In Buffalo/Rochester for 2009 Roadfood Bus Tour

This past weekend was the annual Roadfood bus tour, which this year took place in Rochester/Buffalo.  On Friday night, my girlfriend Mariton, her 13 year old daughter Emilou and myself drove the easy three hours from Pittsburgh to Buffalo.  We picked up cousin Johnny at the Buffalo airport and met a large group of fellow Roadfooders at Eckl's Beef on Weck in Orchard Park.  Among those in attendance were Wanderingjew, NoCarolina, Mr Chips, Buffalo Tarheel, plus ChiTownDiner and his group of shady characters.  WJ told me there was going to be a surprise guest, who I have met before and it was none other than the first fellow Roadfooder I met, and old friend, Bethgrd!  Because our party had grown to 20+ attendees, I didn't get to meet everyone at the other table.  But it was great to get reaquainted with old friends and meet new ones (BuffaloTarheel). 
 
Unfortunately, I was so busy socializing, I forgot to take any photos of other people here, a mistake I corrected the rest of the trip.  At least here are some food photos.....
 
I believe this may be the owner, Dale Eckl himself carving the beef for our Beef on Weck sandwiches.






My sandwich was ordered with the meat medium.  Outstanding! 
 
Of course, the usual side for this meal is German potato salad

and as someone who grew up in a German household, I don't say this easily, but the combination of sweet and vinegary tang made this one of the best I have ever had.  Mariton went for the pork chop, which were extremely thick and juicy.

 
ChiTownDiner led the charge on dessert, which we all passed around to sample.


Instead of pie (yeah, I know, I took a lot razzing for it), I went for a hot fudge sundae instead.

 
Just about everyone I spoke to thought Eckl's was a home run!  And the staff treated us extremely well, even coming over and passing out menus for us to take at the end of the meal.  We were off to a great start to the weekend!

Much harder to share a Hot Fudge Sundae!  Great thinking!

Checking in at the Hilton hotel next to the Buffalo airport and the bus ride to our first stop, Dinosaur BBQ in Rochester.

























 
Dinosaur BBQ was a real crowd pleaser, as at the end of the day, it was voted favorite place among the group.  I thought the ribs were okay and the pulled pork good, but the brisket was excellent!  Good beans and potatoes, too.

Nick Tahou's, where the owner actually let us all eat our garbage plates at no charge, which was extremely generous of him!



















 
Just before we left, Mr. Tahou came on the bus and thanked us for coming.  How cool is that?

Outstanding!  

Food and Friends!


I am so jealous!  

Before we headed to LDR Char Pit and Abbott's Custard, we took a side trip to get a group photo on a bridge overlooking the High Falls.  The group photo can be found on this thread:http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/tm.aspx?m=541826
 
Here are the Falls.

Before we got back on the bus, a man with the local tourism board was passing out free samples of either local cider or local beer Gennessee Cream Ale.



 
LDR Char Pit, where I absolutely loved my steak sandwich. 









 
Thanks to this man,

the owner of LDR Char Pit, we were once again comped our food!
 
It was less than a block walk down to Abbott's Custard.






 
My dish was an excellent Peanut Butter Cup sundae.  Abbott's was good enough that it received Michael Stern's vote for best place of the day.

Great job BB, although I'm sure this is only the beginning!  That beef on weck sure looks good.

But I do have 1 question...who told Nocarolina to go play in traffic?
 
Brad

At this point, having hit all of the scheduled stops, the group was thinking that we were done for the day.  But tour organizer Steven Rushmore had a surprise waiting for us.  The bus took us into Orleans County and the local fairgrounds, where the East Shelby Volunteer Fire Department were cooking some Cornell chicken for us.  Could it possibly be any more Roadfood-ish?
 


















 
This was my first time tasting Cornell chicken (so named because the marinade was created by a Cornell University professor) and it couldn't have come in a more genuine or fun atmosphere.  The chciken itself was slightly spicy and I was surprised by just how delicious it was.  The homemade pies, especially the pineapple cream was another highlight.  What a great experience! 
 
I was so full and tired at this point, I slept the entire bus trip back to the hotel.  This ended Day 1 of the official bus tour.

Buffetbuster,
 
Thanks for a great report and outstanding pictures.  It was tremendous to meet you and the other folks, including some of the Chicago/Milwaukee contingent, at the Eckl's dinner to start.  And of course Saturday and Sunday were great days as well.  It was so cool to have the RF tour here in Western NY.  I will definitely be making the drive to Rochester more often for those flavorful and tender steak sandwiches at LDR Char Pit.  (Even as I write this I am wondering about making the 2-mile drive to Ted's for lunch).
 
My thanks to Stephen Rushmore, Jr. and the Sterns for all the hard work that went into this incredibly well-run event.  Also, it was a pleasure to meet some many roadfooders on the bus and at the stops.
 
Rob

Cliff--great pictures!  I especially like the one of Chris watching Amy slice up that garbage plate oh so carefully.   It looks like they carted you off to pie heaven there at the end!

What a nice treat for everybody!
 
edited to add--it's especially nice to see Gregg with the pink back in his cheeks!

Nancy-
Great eye, because that photo of Chris & Amy at Nick Tahou's is easily one of my favorites from the weekend, too.  They look so serious, like they are surgeons about to perform an appendectomy on a patient!  But, I think I have an even better photo of those two coming!

Brad, nobody told me to go play in the traffic... I thought it up all by myself! 

I think I speak for more that just a few others when I say....









...that these pictures look nothing like wanderingjew.

Brad_Olson

But I do have 1 question...who told Nocarolina to go play in traffic?
 
Brad

Brad,

Have you MET nocarolina?  It's quite possible that it was done by unanimous vote! 

I am going to be really impressed if that guy carved all of those roast beef sandwiches and didn't get any on his white shirt OR white tie!  I can't get through an hour of my desk job without spilling crap all over myself!

Mr Eckl did not get a drop on his white shirt or tie and filled us with tails of his family business long after the restaurant emptied out...what a great guy!

Great photos Cliff.  Did you find any time to eat?

TTM-
Au Contraire, mon frere!  After looking a photo or two over, WJ announced that MY photos do indeed look him!

JRPfeff-
I thought you would enjoy the photo of Jane Stern with one of the bracelets you made up.  And no, I was way too busy taking photos to actually eat!

Buffalo Tarheel-
It was a real pleasure to finally meet you, too, although I wish I had the opportunity to chat with you more.  With the Nickel City being so close, I do usually go up there about once a year.  So I will be back and hope we can meet again then.

JRPfeff


Great photos Cliff.  Did you find any time to eat?

 
Is the Pope Catholic???
 
Does a bear...never mind, you get the picture...buffetbuster was a man on a mission!

Like all the pictures but would be nice to have some names to go with. Some people I recognize from previous reports and i know it takes time. Maybe in the group picture someone can sort out who is who.  

Man, that pie from the VFD was so good...

I chose the apple pie, because when I asked whether the apples were local, the firemen got into a discussion of particular men who were likely to have picked them. The crust was so flaky and the filling was so full of apple and cinnamon flavors. I have made good pies in the past, but that's the sort of pie I aspire to make.

I sort of regret that we allowed leftovers of the pies--a little voice tells me that maybe I could have sampled the berry, or perhaps the pecan. But after all the fine things we'd eaten before the pie, I could only gaze upon them wistfully, and I think that most of us felt the same way. 

 

I like wanderingjew's new tatts! 

Hey BB, You know I really appreciate your trip reports.  But I am going to have to ask you to go back and edit this one. 

I recognize a lot of people, but we need you to give us some names to go with the faces.

JoeRogo-
If you know the names, go right ahead!  Seriously, I stink at remembering people's names.  And as usual on the bus tours, many of the people who attend are not regular posters or post at all.  Other than the usual suspects who we all recognize, mr chips, wanderingjew, nocarolina, ChiTownDiner, ayersian, etc.,  I can't tell you much more.  I did try to meet as many people as I could, but of course I know them by their real names, not their screenames.   

But, they still attended the tour and deserve to be noted.  Hopefully, people will chime in and say, "Hey, that's me!"

For those who would like to know names, I will add a few that I remember.
 
 
 This shows ralphmelton - Ralph Melton and his wife Lori, both from Pittsburgh:

 
 
 
 
This is ChiTownDiner (on the right) and his brother on the left, with Dale (wanderingjew) behind them:


 
 
 
 
 
This couple is TnTinCt: Tim and Terri:

 
 
 
 
Of course you must know Wanderingjew and Mr. Chips, respectively:
 
 
 
 
The couple on the left is nagle (John and Jennifer - he's in the grey coat; she's in the purple striped top).  Next is Chris and Amy (ayersian).  The guy on the right, behind Amy, with the guilty look is Buffalo Tarheel (striped shirt) - I didn't think anyone would get a picture of me taking extra ribs at Dinosaur:
 

 
 
 
I'll try to find some more names.
 
 
 
 
 

As if that wasn't enough food for one day, ChiTownDiner forced a bunch of us against our will to head out for an extra late night stop.  Our destination was Steve's Pig & Ox Roast.  I had been here before and thought it was good, but the food on this night was awful.  Especially the Curly-Q fries, which Chris called deep fried packing material.  Still, the company was good and it sure beat just sitting around the hotel room.
 







 
The last item, which is a roast pork, was the best item here that I sampled and was just okay.  Nobody seemed enthused about this place and I felt bad since this was my suggestion.
 
The group was next to convene at Antoinette's for candy and ice cream.  But my GPS took us miles out of the way and by the time I arrived, CTD was leaving and the place was just about to close.  We were disappointed, but I'd still say we had a quality eating day!
 

I loved the pictures and thread. with a son going to SUNY Buffalo I'm hoping to make some road trips while visiting.

I hadn't realized how foody/foodie an area Buffalo was.

Looks like fun was had by all, I'll keep reading

Buffalo Tarheel-
Thanks!
 
thegratefuldad-
Welcome to Roadfood!  I hope you get to eat at some of these restaurants while visiting your son.  If you do, please post how you liked them.

Wow!  I did not recognize mr. chips--lookin good chipsie!

We certainly couldn't come to the Buffalo area without a visit to Niagara Falls, so we ran up there early on Sunday morning.  I am taking a digital photography class and had some assignments to do, so this was the perfect setting to try some experiments with my new camera.  Still don't know what I am doing, but I'm getting better.
 


 
We interrupt regularly scheduled programming to bring you a Skittles commercial!

 
And now back to the trip report.....


 
We hurried back to the hotel to board the bus for Day 2 of the bus tour:  Buffalo!