wonders I've apparently been missing in Buffalo.  

 

I'm old enough that I recall a time when the only Mexican food in Buffalo was Mighty Tacos (when they had that dirty location on Elmwood manned by pimply kids with greasy hair - though the food was better back then) and Chi-Chi's.  To get Chinese food, you had to cross the bridge to go to Happy Jacks in Fort Erie.  While I do get back to the city periodically and do my best to explore, I may not be entirely up-to-date with Buffalo's renaissance.  Maybe next time I'll do fewer of the Buffalo classics (pizza, wings, BoW) and more of the newer stuff to see how it compares.       

Cuisine is a reflection of immigrants, you may correct me if I’m wrong, but back then the main ancestry groups were Italian, Irish Polish, German, African, with a smattering of other. Not a great deal of Asians or Mexican. How many Cuban restaurants are there in Northern California?

[hondo in seattle]

5 minutes ago, chris heff said:

Cuisine is a reflection of immigrants, you may correct me if I’m wrong, but back then the main ancestry groups were Italian, Irish Polish, German, African, with a smattering of other. Not a great deal of Asians or Mexican. How many Cuban restaurants are there in Northern California?

 

A few - but they're not nearly as common as some other cuisines.  I was in Tampa last year and made sure we hit one because I guessed the Cuban food there was better simply because there were more Cubans there.  

 

[chris heff]

4 minutes ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

A few - but they're not nearly as common as some other cuisines.  I was in Tampa last year and made sure we hit one because I guessed the Cuban food there was better simply because there were more Cubans there.  

 

Yup

[ColoradoBills]

1 hour ago, Augie said:

 

I remember that episode. When we flew in we went straight from the airport to Schwabl’s for the memories, BoW and German potato salad. Awesome, but then we drove past Charlie’s the Butcher a few times (hard not to going to/from the airport) and I wanted to stop there too! And Ted’s, and Mighty, and….You can’t do it all! 

 

BTW - I make my kimmelweck using the instructions on Charlie the Butcher’s website. They used to suggest a cornstarch slurry I believe to adhere the salt and caraway seeds, but now they use an egg wash.  Why do I recall that?  🤷‍♂️

 

I did homemade BoW last Sunday night.  I used to do the Charlie the Butcher cornstarch but didn't like it.  I now use the egg wash.  Much better.

Serve it with mashed potatoes and pickled sweet and sour red cabbage and I think I'm back in Buffalo.

[SoCal Deek]

35 minutes ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

I did homemade BoW last Sunday night.  I used to do the Charlie the Butcher cornstarch but didn't like it.  I now use the egg wash.  Much better.

Serve it with mashed potatoes and pickled sweet and sour red cabbage and I think I'm back in Buffalo.

I’m curious about the pickled cabbage you mention. There’s a famous steakhouse chain in Southern California that features what sounds like something very similar. Every meal comes with the red cabbage and a simple blue cheese salad side by side. I know it sounds odd but people go just for the salad pairing as they do for the steaks. Is your red cabbage salad a somewhat vinaigery slaw? 

[PonyBoy]

If you go to the Falls make sure you hit the Como..oh wait, they closed.

 

Juniors truck stop for a good diner meal.., oops, closed too.

 

Dicamillos on Pine Ave for some great bread & donuts...dang it! Closed too.

 

Nevermind, don't go to the Falls except for the water areas. 

[ColoradoBills]

57 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

I’m curious about the pickled cabbage you mention. There’s a famous steakhouse chain in Southern California that features what sounds like something very similar. Every meal comes with the red cabbage and a simple blue cheese salad side by side. I know it sounds odd but people go just for the salad pairing as they do for the steaks. Is your red cabbage salad a somewhat vinaigery slaw? 

 

I get this one.  Yes, there is vinegar, but it has some sweetness to it too.

It pairs well with gravy dishes.  I don't use au jus with my BoW.  I thicken it up and make gravy.  Much tastier.

I use a little Kitchen Bouquet in the gravy.

 

Edited September 12 by ColoradoBills

[Sierra Foothills]

On 9/10/2025 at 8:21 AM, chris heff said:

Somebody named their restaurant Adolfs?

 

It's a very old restaurant and the original owner's name was Adolph.

 

On 9/10/2025 at 2:31 PM, hondo in seattle said:

Where are you coming from?

 

Yes, @DrZ, how long Is your stay in Buffalo?

 

Are you staying for the Dolphins game one week from tonight?

 

Do you have a car or are you using ride sharing services?
 

 

[Chandler#81]

On 9/10/2025 at 9:23 AM, Augie said:

 

If you do get to the Falls, The Maid of the Mist is a very memorable experience. If you are on the Canadian side, you are just 20-30 minutes south of Niagara on the Lake which we visited last week for the first time. It’s a charming little town where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario. That was a nice and easy side trip for us.

and Great .um.. ‘Dance’ clubs in Canada! Bring your passports and a lot of one dollar bills.

[yall]

11 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

Thanks for the recommendation.  I used to keep a list of the restaurants I wanted to try the next time I was in town.  I guess I need to restart that and add La Puertas.  Also, I'm a big fan of mole ***** from Oaxaca.  Somewhere I heard there's a restaurant in/near Buffalo with excellent made-from-scratch mole.  I need to try that, too.  

 

One restaurant that I think is gone now was a French place downtown where you could make your own crepes on a table-top mini stove.  My mom was French, so crepes were nothing new to me.  But I'd never cooked my own crepe batter in a restaurant before.  Cool experience.  

By the way, you mentioned the razor-thin profit margins in restaurants.  You work in the biz?  

Many moons ago, but have a lot of friends still there.

 

A year or two ago almost jumped back in and bought a place, but my golden handcuffs and common sense got the better of me.

[Augie]

8 hours ago, Chandler#81 said:

and Great .um.. ‘Dance’ clubs in Canada! Bring your passports and a lot of one dollar bills.

 

My advice for the “Canadian Ballet” would be to convert to Canadian dollars taking advantage of the very favorable exchange rate to stretch the experience, and avoid the awkward sound and experience of hearing coins fall to the floor.  Nobody wants to pick up a half roll of nickels! 

 

 

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Edited September 12 by Augie

[eball]

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