Favorite Meals of 2021 (Part 5)
Favorite Meals from some friends of Buffalo Eats (original published in December 2021)
Since 2012 we’ve had an annual tradition on Buffalo Eats. We reach out to a variety of people who have some connection to the Buffalo community about their favorite meals. We give our participants very broad guidelines. They can write as much or as little as they’d like and it can be about any meal they had. Feel free to look at this list of every person who’s contributed to this blog series.
This is our final post in the series and features the people who run the Buffalo Eats in its current form. These, along with a couple more folks, are the ones who go out to eat on their own dime and share to our followers what they find. When Donnie and Alli started Buffalo Eats in 2009, it was never about starting a business. It was created to share the excitement about trying new places, finding great food and wanting to encourage others to do the same. We've been fortunate to have grown over the years and find other people who share that mentality and help us keep the lights on.
Here are some of their favorite meals from 2021.
Donnie Burtless (Co-Founder): The ultimate irony about running these favorite meal posts every year is that I am generally not a "favorite" person. I don't have a favorite band, book, movie or even food. Sure I enjoy a lot of things, but I have a really hard time singling out something as my "favorite". But after taking off the last six years from participating in this series, I decided it was only fair to take a shot at this myself (especially given how annoying I am when I chase people down for their meals). So here are my two favorite meal experiences this year.
For our 10th wedding anniversary, Alli and I spent almost a full week in Portland, Maine. It was our first vacation away from the dogs and kid in a long time and the first time back in Portland since 2014. A lot has happened in those seven years and we promised ourselves that if we ever made it back to Portland, we would do it up right. So we found an amazingly situated hotel in the Downtown area and we went all out. It was amazing. An impromptu trip to Palace Diner lead to one of the best breakfasts I've ever had in my life. A proper revisit to Fore Street lead to a wonderful meal at the bar, working our way through as much of the menu as we could handle. A visit to the Highroller Lobster Co lead to the best lobster roll I have ever had in my life and frankly, I now want lobster infused ghee in my fridge at all times. Also the craft beer, my god. I look forward to going back to that wonderful city on a regular basis as a family tradition.
My other nomination for favorite meal experience was the evolution of dining with our daughter Charlie this year. She's recently turned 5 and just started kindergarten and has quickly become a whole new person. Previously, going out to eat meant trying to find something she could have bites of while sneaking her chicken nuggets before we ran out the door. But over the course of 2021, one of my favorite things to watch is her enjoyment of food and being able to start going to actual restaurants with her. I love our trips to Paula's Donuts after soccer practice in the summer, getting excited for Friday pizza night (she can currently take down half a Margerita pizza from Romeo & Juliet's by herself) or watching her eat (and properly hold!) a taco at a picnic table in the parking lot of Monte Alban. Naturally, we are trying to get her to expand her palate and we are proud that she will honestly try anything once and then immediately grade it on a three part scale ("I love it", "OK", "never again"). I'm very excited to see how our dining habits as a family expand in 2022.
Dima Maddah (CFHoe & Contributor): While I may not be a morning person, at all, I am most definitely a brunch person especially after a night out so long as that meal occurs after 10am.
There are two things in this world that have brought me back to life faster than a shot of adrenaline to the heart: The Egg on a Roll from Remedy House and the Breakfast Pizza at West Rose in Ellicottville.
Both simple but packed full of flavor, the Egg on a Roll is exactly its namesake: an egg on a roll with cheese. The creme de la creme of this breakfast sandwich is making sure you add the garlic aioli. You can also add bacon and/or prosciutto if you're feeling sassy (or extra hungover).
If you find yourself in Ellicottville, while West Rose is a must for dinner, it is also one of my favorite brunch spots in WNY. Their breakfast pizza has a chili maple syrup which adds a little sweet to the savory making it the perfect breakfast pizza in my opinion, closely followed by Tops breakfast pizza (iykyk).
Tom Burtless (Web Designer & Contributor, Singer of Humble Braggers): My fiancee Alex and I went to NYC in October and went to the Michelin one star rated restaurant Tuome. We had several courses, all of which were very unique and flavorful. The highlight of the night was the "Pig out for two" which had crispy pork along bowls of peanut-sauced noodles and several condiments. The pork was perfectly cooked with a very crispy exterior and the dish, as a whole, was filling without being overbearing.
In terms of local restaurants, Prescott's Provisions has been at the top of our list for the past few years. Their gnocchetti, with wild boar ragu, has become my favorite pasta dish in WNY. During our most recent visit Alex had gotten a perfectly cooked rare steak that was also at the top of its class.
The changes Marble and Rye have undergone in the past year have yielded my favorite iteration of the restaurant yet. We went with some friends at the beginning of fall and the Detroit style pizzas, coupled with their newly styled cheeseburger, were perfect.
Mark Goodwin (VP of Tweets & Contributor, Creator of 10AM Hayburner): After a long 21 months, I finally made my triumphant return to the South Buffalo Dive Bar with the world’s scariest bathroom. It’s the only place in the world where I will wait an hour and a half for my food and I still feel like I’m being the nuisance. Every time you hear that signature ‘ding’ come from the kitchen, you feel like one of Pavlov’s dogs waiting for a hot-sauced flavored treat.
Maybe it’s the three Hayburners I had as an appetizer, but when the waitress finally plops forty wings on your table, it’s like looking into the face of God. Next thing you know, you’re in a wing-induced blackout and then come to with your hands lathered in sauce (I should call her).
2021 has been weird. Maybe weirder than 2020 honestly. The Bills and Succession have been disappointing, the Sabres haven’t been disappointing, but Nine-Eleven Tavern has stayed exactly the same: Perfect.
Evan Duckett (Creative Director & Contributor, Singer of Final Declaration): Mine is a two parter, because last year was mostly an inescapable void of takeout and being the only person on earth not baking sourdough, and much more importantly, because I can.
I’m splitting this into two parts, one local and one outside of the greater WNY metro region. First, on the local front- Inizio. What a triumph Inizio is. After going a couple of times previously I was finally able to take my mother there, and it was a delight. From the complementary Prosecco upon arrival for those who partake, to the light night fast and unbelievably knowledgeable service, to the fresh hand made pastas and entrees, everything at Inizio feels like a curated dining experience, not just a meal. The care that is put into every ingredient and every corner of the service is something that you would experience regularly in Italy but are often hard pressed to find in America. It’s food that tells a story, and we should feel lucky that places like this are on the rise in Buffalo. The news of their kitchen fire was devastating, and here’s hoping they’re back in action sooner than later.
Outside of Buffalo, I finally made it back to Chicago after almost three years away (obvious reasons) and #1 on my priority list was a burger, fries, and shake at Au Cheval/Small Cheval (pictured above). I think about this burger constantly, and every time I’m able to get it, it’s beyond perfect. This instance was no different, and much like the slow burn plot of this season of Succession, it was worth the wait. At one point donned the best burger in America at the OG Au Cheval diner, it’s now available at a handful of more accessible Small Cheval outposts that don’t feature a multi-hour wait for a table. These are cheeseburgers in their simplest form- salty, fatty, cooked on the hottest griddle around, and topped with American cheese, pickle, onion, and sauce. Nothing fancy, no arugula, or artisan cheeses, or jams. Just a classic burger done exactly how it should be, with a killer shake and fries to go alongside it.
Julie Leone (Plant and West Coast IPA Coordinator & Contributor): I’ve ordered the Burrata Toast 3x in the past two months from Billy Club so I guess that means it’s sort of my favorite meal at the moment. My favorite iteration was w/ local tomatoes + pesto on breadhive toast. Runners up were the chicken sandwich from Moor Room—It’s just really good. The French onion soup from The Little Club was also memorable.
Taylor Fulton (Director of Leftovers & Contributor, Creator of Midnight Audible): I know I was told to pick one favorite meal, but I’m probably going to talk about two.
The one that immediately came to mind was the crispy lasagna at Inizio that they were serving for their Sunday dinner service. I went with a group of friends for dinner right after I had gone to the Taste of Buffalo, so I was already full. I still powered through to eat a ton of it. The lasagna (pictured above) itself was so unbelievable (the homemade pasta goes MILES), but the crisped parts on the outside brought it all together for a super unique, crunchy-outside-chewy-inside texture.
My second favorite meal is breakfast sandwich (5D) from a place called Dimo’s Deli and Donuts in Ann Arbor, MI. I don’t know how to describe this place except that it’s just an unassuming deli in a strip mall that you don’t really think is gonna be that good. When you walk in, if you don’t know exactly what you want, the owner (the eponymous Dimo) will literally yell at you and you’ll never want to go back. Then, if you don’t take a styrofoam cup of water from him when he offers it to you, he INSISTS you take its the verbal abuse worth it for a $5 sausage, egg & cheese? Hell yes. This is the best breakfast sandwich I have ever had. It’s just the right amount of greasy to a cure a hangover, but not toooooo greasy. The bagel is perfectly toasty, the fried egg is always on point, and you have a ton of meat and cheese options (as long as you know exactly what you want at the counter). The donuts are also some of the best in town — crunchy outside and perfectly cooked, soft inside.
This stands out to me as a favorite meal if only because I haven’t had it since before the pandemic. I even got nervous Dimo’s wouldn’t survive the pandemic before the next time I had a chance to visit. Thankfully I was proven wrong, and I have Dimo in my life (yelling at me) any time I’m visiting out that way.
These are definitely on the opposite sides of the fancy scale, but two amazing meals all the same.