Beef on Weck and Logan Berry
The scene: Buffalo, N.Y.'southward about famous local specialty is undoubtedly the hot wing, which spread from here to almost every corner of the earth. But locals accept another heartfelt favorite that hasn't made information technology equally far, though information technology is certainly deserving of admiration: the "beef on weck" sandwich.
While no one eatery can claim to have created this specialty, and it appears on menus all over town, if y'all inquire nearly locals, the undisputed spiritual home of beef on weck in the Buffalo, N.Y., region is Charlie the Butcher's Kitchen, a meat-centric shop that specializes in the sandwich and other sliced meat concoctions. The restaurant sits conveniently outside the metropolis's airport, just a mile from the terminal and perfect for a first or final meal when visiting Buffalo, Due north.Y.
Charlie's has been an institution here since 1914, and now is in the hands of the third generation of owners, all named Charlie Roesch, with unlike eye names. The place is simple — you lot look at overhead menu boards, society at the counter, which offers a close-up view of the process in the very open kitchen immediately behind information technology. The actual meat slicing is done by hand on cutting boards right in forepart of you. You move around the corner to pay at the single register, so sit in Formica booths at uncomplicated tables topped with floral tablecloths, or alternatively at bar stool counter seating. It feels similar a combination of a fast food eatery and food market, and there are one-half a dozen smaller Charlie's Express locations in the region, including one out where the city'southward NFL team, the Bills, play in suburban Orchard Park, North.Y. There is also a seasonal stand dispensing just Beef on Weck sandwiches (the principal flagship offers much more) at Coca-Cola Field, abode of the metropolis's famously popular minor league baseball game team, the Bisons.
Charlie's is non the only identify y'all tin endeavor beef on weck, not by a long shot. Another local favorite is Bar Bill, a neighborhood tavern in suburban of East Aurora, N.Y. (where toy visitor Fisher-Price, now owned by Mattel, has been based since its founding in 1930), which routinely wins diverse local newspaper and magazine All-time of Buffalo awards for its wings. The tavern sits on East Aurora's quaint main street, is cash but and typically crowded, and features heavy, worn wood tables and chairs with a pub feel.
While overlooked by virtually out of town visitors, the specialty is also heavily featured on the sandwich carte du jour at the world-famous Anchor Bar, where the Buffalo wing was invented and a pilgrimage spot for road food fans. It's a longtime fixture at Schwabl'southward, a High german restaurant that has been here for more than than a century and a half, and the sandwich's roots in German language cuisine fit the spot. It is on only well-nigh every bar bill of fare effectually town, and iconic enough that there take been nouveau riffs on the classic: at The Ward, a large and very popular brewpub cum sports bar (complete with outdoor seating and indoor alive roller derby) right on the river, the dish is transformed into a signature hot dip appetizer. A visit to Buffalo is not complete until y'all have tried information technology.
Reason to visit: Beef on Weck sandwich
The food: Long a beer brewing town, Buffalo had a skilful sized German immigrant population, and the story goes that one-time around 1880, a pretzel vendor sought to aggrandize his repertoire across merely pretzels. He borrowed the classic seasoning of pretzel table salt from his main product, incorporated the caraway seeds used in another culturally popular broiled proficient, rye breadstuff, and put both these strongly flavored ingredients on top of a Kaiser whorl. This creation was known equally a kimmelweck scroll, and has since been shortened to just weck. The creator sliced it in half, filled it with sliced roast beef, added a dollop of spicy horseradish, and voila, the beefiness on weck was born. While some spots around town today serve the city's nigh famous sandwich on other breads or plain rolls, this bun is indispensable to the traditional version.
A archetype example of America'due south melting pot and inventive nature at work, apparently the sandwich has no equivalent or roots in bodily German language cuisine, Charlie's current owner, Charlie W. Roesch, is the semi-official ambassador of beefiness on weck and has washed demonstrations on Goggle box and at food shows around the world, spreading the gospel of the city's 2nd virtually famous dish. "I went to Dusseldorf and demonstrated information technology and the Germans looked at me similar I was nuts," he recalls.
At Charlie's, the whole roast beef is cooked slowly in the oven at 250°F until it reaches an internal temperature of 100°F, then the estrus is lowered and it cooks even more than slowly for another 10-12 hours, because as Charlie says, "tenderization happens around 104 degrees." The entire process, which he calls "melt and hold," takes 18 hours and results in sliced meat that is extremely tender, amazingly so, just all the same quite rare and blood-red, the color of perfect cafeteria roast beef, with a wonderful mouth feel. Here they piece the roll, manus cut the meat in front of you to gild — the motto is "carving beefiness on weck" — then dip the top one-half of the roll in au jus sauce and you add the horseradish yourself to sense of taste, and "that'southward a beef on weck."
The salty curlicue is a good contrast to the delicious but patently beef, and the horseradish adds noticeable kicking, though it is not equally hot equally you might think, more like the heat of spicy mustard, adding a dainty glow. Charlie's has sourced the rolls from a local bakery for many years. The table salt makes the breadstuff dry out quickly, then the rolls last just a couple of hours requiring multiple batch deliveries throughout the day. It'southward a hearty sandwich, and you lot can as well get a "mini," not a slider but the aforementioned roll with slightly less meat, for a dollar less. The typical side here is chips, which are a little thicker than I similar, just cooked fresh and nicely well-baked, along with first-class pickles. Charlie's also specializes in roast turkey sandwiches and grilled sausages of all sorts, including bratwurst, Italian, Shine and chorizo.
The acclaimed version at Bar Bill packs on even more sliced beef, it's really big and compact, simply the roll isn't every bit significant or bready — at Charlie'southward, information technology is an integral part of the sandwich, here information technology is more similar an accessory to the tasty beef.
The city'south well-nigh interesting take is the beef on weck dip at The Ward, which chops up the roast beef and mixes it with horseradish, then adds cheddar, Monterey jack and cream cheese, and bakes it all until bubbling in a ceramic dish. It is served with pretzel crostini for dipping, and it's a great bar food rendition, perfect for a place that brews its own beer and needs something to go with that. Other mod takes on the sandwich around the city switch breads or add together a cheese, not on the original, and 1 unique accept uses horseradish cheddar to tie into the sandwich's history.
While it is popular at bars and hence with beer — a adept friction match — and Charlie's the Butcher serves local favorite Genesee ale, the classic pairing is with Loganberry fruit drink, aka Bug Juice, another distinctive regional specialty. A Kool Aid-similar cantankerous between blackberry and raspberry flavour, Loganberry was the favored libation at the at present defunct Crystal Embankment entertainment park on the shores of Lake Erie, and while the park is gone, the name lives on, as Crystal Beach is the most popular of several brands of Loganberry widely available in the region.
Pilgrimage-worthy?: Yep, this is one of the nearly distinctive and indelible of America'south regional sandwiches and enjoys a high level of quality throughout the Buffalo region.
Rating: Yum! (Scale: Apathetic, OK, Mmmm, Yum!, OMG!)
Price: $ ($ inexpensive, $$ moderate, $$$ expensive)
Details: Charlie the Butcher'south Kitchen, 1065 Wehrle Drive, Buffalo, NY; 716-633-8330; charliethebutcher.com
Larry Olmsted has been writing about food and travel for more than 15 years. An gorging eater and melt, he has attended cooking classes in Italy, judged a charcoal-broil competition and once dined with Julia Child. Follow him on Twitter, @TravelFoodGuy, and if there'due south a unique American eatery you think he should visit, send him an email at travel@usatoday.com. Some of the venues reviewed past this cavalcade provided complimentary services.
Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/greatamericanbites/2017/10/05/beef-weck-sandwich-buffalo-new-york/731420001/
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