Food History of Buffalo

Key eras

1837, Schwabl's and the kummelweck roll

Schwabl's opened in 1837 in what's now West Seneca and became the canonical home of beef on weck. The dish is rare roast beef thinly sliced onto a kummelweck roll, the top dipped in jus. German bakers brought the caraway-and-pretzel-salt roll, and Buffalo built a regional sandwich tradition around it that still anchors menus a century and a half later.

1888, Broadway Market opens

Broadway Market opened in 1888 in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood on Buffalo's East Side, the city's anchor for Polish-American food. By the late 19th century the East Side was home to one of the largest Polish populations outside Warsaw. Pierogi, kielbasa, paczki and rye-bread traditions still survive at the market's vendor row, with Easter and Fat Tuesday the peak weeks.

1923, Chef's Restaurant opens

Chef's Restaurant opened at the corner of Seneca and Chicago downtown in 1923 and has served its cheese-blanketed spaghetti parm ever since. Lou Billittier became sole owner in 1954 and the Billittier family has carried the room for a century. Chef's is the canonical Buffalo Italian-American dish a generation of locals associate with downtown.

1964, the chicken wing is invented

On a late Friday night in 1964, Teressa Bellissimo of Anchor Bar at 1047 Main Street deep-fried a batch of chicken wings for her son Dominic and his friends. She tossed them in butter and Frank's RedHot, served them with celery and blue cheese, and the Buffalo wing was born. Anchor Bar carries the original credit, and the dish has since become an American institution.

1969, Duff's adds its name to wings

Duff's Famous Wings, a corner gin mill opened on Sheridan Drive in 1946 by Louise Duffney, started serving chicken wings in 1969. The Duff's house style was hotter and the meat leaner, a deliberate counterpoint to Anchor Bar, and the rivalry between the two has defined Buffalo wing arguments ever since.

1997, Pearl Street Grill and the brewery revival

Pearl Street Grill and Brewery opened at 76 Pearl Street downtown in 1997 and helped kick off Buffalo's modern brewpub era. Flying Bison followed in 2000 as Buffalo's first post-Prohibition production brewery, Big Ditch opened on East Huron in 2014, and Community Beer Works, Resurgence, Thin Man and Pearl Street built today's brewery row.

Immigrant influences

• German: German bakers brought the kummelweck roll (caraway and pretzel salt) to Buffalo in the mid-19th century, which Schwabl's wrapped around rare roast beef. The result is beef on weck, the city's second native dish.
• Polish: Polish immigrants settled the East Side from the 1880s and built the Broadway Market into the anchor of Polish-American Buffalo, with pierogi, kielbasa, paczki and Dyngus Day (Easter Monday) still active traditions.
• Italian: Italian immigrants built Hertel Avenue and the spaghetti-parm tradition Chef's Restaurant turned into a century-old downtown institution. Lombardo carries the high end since 1975.
• Irish: Irish immigrants built the Old First Ward in the 19th century, the brewery and dockworker neighborhood that today holds Resurgence at the Cooperage and Old First Ward Brewing at Gene McCarthy's.
• Greek: Greek immigrants opened Buffalo diner-style breakfast counters in the 20th century. Sophia's on Military Road is the surviving Greek omelet diner, and Ted's was founded by Greek immigrant Theodore Liaros in 1927.

Signature innovations

• Buffalo chicken wing: invented at Anchor Bar in 1964 by Teressa Bellissimo
• Beef on weck: rare roast beef on a German kummelweck roll, canonical at Schwabl's since 1837
• Sponge candy: Buffalo specialty confection of toffee-aerated chocolate, Watson's and Fowler's since 1910
• Buffalo-style pizza: cup-and-char pepperoni pizza, square or round, La Nova and Bocce Club Pizza
• Charcoal-broiled Sahlen's hot dog with hot chili sauce: Ted's Hot Dogs since 1927
• Friday fish fry: Catholic Western New York Lenten tradition, hand-breaded haddock with German potato salad