S5, E36: Beyond the Wing: How Buffalo’s Food Scene Quietly Became One of America’s Best

Everybody knows Buffalo, New York, for the chicken wing. Fewer people know the real story behind the wing—or the full story of Buffalo’s food scene, which is grounded in tradition and full of innovation.

In the first episode of our four-part Unpacked by Afar series on Buffalo, we start where you should always start: at the table. Host Aislyn Greene digs into a food scene that has quietly become one of the most surprising in America, shaped by waves of immigrants and refugees, a fiercely independent streak, and chefs who don’t need anyone’s permission to be great.

Transcript

Aislyn: Back in May of 2026, about 500 people were jammed into a bar in Buffalo, New York. They were all there, for one thing. And nope, it was not football. They were there to watch live. As a local chef named Darian, Bryan was crowned the winner of Gordon Ramsay’s Next Level chef.

Francesca: The moment he won, like the deafening sound, it was like the Bills won the Super Bowl. It’s like, oh my gosh, like we actually won. It’s not a city that’s super used to winning.

Aislyn: But here’s the thing about Buffalo. For a city that swears it never wins, it’s got a shocking amount to brag about. And today we’re gonna do the bragging for it. I’m Aislyn Greene, and this is Unpacked. And over the next 4 Tuesdays, we’re doing a deep dive into the buffalo,you don’t know. We’ll get started right after the break.

In the early 1900s, Buffalo was one of the biggest, wealthiest cities in the country. It was built on grain and steel and water, and then the industry left. And, well, you probably know the Rust Belt story, right? But what’s happened in recent years is a steady, surprising, delightful resurgence. And over the series, we’re going to walk through that resurgence, one story and one episode at a time. We’ll explore the architecture, which includes Art Deco wonders, Frank Lloyd Wright masterpieces and ambitious expansion of the art museum and a revitalized waterfront. We’ll dig into the city’s rich black history, including a renovation of a historic music club where Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington once played. We’ll also explore Buffalo’s identity as the city of good neighbors, because spoiler alert, the people here are really freaking nice. But we’re starting at the table because food is the one place where all of it shows up together. And oh my God, do I want to eat my way through Buffalo. Our main guide today is someone whose stories I kept reading while I researched this whole series, and whose voice you heard at the top of the episode.

Francesca: I’m Francesca Bond. I’m a food and drink reporter with the Buffalo News.

Aislyn: Francesca grew up in the Greater Buffalo area and food has always been a part of her life.

Francesca: My dad cooked all our meals and then he also started a very small, just him and I catering business out of our church basement. So like all growing up, you know, I was catering these fire hall weddings, backyard weddings, grad parties, and I was very much in the food industry, but I just don’t think I recognized at the time.

Aislyn: In other words, Francesca has had a front row seat to Buffalo’s food scene, so I asked her to tell me the story. Because Buffalo has been shaped from its inception by waves of immigrants, including people from Germany, Poland and Italy. And every single one of those waves showed up hungry with recipes.

Francesca: It used to be a lot of really great Italian food, Polish food, pub food, lots of German food, stuff like that.

Aislyn: And now it’s happened again.

Francesca: We’ve had such an influx of immigrants and refugees that we kind of have this like beautiful international food scene here, but it’s also retained a lot of that, like chicken wing pub character. And so it’s a cool food city to visit.

Aislyn: That more recent international scene also came in waves.

Francesca: Like I think when Buffalo’s food scene foodies kind of started paying really close attention was when we got a lot of like Burmese immigrants coming in in like the 2010s. And then all of a sudden Buffalo was like kind of this hot spot for Burmese food, which has been really incredible. And then, you know, we’ve had a lot of waves since then. Right now, we’re getting a lot of like Indian and Bangladeshi immigrants. And so that’s been transforming our food scene in a nice way.

Aislyn: Francesca recommends eating at the West Side Bazaar, where you can find everything from Thai to Egyptian. You’ll hear a little bit more about that in the next episode, where we dive into some of Buffalo’s iconic neighborhoods. But for now, we’re following the food. And if you want one place that captures where the city is right now. Francesca points to a Texas barbecue spot run by a chef who grew up in India.

Francesca: So Ryan Fernandez, you know, he moved to Texas as a teen, where he became obsessed with Texas barbecue and then moved to Buffalo to follow his some of his family members. But he does his own thing with it. He’s kind of made his own style of barbecue where it’s Texas barbecue, but he infuses it with South Asian flavors. So you’ve got like a biscuit biryani, cardamom, cornbread. He serves his barbecue platters with coconut curry sauce. And so I think like Ryan kind of represents like the best of where we’re at right now with the food scene.

Aislyn: That restaurant is called Southern Junction, and it’s so good that Texas Monthly named it one of the best barbecue spots outside of Texas. So why is this incredible creativity bubbling up in Buffalo? For that, I called someone who runs one of the most acclaimed restaurants in the city.

Jessica: So I’m Jessica Forster. I am the partner wine director and sommelier for Waxlight Bar à Vin.

Aislyn: Jessica grew up on Long Island but has been a Buffalonian for 25 years, and she watched the food scene here go from sleepy to serious about 15 years ago. And the reason, she says, is pretty simple.

Jessica: It’s affordable compared to so many other major cities. It’s an easy place to come back to and to know that you can open your own business. You can start a family, you can buy a home a lot easier than in other places. So a lot of people left, and then for whatever the reason, was just kind of like all at the same time, the food scene kind of exploded because we had all of this great talent coming back to Buffalo.

Aislyn: Jessica says that started in 2011, and Buffalo’s food scene has only continued to grow and evolve, and that affordability is not a small thing. It’s the whole reason a restaurant like hers can exist.

Jessica: So Waxlight is an owner operated restaurant. We are the servers, we are the bartender, and the only people like designing a menu and we each have our areas of expertise. So I’m the wine director. You know, I’m the sommelier on the floor. The idea behind that framework was always that an owner would be taking care of you in one form or another.

Aislyn: And this is where things get even more interesting because there is a lot of ambition in Buffalo, and Waxlight is a perfect example of that.

Jessica: I usually describe our cuisine as like French-ish.

Aislyn: The French-ish menu changes almost daily, and it’s built around local ingredients, especially from the Finger Lakes region. We’re recording this in the early summer, so you might find grilled strawberries with smoked labneh and fennel, or braised oxtail with rye lumus, green tomato and kale. And then, of course, there’s the wine because, yeah, it’s a wine bar. And Jessica pours with a real point of view.

Jessica: So I definitely champion New York State wine, especially the Finger Lakes. Like I think they’re doing a really incredible things and like carving out a true identity for, for themselves. But like, I love Burgundy. I love champagne, I love Barolo and, you know, things like that, that like are pretty recognizable for people. But I tend to gravitate towards younger, smaller producers.

Aislyn: But for all the technique. Jessica is adamant about one thing, and it’s very buffalo.

Jessica: Buffalonians are definitely like, we’re blue collar, like we are salt of the earth in the best way imaginable. And I think a lot of people maybe feel intimidated by wine or by fine dining or certain cuisines that they’re not familiar with. So I always just want to be able to connect with guests and make things easy for them, like not make it exclusionary.

Aislyn: In other words, you can come for the Thursday evening tasting menu, or.

Jessica: You can also come in for happy hour and get like a tapas and a pairing for 10 dollars, you can get our roast chicken, potato chips and a high life and walk out the door for like 12 dollars.

Aislyn: So being a James Beard semifinalist and angling for Michelin stars doesn’t mean steak and potatoes are off the menu, but your buffalo food experience won’t be complete until you try some local legends, starting with a sandwich. Here’s Francesca again.

Francesca: So we have, like really old culinary traditions to like the beef on weck. It’s a roast beef sandwich.

Aislyn: Okay.

Francesca: Basically. But it’s these thin petals of roast beef, horseradish on a Kaiser roll, which is dipped in Anjou and then sprinkled with thick salt and caraway seeds.

Aislyn: It’s roast beef on a roll, and people here will absolutely fight you about it.

Francesca: There’s a Beef on Weck Appreciation Society Facebook page. You can join with 25,000 members and very spirited debates.

Aislyn: And there are so many more foods unique to Buffalo. There’s the pizza log.

Francesca: It’s basically like if an egg roll and a Totino’s pizza roll had a beautiful, perfect baby.

Aislyn: Oh yeah. That is a beautiful, perfect baby.

Francesca: Yeah.

Aislyn: A cocktail called Tom and Jerry.

Francesca: I think that drink is nearly 150 years old. At least 20 bars at Christmas time. Have Tom and Jerry’s. It’s this mug of hot rum and brandy topped with a huge scoop of sweetened egg batter. So it’s kind of like a like a Starbucks cold foam drink, but like way, way different. Yeah, it’s like this very old timey drink that we have still served. And if anything, it’s bigger than ever. Like people are going on Tom and Jerry tours. So yeah, so I think that also says something about our culture, about how like we, we have our thing and we stick with it.

Aislyn: Perhaps there’s no better example of sticking with your local food than the chicken wing. And the real story of the buffalo wing is as meaty as the snack. Francesca said there’s actually 2 stories. There is an origin story, one that has been told over the years.

Francesca: In a restaurant called the Anchor Bar in Buffalo in 1964. The famous myth is that the Bellissimo family during lent, because, you know, people don’t eat meat on Fridays during lent. So after midnight, Teressa, for her son’s friends, created out of like the chicken scraps that people don’t normally eat, she created like chicken wings. She tossed them in hot sauce and butter, served them. And then from there, chicken wings were kind of born, exploded, took over Buffalo by storm in the next like 10 years, then the country, then the world.

Aislyn: But the real story starts a mile away on the east side in a black owned restaurant. There, a man named John Young was already making wings, and he would tell you to the end of his life that he did it first. His daughter carries that story now.

Lina: So my name is Lina Brown Young. I am the youngest daughter of John Young, who was the original creator of the Buffalo Wing here in Buffalo back in the early ‘60s.

Aislyn: John Young was raised in Alabama, and in 1947 his family moved to Buffalo for the same reason so many families did.

Lina: He and his father came to Buffalo to kind of look for a better place for their family to get reestablished. Apparently or pretty poor back then. So they came to Buffalo, and after working for a few restaurants here and working for American Radiator here, he decided to go into business for himself. He and his sister, Dorothy Young, started a small little business around ’62 or ’63 in the Jefferson Street corridor area.

Aislyn: The idea that changed everything actually came from a visitor. It was a boxer who was passing through Buffalo, and he told John about whole wings and a sauce he’d had in Washington, D.C. John took that idea and made it his own, especially the sauce, which in his version has nothing to do with hot sauce and butter.

Lina: He made his own version of mumbo sauce, which is not the Washington or the Chicago version. It is a tomato based sauce. But I think what makes his unique is the fact that he had, you know, little spices, but he also added fruit to his sauce. So he has some tropical fruits in his original version of mumbo sauce. And so I think that’s what makes it quite unique.

Aislyn: And John had one rule he never broke.

Lina: So many people view a chicken wing as being a flat and a drumette. He always kept his flat Drumette tip everything together because that’s what a wing is. So he, you know, seasoned, breaded his wings deep fried them, slathered those wings in this mumbo sauce and serve it hot just like that.

Aislyn: Lina says it took off really fast. John opened 3 restaurants in 3 years, and by Lina’s account, which was backed up by the meat supplier who sold to him, John Young was buying whole wings by the hundreds before anyone else in Buffalo. The reason John’s name isn’t the famous one is where this story gets a little difficult. In 1970, John moved his family and his business out of Buffalo. When he came back a decade later, the story had moved on without him.

Lina: He left. He came back. He did re-establish himself and, you know, came back with this same thing, didn’t change his menu, didn’t change his story. But at that time, like in the ‘80s when he came back, you know, the wing had been changed, had been altered, split, whatever people are making claims that they started it.

Aislyn: By then, variations like celery and blue cheese had crept in. But Lina says her father’s story fits a bigger, more painful pattern.

Lina: I do think that in general, probably in the ‘60s and ‘70s, many people of color were not getting the credit for having trademarked. Kind of like what you know, we do today is important. I know that was an expensive thing.

Aislyn: John Young passed away in 1998. He left behind a handwritten account of his life.

Lina: It’s called the “Biography of a Man Born with a Vision.”

Aislyn: Because he’d made his peace with the wing evolving. What he wanted was the credit for starting it. To honor that legacy, Lina now runs John Young’s Original with her niece, Okia. They bottle his sauce and yes, you can get it online and in places like the Broadway market and pop ups around the city. Lina brings her dad’s wings to life.

Lina: I actually cooked the wings and served them just the way my dad did. So people tell us about how they used to sneak out of school and get it. It’s interesting that my father’s little biography, he had told about this experience of a gentleman who was, um, in Vietnam, and when he got out, told my dad about how he used to think about those wings while he was down in the, I guess, you know, trying to not get shot. Thought about the wings and said he couldn’t wait, you know, hoping he would get back home.

Aislyn: And so you can even try them on a bicycle tour called the Wing Ride, which is run by Lina’s friend Marc Moscato, a food historian who is helping to correct the wing record via his Buffalo Bike Tours company. So I asked Lina what she wants people who come to Buffalo to know.

Lina: The story is, how did it get started in Buffalo? You know, that’s that’s my dad’s thing. But as far as the variety and the flavors, tons. And it’s very delicious. But start with the original and then move on.

Aislyn: After the break. The fanciest food guide on earth came knocking. And what Buffalo did next tells you everything about how the city sees itself. So, as Lina said, start with the original and then move on. And honestly, that’s great advice for the whole city because for people like Jessica of Waxlight, the wing might be the front door, but it’s not the whole house.

Jessica: It’s funny because, you know, obviously like we’re known for chicken wings and football. Right. And that’s awesome. Like I, I love chicken wings. We all have our favorite places. We all argue about it. But like, I want people to be able to look beyond that and be like, oh, shoot, they have like a real food scene there.

Aislyn: That’s the ambition talking. And recently, that ambition bumped up against one of the biggest names in food, the Michelin Guide. When Michelin expanded into the Great Lakes, Buffalo wasn’t on the list. But before you feel bad for Buffalo, here’s what’s worth knowing. Landing in the guide isn’t a verdict on whether or not a city’s food is good enough. A city has to actively opt in and pay for the privilege to do so. And Buffalo, at least for now, has not opted in. But what jumped out at me was the conversation that Buffalonians had in the aftermath of that decision. Because it wasn’t just about the guidebook. The conversation was also about how a city decides what it’s worth.

Jessica: I think part of trepidations were that like, well, what if nobody gets a recognition? You know, if we spent this money and what if, you know, it doesn’t happen? But I still think to be on there is to be included is great. It just elevates the entire food scene and beverage scene in the city.

Aislyn: Sure, a spot in the Michelin Guide would throw a global spotlight on Buffalo, the kind that makes people book a flight around a single meal. But it’s not totally about the star.

Jessica: I have like FOMO, like I see that list of other Great Lakes cities and I’m just like, Oh my God, how are we not on that? Like, um, so yeah, I think it is like a little bit of a validation that, you know, we are like, our fruit is awesome. And again, having so many farms, like we’re very farm to table. There are so many places that, you know, are doing things the right way. But yeah, I think, you know, being included in the Michelin Guide is not a wake up call, but it is like, oh, hey, Buffalo, like we are at that level, like we are great.

Aislyn: And here’s the part I can’t stop thinking about. It’s almost like Buffalo’s been overlooked for so long that it went and did something kind of beautiful. It built its own mirror.

Francesca: Buffalo is not a place that is particularly used to getting external validation, and so we’ve kind of become somewhere that validates ourselves. We love ourselves. And so do we need external validation? No. Like always, we’ll be fine.

Aislyn: But compliments and awards obviously don’t feel terrible, which honestly means that Buffalo is in a pretty wonderful place. It’s a city that already loves itself, knows it has much to offer, and leaves the door open for more.

Jessica: You know, if we can, like, be a part of leading the charge to be like, hey, maybe we’re considered an underdog, but like, we’re, we’re so far past that now.

Aislyn: If you, like me, are ready to start eating, see the show notes for a guide to the city’s food scene, including the restaurants mentioned today. As for the trip itself, Francesca says, keep it simple. Stay in the city and use your feet.

Francesca: I would pace myself in the city, you know you could base yourself downtown. Allentown, Elmo Village our city is designed really well. It’s really pretty and walkable, especially like in the summer. It’s really nice. So I would base myself in the city so I could like walk to places, and then I would genuinely walk around and look at a lot of the houses and the architecture.

Aislyn: More on that architecture in a future episode, but for a spot that offers a truly authentic Buffalo experience, Francesca likes to send people to a bar that was built in the shadow of the old grain silos near the Buffalo River.

Francesca: This place is called Duende at Silo City. It’s in this across between, like a urban woods and just like, cleaned up kind of industrial wasteland of grain silos everywhere. Like when you’re at the bar, they almost act as like mountains in the background and you feel like you’re in this, like, green valley. I feel like it’s a very unique to Buffalo experience and also says kind of a lot about who we are and like our culture, you know, because it’s like you’re in sort of this place where, you know, Buffalo’s heyday was was so long ago, we lost our industry. You know, I mean, it’s, it’s been a difficult place, but like, here we are listening to music and kicking a soccer ball around and like drinking beer and just like, having a nice time.

Aislyn: There’s one more place Francesca told me to visit. It’s a hiking trail about 30 minutes south of the city. And at the end of the trail, tucked behind a little waterfall, there’s a small natural gas spring burning behind it. So naturally it’s called the Eternal Flame. And I asked her, half joking if it meant anything.

Francesca: Yeah. How’s that song go? Yeah. The eternal flame. Yeah. That’s us.

Is this burning? An eternal flame.

Aislyn: We’ll be chasing that eternal spirit over the next 3 episodes. Coming up next, Buffalo calls itself the City of Good Neighbors. So we talked to a handful of people to find out why.

Man: I mean, everybody throughout the area, whether you’re Irish, whether you’re Ethiopian, whether you’re Bangladeshi, they all come because it’s a cool vibe. So that’s what it’s like traveling without the need of a passport. You know.

Aislyn: That’s next week. We’ll see you then. Unpacked is a production of Afar Media. This episode was hosted by me and produced by Nikki Galteland. Theme music by Chris Collin. A special thanks to Francesca Bond, Jessica Forster and Lina Brown Young for sharing their Buffalo with us.