Favorite Meals of 2022 (Part 4)
Favorite Meals from some friends of Buffalo Eats (original published in December 2022)
Pearl Morissette (source: House & Home)
For the 11th time, we have reached out to our friends to ask about their favorite meals of 2022. In what started as a fun way to connect back with all of our podcast guests at the end of the year, has turned into one of my favorite things we’ve ever done. We often get spoiled by the amount of thought and effort put into these responses and reading through these descriptions of meals that are fondly remembered just feels good.
So please enjoy our annual series and thank you to everyone who participated this year. To read our 2022 series of blog posts, click here.
Tom Burtless (Buffalo Eats Contributor, Singer of Humble Braggers): My favorite meal of 2022 was my wife's 30th birthday dinner at Pearl Morissette just over the border in Jordan Station, Ontario. The 12 course meal, featuring predominantly local and regional ingredients, was consumed in a structure overlooking the farm that Pearl Morrisette occupied. The resulting meal was one of the most unique and delicious dining experiences I've had in my life.
A follow up to this would be the 40 oz tomahawk steak that my wife and two of our friends took down at Billy Club over various cocktails and glasses of wine.
Lastly, the now (sadly) closed Bidwell provided a wonderful dining experience for my wife and I in February of this past year. We went on their 2nd night open and were absolutely blown away by each dish. I look forward to them hopefully opening in a new location.
Lizz Schumer (Author and Journalist) and Nick Guy (Senior Writer at Buy Side): We’ve eaten a lot of good meals in our day. And it’s not exactly revolutionary to say that Italy in particular is an embarrassment of culinary riches. But the Michelin-starred Dogma came out of left field and hit it out of the park (fewer ham-fisted sports metaphors in 2023).
We were some of the only diners in the place, located in a residential neighborhood so far from the touristic city center, the server at the nearby bar where we stopped for an aperitivo asked us what we were doing there. But we really hope the secret gets out because every bite was perfection. Those bites included perfectly balanced sardine toast with caviar that burst like a wave on the shore, the tenderest homemade tagliatelle ever to dance around a fork paired with fresh-caught frutti di mare, and a house-made Paris-Brest that shattered around creamy hazelnut filling at the very idea of a bite. At the end of the meal, we asked if we could thank the chef and out came a young, bashful man who looked absolutely mortified to be standing in front of diners instead of his mise.
If you find yourself in Rome, book a table at Dogma. It’s a religious experience.
Dima Maddah (Buffalo Eats Contributor): How do I sum up 2022? There were a lot of firsts for me in particular.
People who know me know I've had a whirlwind of a year with a lot of firsts both professionally and personally but I think one of the best firsts I experienced was dinner at The Grange in Hamburg. You're probably thinking how the hell has she never been to The Grange??
WELL, as someone who was born and raised in the northtowns and now resides in the city of Buffalo, the southtowns and I are like oil and water, okay. Fight me.
While I have been to their sister restaurant, West Rose, in Ellicottville numerous times (pretty sure it was one of my favorite meals in the past) I had high expectations of the OG establishment and as everyone said I would, I am kicking myself for not making the trek down sooner. A group of us Eats folks (and our dear sweet Liana aka @bflofoodie) ventured down and as this post implies, had the best meal I've had all year.
The burger I was well acquainted with from my times at West Rose, but the hummus is legitimately crack. As someone of middle eastern descent I tend to be picky about hummus but I would bathe in theirs if I could. Inject it straight into my veins. We were lucky enough to sit at the bar near the kitchen so we became friendly with the cooks/chefs and they were kind enough to send us a number of appetizers, each one better than the last.
In summation, do not be like me and wait 34 years to experience the impeccable quality of the food, staff, and atmosphere of The Grange, even if it does mean driving out to the southtowns.
Kevin Thurston (Chef/Owner of Cafe Godot): How and why I go out to eat has changed, not for better or worse, it's simply morphed, responding to changes in my life. Dining, for me, no longer prioritizes a desire to consume the most sophisticated plates, or to ingest a technique that is rarely seen in WNY, though those things are still appreciated. Now it's a purposeful effort to make time for those I love, whether that is through sharing a meal or preparing a meal.
Each year seems to be crazier than the last as I find myself in my mid-Forties. However, there still is always the false promise of a late winter break where things are hibernating and life approaches a certain stillness. This time of year, nestled right behind the holidays, is my wife's (Jenni) birthday.
She'll be the first to admit that she undersells her birthday, in large part because she feels a bit of guilt asking anyone to do anything after December. This past year I surprised her with an intimate night out -- we also have a toddler who will make an appearance shortly, so spending time with just the two of us is at a premium.
I reached out to the folks at CRaVing and they delivered. We had five courses. The standouts were a fresh pita topped with a myriad of vegetables (pictured above) as well as the salad. I'm certain Jenni has the menu they printed for her, but she's sleeping right now. Two things to consider as you look at photos lacking a 1/4-plate sized piece of meat: my wife is a vegetarian and I like salads and vegetables more than most.
In addition to the wonderful meal -- the gnocchi we had was similar to the Squash Plate that is on their current menu if you're looking -- we have few opportunities to just be together, the two of us. It was delightful, we were satiated, and I'm sure neither of us will forget it.
The next meal, well, I have a hard time describing how important it was to me.
Fiona, our daughter, broke her legs twice this year (one left, one right). I have a bone condition that can be inherited and Fiona lost that genetic lottery. I remember both days she broke her leg, but the first time it happened we (Cafe Godot) were catering so I joined the scene in media res. The second time came during an extraordinary Sunday.
Sunday is generally a day for our family to be together -- it's the only day Jenni and I have off together. We went to Tifft Nature Preserve in the morning and had a wonderful time. We even recreated a family photo from the year prior that we cherish. While I forget what our afternoon plans were, our friends Collin Sabers and Dan Reisch were coming over for Sunday Supper.
Right before nap time Fiona fell and from the sound of her cries we knew what happened. This is getting more and more personal.
Fiona was brave, hurt, exhausted. Jenni and I were as well, but to a lesser degree.
After being at the hospital for an incredibly long time, Jenni and I decided that we needed to keep our dinner date. We pushed it back two hours, and it was such a salve to share a meal after such an emotional roller coaster of a day.
In retrospect, it almost seems like the menu knew what was in store for us. It was both nourishing and satiating which, for me right now, is the sweet spot for cuisine.
Clockwise: fermented cauliflower, caraway and red cabbage kraut, kielbasa, bread and butter pickles, fermented potato pancakes, chickpea cutlet, and dressed arugula. Everything was at least grown locally, with some of the vegetables coming from my friends at The Root Down Farm in Clarence. All the other veggies were conventionally grown in Niagara County. I fermented and pickled the veg myself.
Being able to put this together after such a day just reaffirms what I learned during Covid: building out a pantry is one of the most important things to do for your home (and restaurant if that applies). Having preserved the local harvest for later, instant use is a blessing.
Just like sharing a meal with those you love.
Kid-friendly Honorable Mentions
A hidden blessing is that the other side of the restaurant hours coin means I am off when many other people are working. In terms of childcare, I spend all day Monday and Tuesday with Fiona. Pretty much every Monday morning Fiona and I head over to the Swan Street Diner. (In awfully cute news, Fiona doesn't differentiate between 'dinner' and 'diner' yet and so yells Dinner! as soon as we turn on to Swan Street.) The team over there is fantastic. Lisa, Matt, Amanda, Pat the Hat, and anyone I am failing to mention all make sure we are well taken care of and ensure that Fiona gets her fill of breakfast sausage.
Recently, we had the chance for the rare daddy/daughter dinner date so we headed to Extra Extra. Bridget and Joey, new parents themselves, have, along with everyone else there, created a very welcoming space for those with kids. There's even Junior's playpen with toys to keep young ones occupied! While dinner is a less frequent option for us, we're excited to have a place with great pizza and wine to head to.
Best Friend (source: Eater Vegas)
Evan Duckett (Buffalo Eats Contributor, Singer of Final Declaration): I usually try to keep my best meal Buffalo-centric if I can, but this year featured a meal from elsewhere that was entirely too good to bypass.
A close friend's wedding dinner at Roy Choi's (Kogi BBQ Food Truck, Chef/The Chef Show, etc) Best Friend in Las Vegas happened to fall on Grammy weekend, and Chef Choi was in the kitchen that evening working on his Korean BBQ/Mexican street food fusion. Unbelievable yeast rolls, Korean short ribs and spicy pork served family style, and a mango cheesecake + sorbet combo that was maybe the prettiest looking dessert I've ever seen came together in one of the best, and most unique, dining experiences I've had.
Julie Leone (General Manager at The Grange, Buffalo Eats Contributor): 2022 was a really great year for food! I started the year off with an outing to Daniela with some of the Eats crew. Mark had some good soup and we shared a few pasta dishes that I still think about.
I visited Chicago in May and had about 20 Chicago dogs, but also one of the best breakfast sandwiches at Bungalow by Middle Brow Brewing. Yes, that’s jam. The worst part was I couldn’t bring any of their beer back home in my carry on. Cute spot with an amazing outdoor space.
On a second trip to Chicago in November we made our way to Handlebar - a vegan/veg bar & restaurant that instantly became a new favorite. These fried pickles were 11/10 - Really dug the menu — also whoever is in charge of music..thumbs up.
I’ve become such a big fan of the Detroit style pizza at Marble and Rye - specifically the Vegan pizza. The cheese substitute they use is just buttery and gooey which pairs well with the crust crunch. I crave this pizza all the time — it’s great that they are open on Mondays now for those who work Weds-Sat!
Lastly, I’d say my favorite dish time and time again would be the Hummus at the Grange — which I’m lucky enough to eat once a week now!
Adam Kern (Owner of My Buffalo Shirt): My wife and I weren't able to go out to eat much but we did frequent one particular restaurant: Bar-Bill. I would have to say my favorite meal was cajun honey butter bbq wings from Bar-Bill. In my opinion the best wings/ sauce combo in Buffalo hands down. We had a few lunch dates and we were finally able to make it out to the Clarence location, which is bigger and also accepts credit cards! (pro tip: they sell the honey butter bbq sauce in bottles at tops now…game changer for cooking at home now! )
We also recently had dinner at The Ridge (new restaurant/ brewery that just opened in West Seneca) I will say I was very surprised on how good the food was! My Bourbon bacon burger was perfectly cooked and fries/ fry sauce combo was delicious. They did not have their own beer ready yet, but I am definitely looking forward to trying it out next time!
Jessika Schreiber (Vocalist with XOXO Pop Band): "Little pillows from heaven filled with cheesy goodness" is how I described the Agnolotti In Brodo from the bar menu at Black Iron Bystro because I'm an uncultured swine and I don't know what was actually in the pasta. You can't go wrong with a single dish off this a la carte menu. I mean the pork belly alone is top-tier; crispy but also melts in your mouth.
What a GD treat it is to now have Black Iron right in the Village of Kenmore. The building is very unassuming from the exterior, however, when you walk inside, it definitely does not feel like you are in Kenmore. The decor is dark, modern, and sexy. Speaking of which; the bar manager, Derik, when describing a wine to me, compared it to the taste of a melting popsicle on a hot June day and that's the kind of description I'd like to accompany all my food and beverage going forward.
I have yet to try the actual dinner menu because I've been having too much fun ordering one of everything at the bar while staring awkwardly through the window and chatting with the kitchen staff (mainly Bryan) as they make the gorgeous plates.
Smyth (source: ChicagoMag.com)
Edward Forster (Partner of Waxlight Bar a Vin): My wife and I took a long weekend to Chicago in lieu of giving each other gifts for the holiday. it was a blast. highlights were:
gluhwein at the Chriskindlmarket- make some this holiday szn at home
off menu chicken nuggets at elske's bar
the roast duck at boka was incredible and satisfying and made me remember when EMP served animal
everything at au cheval lives up to its "best of" hype
im glad three dots and a dash wasnt open when I lived there because those delicious tiki drinks would be trouble
But the point of the trip was a lovely and pensive dinner at Smyth (pictured above). it was everything. it was weird. there was a caviar dessert course. different wine pairings with each course. crab appendages and torso were split into separate courses so you consumed him in his entirety. every beef course should be accompanied by a bone marrow and truffle donut. dessert starts with a truffle tart with veal syrup and currant. I'll stop there. it was a highlight of the year for us in the way that it was unlike anything we'd had and was incomparable. if youre into that sort of thing, check it out!
Ryan Nagelhout (Writer/Podcast Host at The Goose’s Roost): I love getting this email because I get to think very hard about the year that was and my year, unmistakably, has been the best of my life. I got married in 2022, which thankfully went down as one of the best days and meals of my life thanks to the incredibly hard work of my wife and so many people around me. I had Tree House beer, fantastic catering from Cosmos in Provincetown and was surrounded by so many friends and family members who truly love me. I cannot think of a better day I've ever had.
And yet, this is about food. And I've been blessed to have so many great meals this year, to the point where I finally feel qualified to actually answer this question without an inferiority complex. I had a meal at Mama's Fish House in Maui on my honeymoon where the name of the guy who caught the fish I ate was prominently listed. Everything was incredible and the nest of wasps that likely lived in our booth did nothing to diminish the conclusion of what was a spectacular honeymoon. I've had meals in Paris where various foams I can't quite translate expanded my palate far behind my vocabulary in both French and English.
And yet, my favorite meal of the year happened in New Orleans. NOLA is a food town more than it is a booze town, despite the reputation. Anyone can dump a ton of sugar into a glass of alcohol and guarantee a hangover, but there are few cities in the world where you can walk 15 minutes and stumble into a handful of restaurants making charbroiled oysters in unique and equally wonderful ways. Mr. Ed's is one of those places, for sure, but Cochon is the place you absolutely need to visit if you go to the best city in America.
Six years earlier, I went to Cochon for a friend's bachelor party. It was our first night in the city, I had far too little food the entire day and it was one of the five best meals of my life. The gator bites, bourbon flight and pork I had that night stuck with me long after I flew home and resumed one of the worst calendar years of my life. That trip was nothing short of transformative, full of lifelong friends and incredible food and I made a promise to myself that if I ever found someone to love of my own I'd do my best to emulate what was a wonderful distraction from a very tough year.
What followed was a few years of uncertainty and then some long months of terror as the world hit pause and we all stayed home for a bit. But there were a lot of zoom calls with friends and what I found was a certainty in the love I had found in Boston after that trip down south. It was a matter of time, really, and after a few drinks over video calls I'd promise a big trip back to New Orleans to celebrate in style. After months of talk, Memorial Day weekend came and went this year and Cochon delivered everything I remembered and more.
Fried boudin balls, chili dusted cracklins and head cheese started us off. The fried oysters were incredible and the gator was everything I remembered all those years before. Mac and cheese and collared greens were great but stood slightly behind the best ham steak I've ever had and gulf fish I simply have not had enough schooling to properly describe. The deserts were obscene and the aperitifs were absolutely necessary for digestion.
The meal was perfect, but I've written and lived long enough to know that the meals that mean the most to you often depend on the company. And what made all that food matter above all was me, at the head of the table, watching so many of my favorite people sharing that same meal together and creating the bonds that made me want to come back to New Orleans and share many of these dishes in the first place.
I'm so lucky to have people in my life that want to go to Cochon with me. And I'm so happy that I have a wife who wants to go with me to New Orleans, too, and check out the places I've talked about so much over the last few years. Maybe we'll go with friends or do it just the two of us. But I know by now the meal will be incredible, and I'll always feel fortunate to the people who have put me in the position to have special nights with amazing people in my favorite places.