Eating, Drinking, Being Merry

Happy New Year, Buffalo. I hope you enjoyed some time off with family and friends, and that you begin 2013 refreshed in mind and body. 

The 400 or so of you who also happen to be my friend on Facebook might be expecting a post about restaurants this morning. Suffice it to say that some of the best inexplicable back-stabbing is perpetrated by portly weathermen – (to be a meteorologist, one needs to have credentials). 

I will write about food today, (something I usually reserve for my gig with the Spree, but I will make an exception here), but only to present to you two “year in review” food posts from different Buffalo-based food writers. 

Andrew Galarneau, the Buffalo News’ restaurant critic, gives a year-end assessment here

Jeremy Horwitz, the author of Buffalo Chow, exits hiatus to present a year-in-review of restaurants he’s visited elsewhere in the US and how he sees those experiences in comparison to what’s going on in Buffalo and western New York. He considers that the domestic food scene is undergoing a revolution, and that it’s largely passing Buffalo by. There’s a lot of food for thought there, pun intended. 

Also, consider that it was a year ago that we all helped to unravel the lies and cons of the fake Iron Chef who briefly ran “Valenti’s” in North Tonawanda, where a Mighty Taco now stands. Look for a “where are they now” post in the coming days. 

9 comments

  • He had me until he recommended Chicago’s Hot Doug’s.  That is the most over rated cult place in the city and though I love Rick Bayless’ TV show his restaurants must be living on their past glory based on my experiences there.

  • I visit this web site less and less because there’s no content.  This “YAK” car picture thing must be be-loved because that’s all there is.  

  • For whatever it’s worth, Hot Doug’s has a rating of 4.5/5 Stars with over 2,000 reviews, and 90+% of people rate it 4 or 5 stars. The acclaim has been universal from every critic, loud and wide from Doug’s fellow restauranteurs, and strong from the vast majority of patrons. So… yeah.

    •  The duck fat fries are always soggy with grease.  If you can get good rating based on that good for you but that does not make it good food. As for the sausages my experience has been bland and burnt.  The place is a fun experience and Doug is a great personality which goes a long way.  The food?  blah, who cares how many kinds of meat you can think of too stuff into a casing if it barely has any taste.  Its a cult following.

  • Wow that Buffalo Chow article went from good, to questionable around the 4th paragraph, to absurd sometime after that.  Usually it’s always some ridiculous comparisons about the food scene like Buffalo vs NYC/LA/Chicago etc but 2013 will be different.  It will  be Buffalo versus the best of the best around the country.  Hopefully by 2015 we will comparing Buffalos culinary scene against the entire globe!  And he says things never change around here.

    • I was going to say that you missed the point of the article, but it’s hard to tell what you were actually trying to say given how that comment bobs and weaves.

      Are you (a) suggesting that Buffalo shouldn’t be benchmarked against other cities, because it’s special in some way, or (b) that it should be, but only against small/non-major cities? 

      The article didn’t get into this at all, but Buffalo is indeed the second largest city in New York State (at least, for now). Yet the “food scene” here doesn’t compare favorably with that of the 11th largest city in North Carolina, which was mentioned (in a positive, inspirational way) in the article, or even Portland, Maine, which wasn’t in the article but has 1/3 or 1/4 our population. So let’s not bother with the “best of the best” in the US or the world, because Buffalo’s not realistically going to be part of either of those conversations.
      In any case, the article wasn’t really focused on comparing cities. It was telling people to travel a bit more and look at what’s being done around us, find great inspirations and use them to improve this place.

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