The Best Food Scene You Don’t Know About Is in Buffalo, New York
Chefs have boomeranged back home, and an influx of immigrants is reshaping the city’s culinary identity far beyond wings.
Indian-accented Texas barbecue rules at Southern Junction in Buffalo.
Photographer: Lydia Gallagher Photography
Buffalo might be synonymous with hot wings, but there’s a less heralded bar staple that represents the city even better. The locally beloved roast beef on a caraway-seed-studded kümmelweck roll is a legacy left over from German immigrants who flocked to the northern New York metropolis in the early 19th century in search of jobs in the flourishing shipping and milling industries.
Beef on weck is still on the menu at many local restaurants and deli counters — most famously at Schwabl’s in nearby West Seneca, New York, where it’s proudly been served since 1837 — though middling versions abound. But when Tom Moriarty opened Moriarty Meats, a French-style whole-animal butcher and cafe in the Black Rock neighborhood five years ago, he determined to give the signature sandwich gourmet treatment. He serves boeuf on weck, piling thin slices of tender, locally sourced beef round, slow-roasted for hours, on a springy, house-made bun slathered with a zesty horseradish mayonnaise.