Update: Duff's Depew + Anchor Bar's Buffalo Airport Locations

As this year's National Buffalo Wing Festival has successfully concluded - more successfully than ever before, with over 92,000 attendees versus the prior year's 78,000 - it's time for a brief update on two franchised locations of Western New York's...

Posted on September 9, 2009

National Buffalo Wing Festival 2009: An Opinionated Roundup

Last year, we took a fairly exhaustive, four-part look at the National Buffalo Wing Festival (1, 2, 3, 4), which we noted hadn't blown us away on wing quality, but certainly impressed us in scope, as well as in branding...

Posted on September 5, 2009

National Buffalo Wing Festival: Photos, And What to Expect

Want to know what the National Buffalo Wing Festival looks like? Held at Coca-Cola Park in Buffalo, NY over the two-day leadup to Labor Day, this event hosted over 30 different vendors of chicken wings and wing-related foods. We've posted...

Posted on September 5, 2009

Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts: In Brief, For Foodies

We hadn't expected to wind up at the Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts this weekend - it just happened to be taking place when we stopped off at Elmwood for cupcakes and some fish and chips (see our separate...

Posted on August 30, 2009

Taste of Lockport: A Triangle Of WNY Wineries & Foods

Lockport's Ida Fritz Park isn't easy to find with Google Maps - it's at the corner of Transit and Lockport's West Main - but for several hours on one summer day, it hosts what now may well be Western New...

Posted on August 16, 2009

Buffalo Brewfest: Four Terrific Hours, 100 Regional Beers

After drinking 60 ounces of beer - roughly four pints - you're not supposed to feel smarter than you were before you started; even standing up may be a challenge. Yet three hours after we paid our admission fee, received...

Posted on August 11, 2009

Taste of Williamsville 2009: A French Debut & Elvis, Too

How often does a Western New York food festival include the debut of an as-yet-unopened restaurant? Where else do items such as fancy french fries and a Kobe Beef Hot Dog compete with fancy gazpachos and high-end seafood dishes to...

Posted on August 4, 2009

Taste of Clarence: Classic Cars & Varied American Foods

Thanks to what's quite possibly the weakest Internet presence of any of Western New York's Taste events - a very limited web page with no list of restaurants - we had virtually no idea what we'd actually be tasting at...

Posted on August 3, 2009

Taste of Lancaster: Local Foods, Two Blocks, No Tickets

By comparison with the ten-day Taste of Chicago, the two-day Taste of Buffalo, or even the one-day Taste of Williamsville, the Taste of Lancaster is small - as in, it occupies both sides of two blocks on one street. But...

Posted on August 1, 2009

Buffalo Italian Heritage Festival: Fair Fare In Little Italy

After Sobieski's conspicuous sponsorship of Dyngus Day led us to discover the company's legitimately great vodka, we were convinced: corporate sponsorship of local festivals isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sure, there's something about the "Sorrento Cheese Buffalo Italian Heritage Festival"...

Posted on July 16, 2009

Taste of Buffalo 2009 Wrap-Up: What Worked, What Didn't

Like the rain that started Saturday morning, the 2009 Taste of Buffalo swept into Niagara Square and disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived, offering all-too-brief glimpses at over 65 participating area businesses. You've already seen our reports on the...

Posted on July 13, 2009

Taste of Buffalo 2009 Guide, Pt. 1: American & Italian Food

If there's anything certain about the annual Taste of Buffalo, it's this: you're guaranteed to find plenty of American and Italian offerings to choose from, including everything from local favorites and Southern cooking to upscale items. This first part of...

Posted on July 12, 2009

Taste of Buffalo 2009 Guide, Pt. 2: Far-Flung Ethnic Foods

With over 220 items on offer at the 2009 Taste of Buffalo, it's easy for even hard-core foodies to find items that they mightn't have tried before. In this second part of a three-part series on some of the many...

Posted on July 12, 2009

Taste of Buffalo 2009 Guide, Pt. 3: Desserts & Drinks

As much as we love the appetizer and entree choices at every year's Taste of Buffalo, we always - always - save room for desserts, and try our best to sample some of the drink options from local cafes and...

Posted on July 12, 2009

Taste of Buffalo 2009: Buffalo Chow's Golden Fork Awards

Cloudy and rainy though it may have been, water didn't keep excited crowds from showing up to experience the 2009 Taste of Buffalo, which kicked off today and runs through Sunday, July 12, 2009. Of course, Buffalo Chow had a...

Posted on July 11, 2009

Guide to Taste of Buffalo 2009: What, Where, When & How

Thinking of attending the 2009 Taste of Buffalo? If you're in Western New York, of course you are! So we've put together a list of quick links that will hopefully help you get ready for this two-day event - the...

Posted on July 11, 2009

The Big Rib: Rochester's Four-Day BBQ & Live Music Fest

Ribs. Brisket. Pulled Pork. Plenty of sides. And a big stage with BYO seating and live music. Rochester's The Big Rib mightn't be a huge food festival when judged by the number of vendors on hand, but this four-day event...

Posted on July 9, 2009

Taste of Chicago: The World's Largest Food Festival, Part 4

Our real Chicago Chow coverage is coming - we promise! But after a second stop at Taste of Chicago, we decided that we wanted to publish one last article worth of coverage regarding this event, filling in a few blanks...

Posted on June 28, 2009

Taste of Chicago: The World's Largest Food Festival, Part 3

If there's one thing we love about Buffalo's festivals - even the Allentown Art Festival, for that matter - it's the availability of outrageous Italian desserts, ranging from freshly assembled cannolis and pastries to lemon ice. Not surprisingly, the Taste...

Posted on June 26, 2009

Taste of Chicago: The World's Largest Food Festival, Part 2

After eating our way through the Taste of Chicago - the world's largest food festival, as discussed in Part 1 of our Taste of Chicago report - the two of us were surprised to find ourselves agreeing on something we...

Posted on June 26, 2009

Taste of Chicago: The World's Largest Food Festival, Part 1

Tastes are ephemeral: they last for seconds, fade away, and beg to be replaced, leaving only vague memories of their flavors behind. Food festivals - led by the Taste of Chicago, the world's largest - cater to the desperate tongue...

Posted on June 26, 2009

Allentown Art Festival Food: What & Where to Eat & Drink

As long-time fans of Buffalo's Allentown Art Festival, we make our annual trip in mid-June for the art, not the food, but there's always an initial question: what will we be eating and drinking there? The official Art Festival website...

Posted on June 14, 2009

One Room, Two Bellies, 15 Pizzerias: Buffalo's Pizza-Fest

We came. We saw. We ate - probably too much. And after the two of us had finished nine total slices of pizza at Buffalo Pizza-Fest, a weekend event held at the Hearthstone Manor in Depew, we didn't feel as...

Posted on May 2, 2009

On Dyngus Day, Work Gives Way to Food, Drinks, and Fun

We may have grown up in Western New York, but we were living out of town when Dyngus Day evolved from a series of neighborhood festivals into the largest event of its kind in the world. So, like some of...

Posted on April 13, 2009

Oinktoberfest, Right Past the Pumpkin Festival on the Right

Though Western New York is best known for WingFest and the Taste of Buffalo, this area actually has lots of food festivals - it seems like there's one every other week, most underpublicized. So when we showed up to visit...

Posted on September 28, 2008

Williamsville's 2008 Taste: Sandwiches & Desserts (2 of 2)

In part one of the 2008 Taste of Williamsville report, we looked at some of the fancy entrees and appetizers offered by fifteen-some village restaurants; this second part of the report is devoted to burgers, other sandwiches, and desserts....

Posted on August 6, 2008

Williamsville's 2008 Taste, a Bit More Ordinary (1 of 2)

After attending the sprawling but somewhat internationally limited Taste of Buffalo this year, we weren't sure what to expect from the 2008 Taste of Williamsville - a smaller event held on one day, a Tuesday of all things, with only...

Posted on August 6, 2008

Taste of Buffalo 2008: Drinks & Desserts (3 of 3)

Unlike most big meals, which start with appetizers, end with desserts, and are punctuated by a drink or two inbetween, our visit to the 2008 Taste of Buffalo was marked by a hugely disorganized feasting on whatever happened to be...

Posted on July 13, 2008

Taste of Buffalo 2008: Heavy Foods, Small Portions (2 of 3)

Whereas the first part of our look at the 2008 Taste of Buffalo focused on seafood items, our second part is focused on some spicy and/or meaty items that caught our attention this year. As you'll see, we weren't as...

Posted on July 13, 2008

Taste of Buffalo 2008: Seafood Snacks (1 of 3)

Western New York has lots of food festivals, some ethnic, some geographic, and occasionally one or two dedicated to a specific type of food (wings) or drink (beer). Going forward, we're going to cover these events in a pretty straightforward...

Posted on July 13, 2008