Look at those baby piglets! Just look at them! Don’t they just look so adorable delicious?!
There are a lot of places to eat in WNY and sometimes deciding where to head for a meal is overwhelming. Where to Eat This Weekend is a weekly feature that I (Alli) have been thinking about for a while. I’m incredibly indecisive and while having 100′s of detailed reviews of restaurants to pick from is wonderful, sometimes having someone narrow down your choices makes your life a bit easier. A new Where to Eat This Weekend will be posted every Friday with the sole purpose of helping you decide where to eat and hopefully introduce you to a few new places that are worth checking out. The posts will have a new ‘theme’ each week. I will pick a town (i.e. East Aurora, Orchard Park), cuisine (Thai, Mexican) or street (Hertel, Kenmore Ave) and give you a list of all of the notable places to eat/drink within that theme along with links to websites and our reviews as well as a few quick descriptions (price, type of food, etc).
Past posts focused on East Aurora, Allentown, Vietnamese cuisine , “unique” Chicken Wings, Kenmore Ave and Seasonal Hot Dog Stands. This week I decided to focus on Restaurants and Shops that offer T Meadow Farm pork products. We had always heard great things about the heritage breed pork at T-Meadow Farm, but it wasn’t until this year that we started to experience the deliciousness first hand. We’ve tried their pork in the form of bacon, charcuterie, hot dogs, kidneys, croquettes, tongue ruebens and even a whole slow roasted pig at a variety of restaurants and events. Regardless of how their pork has been prepared, it’s been absolutely ‘effin delicious every time. It’s really some of the very best pork you can get in WNY (and even beyond). We recently visited the farm and saw first hand how well owner Rich Tilyou and his family takes care of these pigs, they roam outside in a cage-free stress-free environment and are treated with a lot of care and respect. As a lover of pork products believe me when I say that the way these pigs are raised makes a difference in how they taste. They really have a pretty great life, are happy and healthy and their mud pits are pretty epic. We cannot praise this place enough, it really is that awesome. The following restaurants and shops are the best places to try this pork for yourself. So this weekend, get your pig on.
If you want to learn more about T-Meadows check out their website here and listen to our most recent podcast featuring Rich Tilyou here.
So..where what should you eat this weekend? T-Meadow Farm Pork!!
Notable Restaurants/Shops
If anyone has ever stepped inside Bistro Europa or spent any length of time with chef/owner Steve Gedra, you know that the restaurant is almost entirely devoted to pork. We were fortunate enough to have a special menu prepared by Steve and his staff (known to insiders as “The Velvet Hammer“) and had several dishes featuring T-Meadow pork. Not only is Bistro Europa one of the best restaurants in Buffalo, but they also go out of their way to use the highest quality LOCAL ingredients they can find.
- Camelo’s Restaurant – Website
Whether it’s a big T-Meadow Pork Chop, Bruce Wieszala’s Charcuterie Plate or their Butcher Supper featuring a whole roasted pig, there are plenty of reasons to make the drive to Lewiston and dine at Carmelo’s. I don’t think I have ever seen a bad review of Carmelo’s. Not to mention that they were just featured on Travel Channel only a couple months ago, so make your reservation now!
- Spar’s European Sausage Shop – BE Post (old)/Website
Not all of our recommendations are restaurants, sometimes they’ll require you to cook your own meal. While the weather is still warm enough to stand outside and grill, you definitely need to stop by Spar’s Sausage Shop off Amherst Street in Blackrock. Their T-Meadow ALL PORK Heritage Hot Dogs (Wieners) are jaw-dropping amazing. You should seriously stop what you’re doing and drive to the shop right now. You’ll also find more T-Meadow products in their various sausages, just ask their knowledgeable staff for help.
T Meadow Pork Belly from Omakase ‘Propagation’
- Williamsville Farmers Market – Website
The market is only open until October 27th, so you have a couple more Saturdays (8am to 1pm, rain or shine) to buy some of T-Meadow’s products directly from the farm without making the drive to Lockport. On occasion you’ll even find Rich Tilyou himself in the tent, selling you their sausage, pork chops, bacon and other pork goodness from their coolers. The farmers market has a couple other nice vendors that are worth seeing (especially Green Heron Growers) and you can even get a killer breakfast sandwich from Farmers and Artisans.
If you don’t want to make the drive to Lewiston but you are still dying to try some T-Meadow charcuterie from Bruce Wieszala (understandable, it’s delicious), I suggest you head over to Nickel City Cheese on Elmwood. Bruce unfortunately won’t be opening up his cured meat shop (COPPA) this year, but in the mean time you can find select goods at Jill Forster’s wonderful grocery store. If you haven’t been sold yet, watch this video featuring Rich and Bruce talking about the pigs and Bruce’s passion for curing meats. And while you are at Nickel City Cheese make sure to look around at all the other amazing goodies she has available (it’s really one of the best stores in Buffalo).
Of course you can always head right to the source in Lockport. They don’t exactly have open hours but if you reach out to Rich Tilyou (716-434-7206, tmeadowfarm@roadrunner.com), you can set up a time to purchase some fresh pork or chicken products right on site. Maybe if you are lucky enough you’ll be able to get a tour of the farm and their 100+ pigs, especially the 8 year old Boar named Henry (who is awweeessssoommmmeeee).
