During the 5th season of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservation they debuted an episode titled “Rust Belt“, instead of solely featuring one city it showed Tony going to 3. Detroit, Baltimore and Buffalo were the candidates and it featured some food and culture that are associated with these “troubled” cities. In what could have been easily predicted, Buffalo then went CRAZY and freaked out about the episode and how poorly it showed Buffalo and how it really featured Nelson Starr more then anything (he was the man who brought Tony to our city). Personally I enjoyed the episode but I’ve been a die hard Bourdain fan for years now. I guess I have a bias due to my love of Tony, but anyone expecting a Food Network style “lets check out some Chicken Wings!” were expecting the wrong type of show. They made their way to Ulrich’s Tavern to have some Chicken Wings and sausages, Schwabl’s for some famous Beef On Weck, and Nietzches to watch Nelson’s band preform.
Original Air Date: July 27th, 2009 (The YouTube videos were removed thanks to Travel Channel)
Here’s the full episode:
If you are wondering why Anthony Bourdain came to Buffalo, you can thank Nelson Starr and these videos:
Video 1: Ted’s Hot Dogs, Anchor Bar, Ulrich’s Tavern
Video 2: The Pink’s Steak Sandwich
