Old World Flavors, Buffalo Favorites
By Devon Dams-O’Connor
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Top to bottom: Potato pancakes at Scharf’s,
the Scharf’s facade, and sauerbraten. Photos by Jim Bush. |
German Food
The first wave of immigrants to Buffalo were the Germans, who left their homeland to escape famine and revolution in the 1820s. They settled just east of Buffalo’s Main Street, where they practiced the trades of tanners, bakers, brewers, and butchers. From these butchers came veal for weiner schnitzel, pork for sausages, and beef for sauerbraten and rouladen. Sauerkraut, pickled herring, noodles, rye bread, and steins of good “bier” were all part of their bold and pungent fare.
“German food fills your belly,” says Jerry Scharf, chef and co-owner of Scharf’s Schiller Park Restaurant on South Crossman Street in Buffalo (895-7249). “It makes you feel good and warm all over.“
Local lore credits early German settlers with introducing Buffalo’s famous sliced beef on kimelweck rolls, and the aroma of bratwurst, perhaps the most commonly known German sausage, wafts through the parking lots of Ralph Wilson Stadium from tailgate grills on game day.
Irish Food
Ireland’s Great Potato Famine brought thousands of Irish immigrants to Buffalo beginning in the 1840s. They lived near the Southern terminus of the Erie Canal, where they worked as laborers in Buffalo’s booming shipping and grain industries. Lamb, seafood, onions, cream, potatoes, and root vegetables made up the filling of one-pot meals, including savory shepherd’s pie, crispy battered fish ’n’ chips, and tender lamb
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Lamb stew at Shannon’s Pub.
Photos by Jim Bush. |
“Irish food is comfort food,” explains Marty McDonough, chef and owner of the Shannon Pub on Niagara Falls Boulevard (743-9348). “Meat and potatoes. It’s real food, like its people; unpretentious. You sit down, you eat, and that’s all there is to it.”
Each St. Patrick’s Day, there’s barely a restaurant in town that doesn’t feature corned beef and cabbage and pints of Guinness. With a parade that draws thousands of spectators and participants, the whole city, it seems, is Irish for at least a day.
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Top to Bottom:Specialties at Polish
Villa include stuffed pork chops, pierogi, cabbage rolls, and fresh or smoked kielbasa. Photos by Jim Bush. |
The next to arrive were the Polish, who escaped a divided country in the 1870s and came to Buffalo as peddlers, iron workers, and tailors on the city’s East Side. Their foods were reminiscent of the farm villages they came from, employing plenty of fresh dairy, meat, and produce to make tart beet barszcz soup, filling kluski noodles, big pots of goulash, and golabki, or stuffed cabbage rolls.
“The food is hearty and fresh-cooked,” says Ed Kutas, chef and owner of the Polish Villa on Union Road in Cheektowaga (683-9460). “You won’t see much Polish food in the freezer case.”
Many of these staples were purchased on daily trips to the nearby Broadway Market, where merchants sold live chickens, pig’s feet, barrels of pickles, horseradish root, and loaves of fresh bread. Many Western New Yorkers, Polish or not, still make the annual pilgrimage to the crowded shops at Easter, by far the 117-year-old market’s busiest time. Shoppers load up on fresh and smoked marjoram-spiced kielbasa, tender pierogi filled with potato, cheese, meat, or sauerkraut, red-ribboned butter lambs, or crispy, sugar-dusted chrusciki, or bow-tie pastries.
Italian Food
Economic troubles in turn-of-the-century Italy brought the last wave of European immigrants to North Buffalo, where entrepreneurial Italians opened grocery shops, family bakeries, and barber shops. In homes, breakfasts featured strong espresso, biscotti, or granita (Italian ice), and dinners were created with garlic, plenty of olive oil, oregano, basil, olives, pasta in any number of shapes and sizes, and fresh seafood and vegetables. Veal scallopine, eggplant parmigiana, manicotti, plates of cured meats, and wine highlighted lengthy meals full of good spirit and conversation, finished with gelato, marzipan, or cannoli.
“What my mother taught me was good wholesome meals made from scratch, so it’s always light and fresh,” explains Concetta Arnone, who opened La Dolce Vita on Hertel Avenue (446-5690). “There are no shortcuts. We have a passion for food, and love to cook and eat. It’s good to know your heritage.”
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Stuffed banana peppers at La Dolce Vita.
Photos by Jim Bush. |
Whether they’re served as everyday dinner or only at holiday suppers, these varied ethnic dishes remind area residents of mothers and grandmothers who rose early to light ovens, select ingredients, and pour their hearts into meals whose tastes and smells were shared by Buffalo’s earliest sons and daughters.
Devon Dams-O’Connor is a freelance writer living in Allentown.
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