If any hobby could compete with my love of food, it might very well be music. I consider myself to be a music nerd; I have roughly 30 days worth of music on my laptop, I’m starting to build a collection of vinyl, and I could talk music history for hours. So when I started to see flyers around Allentown for buffaBLOG, I got excited. I have been dying for some type of website to come around and talk about upcoming concerts, albums and local artists.
If you haven’t visited buffaBLOG, that’s exactly what they do best. They have an incredibly in-depth calender of events and an album of the week feature that has been dead on (as far as I’m concerned at least). They are going to be celebrating their 1st birthday with a concert at Nietzche’s on March 25th with some great local bands (including my roommates band, The Bird Day…see flier after the click).
I was able to get a hold of some of their staff to participate in today’s Buffalo Foodie article. We have Mac and Chris (two of their writers) and Katie (who handles the graphics for the blog) answering some questions. Read on to see where they love to eat and drink in Buffalo…..
Where are your favorite places to eat in Buffalo?
Mac: I am obsessed with sushi so I go out for that quite often. Sea Bar, Papaya, Wasabi are all great although my favorite sushi place, Pangia on Hertel, closed a couple years ago. My goal is to find a sushi deal night for every night of the week. Favorite restaurant though is Ulrich’s. Comfort food at its finest. I could eat an entire plate of their spaetzle and be completely satisfied. Two other weaknesses of mine are the massive bowls of pho at 99 Fast Food Restaurant and the gumbo from Lagniappes.
Chris: My favorite spots in Buffalo to go out and eat often depend on the weather. In the winter, I really enjoy a good Chicken Parm from Chefs, or a meatloaf sandwich from Papa Jakes. In the summer, I love sitting outside at Coles and Cozumel. The back patio at Gabriels Gate is also an amazing way to blow of some steam and eat some great food. It is always a great experience to sit outside and see Buffalo folk walking around while enjoying a nice meal with a delicious margarita.
Katie: I eat out way to much but how can you not when you live in a city with such amazing restaurants all over the place. If I’m going out to a nice dinner, my first choice is always Mothers. Between the menu and the atmosphere, I have always had an amazing meal. My newest favorite restaurant is Seabar on Ellicott. I am absolutely obsessed with the roast beef on weck sushi and the fish tacos. Unfortunately my budget cannot always include a meal at Mothers or Seabar, but it is not really a problem because Buffalo has just as many affordable, amazing restaurants as they do nice, expensive ones. My favorite bang for the buck restaurant is Suzy Q’s BBQ Shack which is by far the best BBQ food you will find in this area. Suzy herself is your waitress and as soon as you enter you feel like part of her family. Don’t hold back when you order… trust me everything is as good as it sounds, especially the Piggy Pie.
Where do you like to grab a drink after work or on the weekends?
Mac: One of my favorite places to grab a drink after work is Founding Fathers. I love the eclectic crowd there. Mike, the bartender/owner is so engaging, always treats each person like they are his most important customer. You don’t see that at a lot of bars. Plus, free nachos are always great. Blue Monk is one of the newer spots I like to frequent. Not the cheapest of places, but great food and beer selections.
Chris: After a long days work, I like to grab a drink at Colter Bay. They have an amazing selection of brews at a very reasonable price. If I am on Hertel on Monday, I am never opposed to stopping in to The Wellington Pub for $1 Molsons and .40 chicken wings. The Thirsty Buffalo and The Blue Monk are also excellent places to grab some drinks and great bar food.
Katie: Running a local music blog, I usually grab drinks wherever the music is playing. I am almost always on Allen at Neitzsche’s, Hardware or DBGB’s but I also grab a few $2 PBR’s at Mohawk Place or head over to Soundlab. I am most excited to start going to Sportmen’s Tavern way more this summer… they have been working a lot on their renovations and more bands are starting to play there.
If you had a friend visiting from out of town, where would you take them for a good “Buffalo” time?
Mac: I had a friend from college visit me for the first time over the spring and the first thing he wanted was wings so I took him right to Duff’s. I have never been an Anchor Bar guy, and growing up in Amherst, Duffs was right down the street so that was the place to go. There was a hockey game going on that night so I took him over to Pearl St for a beer tube after we checked out the water front. We finished up the night with heading over to Allentown for some live music. Most of my friends from college had their opinions about Buffalo. The have all have taken their shots, saying there is nothing to do here. We all know that is not true. My friend was generally surprised and excited while walking down Allen, hearing the music blasting from the windows and seeing people pouring out of Hardware, Nietzsche’s, and DBGBs (at the time it was Staples still).
Chris: As Mac said, there is no doubt the first place I would take someone would be straight to Duffs. Their wings need to be experienced and then experienced again. Then again the same as Mac, I would head right for Allen to really give my friend the full Buffalo drink,food, music experience.
Katie: Well obviously we need to cover the basic Buffalo foods: chicken wings and roast beef on weck. For wings, I choose Duff’s or Gabriel’s Gate. Both restaurants have terrific chicken wings but the Gate might win because of it’s great location. I really love the roast beef on weck at Cole’s… they know how to do it right with the side of au jus and the weck roll its a winner. For dessert, I take my out of town friends to Watson’s on Elmwood to try the sponge candy or sponge candy ice cream if its summer.
What are some food memories you have from your childhood?
Mac: My father is from England so Fish and Chips/Fish Fries were always popular when we went out to eat. I remember the smell of the malt vinegar my father would drench his fish and french fries in. We never ate a ton of fish at home growing up, so my father would just make his own fries some nights just to get his fix. He called them his famous chip buddy sandwiches which were pretty much just fries on two pieces of buttered bread and steak sauce. The smell of the butter, grease, salt, and steak sauce was unforgettable. Not the healthiest dish, but it’s the only thing my father could cook so when we would see him skinning and cutting up the potatoes, we knew we were in for a treat.
Chris: Even though it is a chain restaurant, one place that has always stuck out as a staple in my memories is The Ground Round. My family would frequent there quite a bit, I loved their chicken fingers, their pinball machine that gave bouncy balls as a prize, and their ice cream was served in miniature Baseball helmets. A home cooked favorite was always what my mom entitled “Dog Food” which really was just a giant combination of canned vegetables and anything else she wished to put in it. It never looked appetizing one bit, but was always nothing short of delicious.
Katie: My favorite restaurant from my childhood is Old Man Rivers. Between the giant whale on the roof, the pirate ship and the ice cream stand in the old Volkswagen beetle its a kid’s dream. I loved that the kids meals came in a little cardboard convertible with an Oreo cookie. Its the best place in the summer.
What foods/cuisines do you wish buffalo had more of?
Mac: The one type of food I wish Buffalo had more of is quality, authentic Tex Mex. I mean we have places to get a taco here, but it isn’t the same. I was in Austin last spring and nothing can compare to that Tex Mex. I would also like to see more food trucks/trailers in town. With Lloyd setting up shop, it’s a start, but the quality of food in the trucks I checked out in Austin was amazing and it would be nice if we could develop some sort of street food scene here.
Chris: I too wish Buffalo had more street vendors, more like the streets of NYC. Lloyds Taco Truck is such a great start, but would love some authentic greek food trucks, and some more quick street meals with the quality of a sit down restaurant.
Katie: Mexican! I guess we are just too far from the west coast to get a really good Mexican place. I definitely enjoy the ones we have here in Buffalo, but I’ve had better Mexican in Iowa and that statement just doesn’t even make sense.
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We’d like to thank Mac, Chris and Katie for taking time out of their busy schedules to answer some questions for us. If you love music and enjoy going to local shows, you have to start reading this blog. They are literally reporting on every concert that’s going on every night in this city. Follow buffaBLOG on twitter or facebook to help stay up to date and make sure you mark down March 25th on your calender.
