Next weekend the streets of Downtown Buffalo will be filled with people, tents, trailers and the scent of good food as nearly 400,000 enjoy the flavor of our region at the annual Taste of Buffalo. It may surprise some of you to know that this homegrown event is now the largest two-day food festival in the country and many of those 400,000 visitors won’t be from Erie County at all, but rather folks traveling from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Ontario and other parts of the country.
This year, over 50 restaurants will serve up various tasty tidbits to the crowd. A team of judges will award the restaurants with the best eats of the event, a list that occasionally puts a small restaurant no one has ever really heard of on the map. Remember a few years ago when a little East Side restaurant called Ms. Goodies and their sandwich, the “Junkyard Dog“, made headlines? Of course, the best way to enjoy the festival is to get down there and do a little sampling yourself. We’re looking forward to tasting favorites from year’s past, and also trying new items.
Also popular are the beer tents, wine samples and live music. You can see the full schedule of bands here.
Buffalo Rising was happy to assist the Taste with assembling a full schedule for the Culinary Theatre, located in the parking lot of New Era Cap. Demonstrations run all day Saturday and Sunday, with chefs from the Seneca Niagara and Seneca Allegany Casino, Chef Nutrition himself, Obviously Avi Altman, promoting his new healthy eating cookbook, the uber pastry chef Zilly Rosen of Zillycakes will be on hand on Sunday, and on Saturday, Kevin Gardner of Five Points Bakery will demonstrate how his bakery mills their own flour and prepares classic whole wheat bread. Chef Kate Elliott of Juniper will prepare smoked ratatouille with polenta, and The Steer’s new chef, Robert Mayerat will demonstrate a classic shrimp and clam bake. Restaurateur Joanna DiGiulio will also make an appearance, and Chef Chris Dorsaneo from Buffalo’s first taco truck, (the soon-to-be-open Lloyd) will provide us with a preview of his braised beef tacos.
Last but not least, for those of you who missed one of Nickel City Chef’s twelve bouts, you can catch them on Saturday or Sunday as they challenge each other in a culinary competition unlike anything the Taste has ever seen. Better yet, this time the judges are lucky folks pulled from the audience–will one of them be you? The full schedule is here.
With parking being a little crazy, we’d suggest you take the metro rail down from one of the park and rides located on Main Street. It’s affordable and simple enough to do.
During the weekend of the Taste, we’ll have a post up where attendees can leave comments about their favorite (and not so favorite) bites. We hope you’ll log on and leave your recommendations!
Taste of Buffalo
Saturday July 10, 11am-9pm
Sunday, July 11, 11am-7pm