That’s our favourite Zip’s as well. They use real onions in their onion rings, some of the others don’t. If I moved from here I think I’d miss **Bruchi’s **worst of all.
We’re not huge fast-food fans but my fave unlocal restaurants include Dick’s Drive-In in Seattle andf Burgerville. When in Canada, I manage to hit an A&W. (I don’t like the ones down here. Completely different.)
We’re actually getting some surprisingly good sushi places on this side of the state so I was able to strike that craving from my list.
Around here there have always been some arguments as to why that is. Some claim it’s the economy, but cities a lot worse off than Buffalo get chains, and anyway one would think that fast-food chains would thrive in bad economies. Others say that Buffalo is too far away from corporate headquarters and it doesn’t fit the demographics corporates like, especially when it comes to fast food.
But my theory is that Buffalonians just don’t like national chains. When several Pizza Huts closed down here a while back, the response was basically “good riddance.” The Pizza Hut in our town was usually deserted, while a locally-owned pizza shop just across the street was packed full every night. There’s no surprise that it shut down, and I can’t blame any franchisee looking to expand to the Buffalo area to steer clear after seeing that.
Last but not least, Buffalo actually does have most of the chains that its neighboring cities have. I mean, of the four places you mentioned, one is a three-restaurant “chain” that’s only just started to move outside of upstate NY. Stir Crazy has one location (Cleveland) within 250 miles. BD’s doesn’t have any locations in New York State or PA. And I’ve honestly never heard of Claddagh’s or Fado’s. It’s hardly a shock that Buffalo wouldn’t have any of those four. Then I keep hearing things like “Buffalo doesn’t have a Sonic, it’s a disgrace.” Yeah, neither does Erie, Rochester, Syracuse, or Albany…your point?
Years ago in Cincinnati, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven when the BBQ place (Montgomery Inn) on the corner across from our apartment burnt down to the ground and they built a Tony Roma’s in its place. I grew up on that place in SoCal.
Then, I was thrilled when Mimi’s Cafe came to town as well.
Now that I’ve moved south, I would kill for a First Watch. That and a decent Mexican restaurant.
Also in the Bay Area, somewhere, because they had a big booth at a street fair I was at this weekend. However, they seemed a bit reticent about giving their location, and they never advertise.
My list is rather long:
White Castle, already mentioned.
Dunkin’ Doughnuts. We have a Krispy Kreme, but I prefer Dunkin’ by a lot.
Stage Deli, Carnegie Deli, or any place who doesn’t think that cheese is the natural go-with on pastrami & rye.
Papa Del’s pizza from Champaign Illinois, or any good Chicago stuffed pizza place.
and number one:
Richard’s - a little restaurant in Abbeville Louisana which mostly serves boiled crawfish. They even invented a tray to eat them on. We ate there all the time when we lived in Lafayette. When we brought our kids on a Louisiana tour, they decided that they just wanted to go back for a second night, and the crawfish was so good that it broke our oldest of her vegetarian habit forever.
Do you live in the Tri-Cities? I grew up there but moved to Chicago six years ago. Maybe we know each other.
Oh, and Bruchi’s is great. I’ve had some really good cheesesteaks here in Chicago (a place called Philly’s Best does authentic Philly food) and I have to say, Bruchi’s does it right. They really do.
Ever seen the crowds at the Olive Garden on Maple Road, despite the region’s large Italian-American crowd? Applebee’s in Buffalo and the 'burbs also packs them in, despite roughly equivalent food at the Greek diners found on every other corner.
I know why Mexican restaurants are practically nonexistent in the region, though: there’s no Mexicans. Buffalo has a large Puerto Rican population, but the region’s Mexican population, both in numbers and percentage-wise, is the smallest for the nation’s major metropolitan areas. The 2000 Census counted fewer than 1,000 residents of Mexican descent in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area.
Ive heard several reasons why many national retail chains stay clear of the Buffalo area, but that’s for another thread. Two reasons that may affect restaurant siting, though: there’s no large, contiguous block of upper middle-class population in the region (Amherst, contrary to popular belief, isn’t really that well-off; it just has the bulk of the Northtowns’ high-end subdivisions, but there’s also a lot of “Amherstucky” between Niagara Falls Boulevard and Millersport Highway), and suburban employment centers are scattered low-rise office parks rather than concentrated, dense edge cities, which affects possible lunch traffic. I wonder if the region’s large population of seniors also has something to do with the lack of chains.
EDIT: Yeah, I’d also like to see a First Watch or Le Peep in Buffalo. The Greeks now have the breakfast market pretty much locked up.
Apparently, you’ve never tried Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, out of Columbus. I live in the greater-Cincy area, and while Graeter’s is certainly good, it fails to reach the heights (both in flavor and, unfortunately, price) of Jeni’s.
And you do know that, for an arm and a leg (presumably), you can get Graeter’s ice cream shipped to your door, right?
Whenever most of my friends who grew up in in this area move away, they have an almost maniacally intense hankering for Cassano’s pizza. Not me, though. It’s pretty tasty (though nothing nearly as heavenly as a good New York-style pizza), but it’s waaaaay overpriced for what you get, and the service at both of the local locations is notoriously shitty.
As far as I’m concerned, I dearly, dearly miss two long-departed fast food chains: G.D. Ritzy’s (now simply called Ritzy’s), and Zantigo’s. The fact that neither is still available anywhere near where I live is criminal.
And when I’m not down in the Orlando area, I miss not being able to eat at the wonderful Boma - Flavors of Africa (e.g., by far the best buffet I’ve ever eaten at).
I’ve been in DC for 4 years now. I’ve finally found good NY style pizza, and as a bonus it’s only a half a block from my apartment. So that craving can be fixed easily.
But man do I miss Jersey Mikes. The franchise started in Point Pleasant, which is one town over from home. They were everywhere, so it was real easy to find an authentic deli style sub. Now the nearest one is in Richmond, VA IIRC.
I also miss a real Deli. That kinda goes hand and hand with above.
No one down here really does Italian, but that made up for with the variety of great ethnic food down here. It makes the stuff back home seem bland by comparison.
The diners down here suck. They need to be owned by some Greeks! Steak-n-Egg in Friendship Heights is the closest thing down here, but it’s way too far away for me.
Oh and White Castle. I love me a real slider. It cracks me up to no end how the widespread the slider trend is now considering the original source.
I don’t want to derail the thread, but based on what I’ve researched at least with regard to Cracker Barrel because of your comment, it looks like they’ve atoned for a very stupid mistake they made 19 years ago, and I don’t have any problem eating there now.
Not only can an average person eat 4 or 5 of them in one siding, the base-line combo (#1) around Long Island is 4 burgers, a drink and regular fries. And, I like them even more since I learned you can order them without onions - without the foul onion taste, the burgers are actually good.
Now, many chains have come to Long Island only to beat a retreat, but the one I miss most is Mr Hero - for whatever reason their buttered cheese steaks and waffle fries were excellent tasting. Alas, they seem to have retreated to Ohio and environs since the late 1990s. Probably for the best, since nowadays all fast food menus around here need to have calorie counts posted next to each food item, and a buttered cheese steak…(well, I looked it up on their website, and it’s 670cal - I suppose not all that bad as these things go)
Yes, that is really strange. Five Guys is obviously putting a lot of effort in expanding. But they’re not advertising. Word of mouth is fine but you’d think they’d buy a few ads to let people know they’ve arrived.
You and my dad. EVERY TIME he comes to see me that’s where we go. He’s gone so far as to threaten to eat apart from the family if we go anywhere else. And that’s not an idle threat–he would do it.
