Buffalo

Buffalo’s distinct neighborhoods, world-renowned architecture, thriving arts scene and vibrant waterfront make it a city with a personality and character unlike anywhere else. That flavor extends to its nearly unparalleled collection of indigenous foods, from Buffalo wings and beef on weck to sponge candy, charcoal broiled hot dogs and Buffalo-style pizzas. Buffalonians take great pride in preserving their prized culinary traditions from generation to generation and sharing them with visitors whenever possible.

Explore the iconic foods, landmark restaurants, tucked-away taverns, longtime pizzerias and classic confectioners of Buffalo, one of America’s great eating cities.

Main Courses

The Anchor Bar

1047 Main St., Buffalo

(716) 883-1134

anchorbar.com

Only a handful of restaurants nationwide have created a food that altered the course of American culinary history. Buffalo lays claim to one of those food icons: The Anchor Bar, home of the Buffalo-style wing.

Ted’s Hot Dogs

2312 Sheridan Drive, Tonawanda

(716) 834-6287

tedshotdogs.com

No visit to Buffalo is complete without a charcoal broiled, footlong Sahlen's from this nearly century-old hot dog stand.

There’s Anderson’s Frozen Custard, which has been serving chocolate-and-vanilla twist cones and other frozen delicacies from its roadside stand since 1950. A block away is Paula’s Donuts, which has continued the long-standing Buffalo tradition of selling peanut sticks – fry cakes covered in chopped peanuts – since the 1990s. And then there’s the iconic aroma of charcoal broiled Sahlen’s hot dogs hovering over Sheridan Drive courtesy of Ted’s, a Buffalo institution since 1927.

Upon entering Ted’s, customers place their order with an employee working the grill directly behind the front counter. As they wait to cash out, they watch their Sahlen’s hot dog –a Buffalo staple since 1869 – grilled to perfection over a bed of hardwood charcoal. The charcoal broiling causes the skin of the dogs to darken and snap open, and many expert Ted’s fans request their Sahlen’s “extra charred” to give them even more flavor. Seeing the staff tend to your hot dog alongside numerous other orders as flames shoot about the grill is an unforgettable Buffalo food experience.

Before paying, request either French fries or onion rings (go for the rings, hand breaded on site and arriving in a clump of fried goodness, or if you can’t decide, get “the split” for some of each) and the hot dog toppings of your choice. For the true Ted’s experience, ask for “the works,” which includes a pickle spear and a homemade hot chili sauce, a secret family recipe since Ted’s founding and available for sale by the bottle. And wash it all down with a loganberry, another Buffalo specialty that’s a sugary sweet drink with hints of blackberries and raspberries that originated decades ago at a local amusement park.

Ted’s traces its roots back more than a century when founder Theodore Liaros first started driving a horse-drawn lunch wagon around Buffalo shortly after he emigrated here from Greece in 1912. He opened his first hot dog stand underneath the Peace Bridge in Buffalo in 1927, followed by the Sheridan Drive restaurant, now the company’s oldest location, in 1948. The menu has since expanded to include a wide variety of items, from the footling hot dog (a hot dog as long as it sounds rarely found outside of Western New York) to a sea dog (a piece of fried cod placed in a foot-long hot dog roll and covered in tartar sauce – a nod to Buffalo’s affinity for fried fish). But don’t go overboard at Ted’s; you still have to leave room for the other two stops of the Holy Trinity.

Schwabl’s

789 Center Road, West Seneca

(716) 675-2333

schwabls.com

Step inside a restaurant nearly as old as Buffalo itself to experience one of the best versions of the city’s signature sandwich, the beef on weck.

If Schwabl’s didn’t invent the beef on weck, it was certainly one of its earliest adopters: the restaurant traces its roots to 1837, just five years after Buffalo’s incorporation as a city. The sandwich – hand-carved roast beef dipped in au jus and served on a salted hard roll studded with caraway seeds known as a “kummelweck” – originated in Buffalo’s German immigrant community, one of the first ethnic groups to settle here in the 19^th century. German taverns and restaurants like Schwabl’s began selling it to make their customers thirsty enough to order another beer.

Schwabl’s moved into its current West Seneca location in the early 1940s and has changed little over the last 80 years – right down to the converted oil lamps hanging from the ceiling. The waiters still wear a shirt and tie underneath a white coat, and the waitresses don a white dress resembling a nurse’s uniform.

Owner Gene Staychock can typically be found behind the original wooden bar carving the beef on weck sandwiches to order from a 20-pound top round cooked slowly overnight. He quickly dips each piece of beef in au jus before placing them on the kummelweck rolls made a few miles away at D&L Bakery in Depew, and seldom found outside of Buffalo. Order your beef on weck like you would a steak: choose a cut on the rarer side for the juiciest, tastiest version of this Buffalo specialty. And top your sandwich with a dollop of sinus-clearing, extra-hot horseradish found at every table.

Standout sides include the German potato salad, featuring hand-peeled potatoes cooked in a pot for hours with bacon, onion, celery and vinegar, and the housemade pickled beets, each a menu staple since the beginning. In the colder months, top your meal off with a Tom & Jerry – a hot, boozy Buffalo specialty served only from Columbus Day to St. Patrick’s Day featuring brandy and rum mixed into an egg white batter and topped with cinnamon and nutmeg.

The Buffalo Common Council cited Schwabl’s as one of the “Pioneer Businesses on the Niagara Frontier” – in 1956. Staychock and his wife Cheryl purchased the restaurant from the Schwabl family nearly two decades ago after working there for years. Together, they’ve taken great pride in ensuring the Schwabl’s experience is the same as it ever was, preserving a direct connection to Buffalo’s oldest culinary traditions.

Bocce Club Pizza

4174 Bailey Ave., Amherst

(716) 833-1344

bocceclubpizza.com

Sink your teeth into a classic example of Buffalo-style pizza at this longtime, family-owned pizzeria.

These chains have tried – and failed – to gain a foothold in Buffalo, a city that’s perfected its own style of pizza as popular as any other food served here, including its signature wings. “Buffalo-style” pizzas feature crust that’s thicker than New York, but thinner than Chicago deep-dish, copious amounts of gooey mozzarella cheese and small pepperoni that cup and char while baking.

Every Buffalonian has their favorite decades-old, mom-and-pop neighborhood pizzeria that they swear by, most of which focus on take-out. But first-time visitors would be hard-pressed to find a better option than one of the forefathers of the city’s scene, Bocce Club Pizza, which has been churning out pies since 1946.

Back then, Bocce was an Italian social club just east of downtown that featured a bar inside and a series of bocce courts outside. The late pizza pioneer Dino Pacciotti started bartending there fresh off of serving in World War II, and jumped at the chance to purchase the club when it came up for sale. As the son of Italian immigrants, Pacciotti began experimenting with serving pizza as a snack to bar patrons using an old oven he discovered in the club’s basement.

Pacciotti’s pizzas became the backbone of Bocce, which perfected every last detail of its pies in the 75 years since. Bocce makes its dough from scratch each morning using a flour blend unique to the pizzeria, then covers each crust with its signature sweet sauce that features a secret blend of spices and handfuls of Galbani mozzarella made at a South Buffalo cheese plant for more than 70 years. Small, cup and char pepperoni seldom found outside of Buffalo burns around the edges when baked and covers each slice to the tip of the crust. The pizzeria is in rare company for selling its pizzas as half-pies or whole instead of classifying different crust sizes as medium or large.

Bocce has remained in the Pacciotti family– now owned by Dino’s son, Jim – and evolved from an East side club into several takeout locations in and around Buffalo, including its flagship Bailey Avenue pizzeria that opened in 1959. The Bailey location features Venetian-style archways lining its stucco exterior and a series of picnic tables underneath an awning on the side of the pizzeria. While most customers take Bocce to go, it’s best to eat the pizza at one of these tables while it’s piping hot and straight out of the oven – just as Dino Pacciotti served it to his bar patrons all those years ago.

Parkside Candy

3208 Main St., Buffalo

(716) 833-7540

parksidecandy.com

For nearly a century, a bright pink and green neon sign glowing on Main Street has drawn attention to a chocolate shop unlike anywhere else in Buffalo– and beyond.

That sign – “PARKSIDE CANDIES: ICE CREAM – CANDIES – LUNCHEON” points visitors inside an immaculately preserved, meticulously restored candy shop and ice cream parlor dating back to 1927. The oval-shaped interior features ornate plasterwork on the walls and ceiling, a black-and-white tiled floor, vintage lamps and original woodwork.

On your left, you’ll find the shop’s original soda fountain, which serves its hot fudge sundaes and banana splits in glass dishes. On the right, Parkside’s candy counters feature dozens of confections made in the factory directly behind the store, from pecan dixies to peanut butter cups. Employees wear a vintage uniform consisting of a white shirt with a bow tie, black pants and a visor. And a throwback advertisement on the wall dating back to the shop’s earliest days showcases its best-seller: “Parkside’s CHOCOLATE COVERED HONEYCOMB: A delicious candy for every member of the family. It melts in your mouth!”

Buffalonians know that treat today as sponge candy: airy, crunchy, caramelized honeycomb made from sugar, corn syrup and baking soda, cut into small, cubed pieces and covered in milk or dark chocolate. Sponge candy competition in Buffalo is fierce: at one time, the city was second only to Philadelphia for the most chocolate shops per capita in the United States, and each sells a slightly different variation. Parkside stands out by making their pieces at approximately three quarters of an inch high, instead of the customary one inch, producing a greater chocolate to sponge ratio.

While its exact origins are unclear, Western New York has taken its affinity for its beloved confection to the next level: the city even declared Sept. 21 as National Sponge Candy Day, and some local chocolatiers refer to Buffalo as the heart of the “sponge belt” that stretches from Syracuse to Erie, Pa. Parkside has passed its sponge candy recipe down through the generations: only two families have owned the store in its entire history, including current owner Philip Buffamonte, who purchased it in 1981 and restored it in recent years.

Grab a half-pound bag or one pound box of sponge candy to go for the road, along with one of Parkside’s 26 lollipop flavors sold far and wide at amusement parks and beachside boardwalks across the Northeast. And take a minute or two to linger inside the shop’s interior, which more closely resembles a museum than a retail store. They simply don’t make them like this anymore.

Side Dishes

Fish Fry

Buffalo may not have invented the fish fry, but you won’t find a city that makes them better – or sells as many of them. Heaping portions of beer battered, fried haddock served with sides like French fries, macaroni salad and coleslaw have been a mainstay at taverns and restaurants in this heavily Catholic city for generations during Lent. Gene McCarthy’s Pub in the Old First Ward serves one of the best year-round options on Wednesdays and Fridays, while churches across the city still sponsor Lenten fish fries each winter.

Ice Cream

Few cities have as rich of an ice cream scene as Buffalo, a hotbed for cool treats. Taste Buffalo’s sweet past at the 106-year-old Antoinette’s Sweets in Depew, which makes a dozen different hard serve flavors in small batches and homemade toppings like whipped cream squeezed from a pastry filling bag and hot fudge. Or find a local stand selling Perry’s Ice Cream, which has been manufacturing in Erie County for more than 100 years. Newer shops like Lake Effect Ice Cream have built on that history by partnering with local businesses to create signature Western New York flavors like sponge candy, loganberry and Paula’s Glazed Donut ice cream.

Pastry Hearts

One of the most under-the-radar Buffalo specialties has been a fixture on bakery shelves for decades. Pastry hearts – flaky, buttery, airy French pastry dough shaped into a large heart, baked and covered in white frosting – are especially popular at Valentine’s Day and Easter and are rarely found outside the Buffalo area. Find some of the best versions at Luigi’s Family Bakery on Buffalo’s West Side, Eileen’s Bakery in West Seneca and Chrusciki Bakery in Lancaster.

Around the World

For a taste of the new Buffalo, head to the West Side Bazaar, a not-for-profit incubator space for recently resettled immigrants to gain business experience and sell their food and wares from around the world. Its food court features several vendors selling everything from Ethiopian injera and Burmese tea leaf salad to Thai noodles, goat curry and banh mi. The bazaar embodies how Buffalo’s newer arrivals have helped revitalize the city and infuse it with new flavors.

Just up the street is Buffalo’s smallest diner and one of the city’s best spots for breakfast, Freddy J’s . Take a seat at one of the diner’s eight stools and strike up a conversation with owner Fred Daniel, who grew up on a farm rural Liberia before finding his way to Buffalo. Freddy J’s serves some of the best chicken and red velvet waffles and fish and grits in town.

Walk It Off

Walk off all those calories along Buffalo’s redeveloped waterfront. Start at the Erie Basin Marina for views of the city skyline and of Buffalo’s 1833 Lighthouse overlooking Lake Erie. Then proceed up the Buffalo River towards the World-War II era cruiser, destroyer and submarine docked at the Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park. End your walk at Canalside, a popular public space that is centered around the original Western terminus of the Erie Canal. Canalside features a boardwalk, a children’s museum and a carousel originally built in Western New York nearly a century ago and meticulously restored by volunteers.

Bottle Your Food Memories

Bring a taste of the Upstate Eats Trail back home with you! Several of the restaurants along the Trail sell bottles of their signature sauces to-go, providing you the opportunity to make some of these regional specialties yourself. Here is a round-up of those sauces and other easy-to-transport products available for purchase at each restaurant or online to keep sampling the best of Upstate New York long after your trip.

Anchor Bar Buffalo Sauce Bottle

Savor the sauce that made Buffalo wings famous. The Anchor Bar’s signature hot sauce is available for sale at the restaurant’s gift shop or online.

Bottle of Ted's Hot Dogs Sauce

Ted’s Hot Dogs’ hot relish – a mainstay at the restaurant since the beginning – is now available for sale by the bottle.