Buffalo Rising Online

Oct 17th 2006, 9:27am By queenseyes

Now where were we? Oh yeah... Just before the big storm hit I was working on a post about the great national press that Buffalo had just received in Spirit Magazine. Spirit is Southwest Airline's publication that is distributed to approximately 4,000,000 flyers worldwide... talk about a captivated audience. I had heard that the article was out, but I had not seen the piece as of last Wednesday. It just so happened that upon stopping in to grab a lunch at X-Cel Produce on that same day, market owner, John Darowz, pointed out the Buffalo-food issue that happened to be sitting on his counter.

It was only then that we (a couple writers from BR) realized what a big deal this was for Buffalo. The spread was awesome and talked about our city in a way that only die-hard Buffalonians can usually attempt to do right. Of course Buffalo's famous wings were mentioned and that is cool... but that was just the tip of the iceberg. The article led in with a blurb about white-table-cloth dining amongst other Buffalo bravado. And then the ten-page feature went on to tout Buffalo as having a tremendous number of quality eateries. Typeset words flaunted the fact that our homegrown establishments are filled with character, heart, and food worth traveling for. The article,Aeos author, Paul Goldsmith, hinted at his extensive culinary travels before stating that Buffalo was, ,Aeu,AeP on my short list of America,Aeos greatest food cities.,Aeu Shazam! The article was packed with descriptions of a few Buffalo mainstays along with photos of local foods and the people who make them. And right next to the lead-in was a skyscraper-sized photo of the guy who stood directly in front of us... John from X-Cel Produce.

The first few pages of the article praised our city's abundance of great architecture and talked of the general misperception that out-of-towners have regarding Buffalo (like our weather... drat!) By page four, the article turned into a day-by-day account of Paul,Aeos eating escapades. After opting to first skip the Buffalo wings, he headed straight for the Beef on Weck and described the sandwich (to those not ,Aeoin the know,Aeo) in detail right down to the added dollop of Broadway Market horseradish. This first weck stop took place at Charlie the Butchers, moments after the plane had landed in Buffalo. From there Paul bounced over to the Left Bank for dinner where he raved about the atmosphere and chef Mark Weatherbee,Aeos homemade ravioli. If he was looking for wonderful old-world city atmosphere then Left Bank was an excellent choice. And he went on to rave about the place... of course! And that wrapped up day one of the food piece.

Day two shocked me. This guy did his research,AeP Instead of opting for the old standby, he chose to hit up Gabriel,Aeos Gate for wings. He was looking for something a tad grittier as far as the atmosphere went, and found it at The Gate. Paul even gave a quick rundown on what to look for when it comes the perfect wing. Sounds like this foodie might have some Buffalo roots? Anyways, it appears that he at least researched Buffalo before pulling into town for a whirlwind food tour. He must have had some inside connections. Jim,Aeos Steakout, Mighty Taco and Ted,Aeos all made the article rounding up Buffalo,Aeos homegrown chains, with Ted,Aeos winning Paul,Aeos heart (and stomach) for the best dogs in the country (I miss Ted,Aeos by the waterfront). Sahlen,Aeos and Aunt Rosie,Aeos were given honorable mention for playing their roles in local culinary ,Aeomust tries,Aeo. It appears that Paul made as much of a suburban exploration as he did a city one, so to give the suburbs a fare shake of the stick I must duly note that Duff,Aeos and Anderson,Aeos (and Ted,Aeos and Charlie's) all played a key role in the foodie,Aeos excellent adventure. Duff,Aeos wings didn,Aeot beat out The Gate,Aeos, but Anderson,Aeos served the guy up some righteous custard to wind down day number two,AeP how does this guy do it?

By the end of the article the food part of the journey quietly came to an end and our writer found himself pondering the city,Aeos architectural stock while he sipped from a cup of Spot coffee. Mentions of the architectural big shots will surely go a long way with Spirit readers, and Paul even went so far as to mention our grain elevators 'having a monolithic beauty and resonance,Aeo... cool! The reasonable cost of living and our irreplaceable housing stock should raise a few eyebrows with Spirit readers too. Even New World Record and Elmwood living/shopping made the article, which was a nice throw-in. All in all I don,Aeot think that we could have asked for a better article. Of course there are hundreds of other food stops in Buffalo, and each one of us would have thrown in our two cents,AeP but after reading the article and talking to John at X-Cell (who told us that he had out-of-town visitors in for a visit the very next day) this was a big boost for our image. It,Aeos too bad that a rogue storm hit so soon after or we could have milked this one for months. Oh well, in past years luck would have had the storm hit while Paul was visiting, so we,Aeoll take what we can get, right?