As we have already witnessed in recent weeks (and more to come), there is a relative onslaught of restaurants eyeing up Buffalo. I’ve got about five more on my list to feature next week and we’ve got Dinosaur BBQ looking… and the Dinosaur rumors are starting to fly. Chalk up Ethiopian, upscale Chinese and even more Indian (more news coming on all those fronts), and now that it’s spring Liberty Hound has major work underway. And on that note I offer you with an inspiring sentiment from Ivy, who wrote that “Buffalo is one of the only American cities where you can live the American dream.” Ivy left off with a quote from Vera’s Cameron Rector* who stated that, “I couldn’t do this in Manhattan, my rent here [in Buffalo] is $1100.00 a month. Where else can I go in this country and pay that kind of rent?”
If you still think that Buffalo NY is nothing but wings (when it comes to food), then maybe you should listen to a Torontonian culinary convert who says that she always imagined the city as Skidsville, USA. After being wooed here by resident foodie Christa Seychew, Ivy Knight (Editor in Chief and Cofounder of Swallow Food) is convinced that this city is on the verge of culinary greatness. In her latest blog entry Ivy writes, “I’ve had fluke crudo, Tamworth chops, Bourdain’s last meal (a dish containing foie & pork belly), steak tartare, wild oysters from Martha’s vineyard, 11 month old prosciutto, [Fernet Branca shots]…but not a single chicken wing.” She goes on to tout the art world and the architecture that we have been graced with and even ventures into the realm of shopping, steak sandwiches and accommodations by expounding on the virtues of “Steak tartare at Bistro Europa, stately rooms at the Mansion on Delaware, brass sculpture by Jean Arp, paintings by Joan Miro and Warhol prints at the Albright Knox, foie gras at Seabar, discount Calvin Klein dresses and Miu Miu shoes at Marshall’s, brunch at Shango, Jason Wu at Target, the best steak sandwich in the world at the Old Pink, and finally, 24′s of Bud Light for $17 at the Duty Free. If heaven is a place on earth, for me it’s the spot with the cheapest Bud Light. Cue the angel choir, I’m heading back to Buffalo.”
*Cameron Rector, a young New Yorker who moved to Buffalo after 9/11 and opened Vera with his wife Jessica. They got a $100,000.00 bank loan to open the place. They paid it off in eighty-nine days. -Swallow Food
Swallow (swallowfood.com) is an irreverent food website, based out of Toronto and run by chefs. It only launched in February but has already received praise from the NY Times and Village Voice, not to mention major Canadian news outlets. Foodies all across Canada are using the site on a daily basis, but it really has the ear of the movers and shakers that make up Toronto’s thriving food scene.
Photo: Swallow.com