Thin-sliced rare roast beef piled on a kummelweck roll (a Kaiser-style roll topped with caraway seeds and pretzel salt), the top half dipped in beef au jus and served with horseradish.
Where to eat it: 4 restaurants across 1 city.
Beef on weck is Buffalo's other native dish, with Schwabl's in West Seneca serving it since 1837. German immigrant bakers brought the kummelweck roll (kummel for caraway, weck for the Austrian-German word for roll) and the city built a sandwich around it. Charlie the Butcher in Williamsville and Eckl's in Orchard Park run the suburban canonical versions; Bar Bill in East Aurora is the day-trip favorite.
Common allergens: Gluten, Mustard (in horseradish)
Tip from the editors. The roll has to be the kummelweck. Without caraway seeds and pretzel salt on top, it's just a regular roast-beef sandwich.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Why locals love it: Visitors stop at Anchor Bar for wings and miss Buffalo's older signature dish a twenty-minute drive south at Schwabl's in West Seneca, open since 1837.
Tip: Get the beef on weck with horseradish on the side and German potato salad. The kummelweck roll caraway is the point.
Charlie the Butcher's at Wehrle and Cayuga is the counter-service beef-on-weck institution, a Buffalo signature sandwich at airport-area prices.
Try: Beef on weck sandwich
Duff's Famous Wings at Sheridan and Millersport opened in 1946 and started serving wings in 1969, the hotter Anchor Bar rival Buffalo locals have defended for decades.
Signature: Medium-hot wings, Beef on weck
Pearl Street Grill on Pearl Street has anchored Buffalo brewpubs since 1997, four floors and nine bars with house-brewed beer from basement tanks.
More cities are in research. Want beef on weck covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.