I live in Buffalo. I like Buffalo. If you're coming, ask me questions, I'll answer. Food, drink, etc.

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Agreed, I like Buffalo itself; I just hate the drive.

Driving to Albany and taking the train is not bad, but I am a big fan of train travel. When I was in law school I would get a ton of work done on the train there and back.

An hour longer, and I only draw from experience in the summer when it's a beautiful drive, but Rt 17/I-86 and I-390 northwest beats NYS Thruway.

Yep. Driving across Pennsylvania on I-80 is my least-favorite drive in the country.

"The state that never ends."

 

[Deepster]

Being a Pats fan in Buffalo is brutal now. I was at the playoff game and in the middle of Patriots fans, a big fight broke out, among Bills fans!! And it spilled over into the Patrs fans. I always thought that Buffalo fans liked to fight out of frustration, but now that they're on top--it's even worse than before.

I can't even begin to describe the level of degeneracy at bills games.

Now--I'm totally against $1 billion going to the Bills for a new stadium, just absolutely ridiculous, but I imagine they'll raise ticket prices and limit the amount of seats, which may cut down on the absolute crapshow a Bills game is.

Bills fans are fat, uneducated, alcoholic losers. And beef on weck is easily the most overrated disgusting sandwich in the entire northeast. If you've never had the pleasure, go make a roast beef sandwich on a hard roll, spritz it with a fine mist of water, then pour 2 cups of kosher salt over the top. Viola!

 

[Mr. French]

I will throw in a recommendation for Resurgence Brewery downtown in the first ward, probably a mile or so from the arena.

Classmate and HS friend started it, awesome beers, GREAT spot to hang especially if the weather is decent. Check it out amongst the other breweries downtown.

 

[August_West]

I've made that drive probably 20 times between Chicago and CT., it's awful but the I-90 portion through Ohio/Indiana may be even worse. At least you have the mountains in Pennsylvania, it's not exactly The Rockies but at least it's something to look at besides the flat nothingness and cornfields of Ohio and Indiana.

The trip is just below the cutoff distance so I've done it nonstop every single time and there isn't even a place along the way you would want to stop for a night to break the trip up.

That’s true…. There are some scenic things on 80 in PA but it’s the length that gets you, Ohio and Indiana combined don’t equal that length.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Between Albany and Syracuse there are some nice scenic stretches through hillier areas. Buffalo to Syracuse? Nope.

That's for bicycling along the Erie Canal Trail.

OT a bit, but I wouldn't mind an updating/overview of Rochester akin to what @upstater offered re Buffalo.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

OK, here's my advice:

1. Realize, Buffalo has a subway system. If you're staying in downtown or uptown hotels, there's a high probability that you will be within easy walking distance of the subway. This is the ideal way to go to the arena since the last stop is the arena, right at the harbor's edge. The subway rises above ground for the last 6 stops of downtown (about 2 miles) and you can get on for free when it's above ground.

Downtown bars near the arena:

1. Southern Tier Brewery restaurant, has a massive TV, 2 tiered viewing seating, will likely be jampacked. It's connected to Harbourside which is connected to the arena, so if you can get a seat, it's a good sports bar brewery. I would avoid because of the unlikelihood of finding a seat.

2. Union Pub, a classic sports bar, probably the most popular one for those who attend Sabres games or Bisons games (AAA baseball).

3. Pearl Street Brewery is the oldest of the "new" Buffalo breweries, and not quite up to snuff like the others. Place is 20+ years old. But the food is decent, and again, feels like a sports bar.

4. SATO Brewpub, Asian food and beers.

5. There are nearby places like the Draft Room and Cobblestone and Ballyhoo, but I've never been to any of them for drinking. Ballyhoo has reasonably priced food, but you can do better.




Midtown bars & restaurants I'd recommend:

1. Lafayette Brewpub: they get most of their beer from Pearl Street, but it's a much better atmosphere than Pearl Street Brewery.

2. Misuta Chow's: it's a barcade type place that looks like a Japanese fast food open air alley food stall, but indoors.

3. Hatchets & Hops: yes, throwing hatchets.

4. Mohawk Place & Electric Avenue: dive bars. Both are good dive bars.

5. Tappo Restaurant: it's a bar really, lots of people drinking, but they also do dinner. Food is mediocre but good, if that makes any sense. Reasonably priced big portions, the kind of place where spaghetti and meatballs is on the menu, and it is, well, spaghetti and meatballs. But not bad spaghetti and meatballs.

6. Dinosaur BBQ: very good!

AVOID: Deep South Taco. They done messed up the concept of tacos.

AVOID: Chippewa Street and nightclubs, unless you're under 25 years old and are comfortable with sleaze.



Theatre District & Allentown favorite spots (these places are further away from the subway, with only Founding Fathers on the verge of walkable).

1. Founding Fathers: maybe Buffalo's best bar; if you don't know any better, you might be put off by the politics theme, but it's a big hangout.

2. Gabriel's Gate: best buffalo wings in the city, good bar.

3. Old Pink: kind of a punk hipster institution, usually doesn't get rolling until 11 pm. Remember, Buffalo has New York City hours, closing time is 4 am.

4. Hardware: good place for a drink and food, reasonable.

5. Allen Burger Ventures: best burgers in town, restaurant pricing, $17.



Breweries:

1. Big Ditch is right downtown, so for those looking to get some good beer and then hop right onto the subway trolley, this is a good choice. They are the 3rd best brewery in town.

2. Community Beer Works: for my money, they make the best beers and if they were a little bigger, might be better known on the east coast. They are very good. Need a car to get there as they are on the west side very near the Peace Bridge to Canada.

3. Thin Man Brewery: highly recommended, they are a close #2 to Community. Make prize winning beers, and unlike Community they do have recognition. Located in Elmwood Village so a short car drive, 10 minutes from the arena, maybe less.

AVOID: Resurgence Brewing, some of the daffiest beer concepts around.

* Places to get good American and international beers on tap, almost all of these owned by the same guy, all serve food.

Colter Bay, Moor Room, Thin Man, Coles, Allen Burger Venture



Upscale restaurants (these are just my recommendations, you may want to avoid Buffalo Italian restaurants as they are, well, local Italian cuisine, but there are some very good ones):

1. Black Sheep, by far the best Buffalo restaurant, if you ask me. Limited hours, make reservations. The chef takes meat seriously. Eastern European ideas.

2. Dobutsu, Asian but it's changing over.

3. Las Puertas, fusion type Mexican food, really good Chef, not typical Mexican

4. Toutant: southern American cuisine, New Orleans, etc.

5. Waxlight Bar a Vin, never know what you'll get, it's a shared concept of rotating chefs from other restaurants trying experimental cooking

6. Hutch's restaurant: straight ahead American fare

More affordable than the above:

1. Roost: American and experimental cuisine

2. Mother's: American

3. Left Bank: American

4. Casa Azul: Mexican



A new place has opened up called Moriarty's Meats, and it has a lot of great reviews in a short time, haven't been. It's a butcher shop, with a cafe bar with limited hours, but apparently, you can't get a better sandwich anywhere in this world.

'and are comfortable with sleaze.'
umm, im comfortable with sleaze.

beefalo is cool. a highly rec'd place to visit. nice folks, too.

 

[August_West]

That's for bicycling along the Erie Canal Trail.

OT a bit, but I wouldn't mind an updating/overview of Rochester akin to what @upstater offered re Buffalo.

All you need to know about rockchacha is nick taho’s garbage plate.

Also one of my favorite cities to play in . Not much to that place and some really depressed areas, but man they like music and partying. Wild crowds.

 

[upstater]

That’s true…. There are some scenic things on 80 in PA but it’s the length that gets you, Ohio and Indiana combined don’t equal that length.

I once drove to Notre Dame and got off the highway in Indiana to find a place to get some gas, and I drove and drove for 45 minutes until I found a place.

 

[upstater]

Bills fans are fat, uneducated, alcoholic losers. And beef on weck is easily the most overrated disgusting sandwich in the entire northeast. If you've never had the pleasure, go make a roast beef sandwich on a hard roll, spritz it with a fine mist of water, then pour 2 cups of kosher salt over the top. Viola!

Sounds like a good alternative but I don't know how to play the viola.

 

[Tenspro2002]

That's for bicycling along the Erie Canal Trail.

OT a bit, but I wouldn't mind an updating/overview of Rochester akin to what @upstater offered re Buffalo.

Heh, I've only lived here 3-4 years and all of that with young kids, so I am the wrong guy to ask about the ROC scene.

 

[superjohn]

OK, here's my advice:

1. Realize, Buffalo has a subway system. If you're staying in downtown or uptown hotels, there's a high probability that you will be within easy walking distance of the subway. This is the ideal way to go to the arena since the last stop is the arena, right at the harbor's edge. The subway rises above ground for the last 6 stops of downtown (about 2 miles) and you can get on for free when it's above ground.

Downtown bars near the arena:

1. Southern Tier Brewery restaurant, has a massive TV, 2 tiered viewing seating, will likely be jampacked. It's connected to Harbourside which is connected to the arena, so if you can get a seat, it's a good sports bar brewery. I would avoid because of the unlikelihood of finding a seat.

2. Union Pub, a classic sports bar, probably the most popular one for those who attend Sabres games or Bisons games (AAA baseball).

3. Pearl Street Brewery is the oldest of the "new" Buffalo breweries, and not quite up to snuff like the others. Place is 20+ years old. But the food is decent, and again, feels like a sports bar.

4. SATO Brewpub, Asian food and beers.

5. There are nearby places like the Draft Room and Cobblestone and Ballyhoo, but I've never been to any of them for drinking. Ballyhoo has reasonably priced food, but you can do better.




Midtown bars & restaurants I'd recommend:

1. Lafayette Brewpub: they get most of their beer from Pearl Street, but it's a much better atmosphere than Pearl Street Brewery.

2. Misuta Chow's: it's a barcade type place that looks like a Japanese fast food open air alley food stall, but indoors.

3. Hatchets & Hops: yes, throwing hatchets.

4. Mohawk Place & Electric Avenue: dive bars. Both are good dive bars.

5. Tappo Restaurant: it's a bar really, lots of people drinking, but they also do dinner. Food is mediocre but good, if that makes any sense. Reasonably priced big portions, the kind of place where spaghetti and meatballs is on the menu, and it is, well, spaghetti and meatballs. But not bad spaghetti and meatballs.

6. Dinosaur BBQ: very good!

AVOID: Deep South Taco. They done messed up the concept of tacos.

AVOID: Chippewa Street and nightclubs, unless you're under 25 years old and are comfortable with sleaze.



Theatre District & Allentown favorite spots (these places are further away from the subway, with only Founding Fathers on the verge of walkable).

1. Founding Fathers: maybe Buffalo's best bar; if you don't know any better, you might be put off by the politics theme, but it's a big hangout.

2. Gabriel's Gate: best buffalo wings in the city, good bar.

3. Old Pink: kind of a punk hipster institution, usually doesn't get rolling until 11 pm. Remember, Buffalo has New York City hours, closing time is 4 am.

4. Hardware: good place for a drink and food, reasonable.

5. Allen Burger Ventures: best burgers in town, restaurant pricing, $17.



Breweries:

1. Big Ditch is right downtown, so for those looking to get some good beer and then hop right onto the subway trolley, this is a good choice. They are the 3rd best brewery in town.

2. Community Beer Works: for my money, they make the best beers and if they were a little bigger, might be better known on the east coast. They are very good. Need a car to get there as they are on the west side very near the Peace Bridge to Canada.

3. Thin Man Brewery: highly recommended, they are a close #2 to Community. Make prize winning beers, and unlike Community they do have recognition. Located in Elmwood Village so a short car drive, 10 minutes from the arena, maybe less.

AVOID: Resurgence Brewing, some of the daffiest beer concepts around.

* Places to get good American and international beers on tap, almost all of these owned by the same guy, all serve food.

Colter Bay, Moor Room, Thin Man, Coles, Allen Burger Venture



Upscale restaurants (these are just my recommendations, you may want to avoid Buffalo Italian restaurants as they are, well, local Italian cuisine, but there are some very good ones):

1. Black Sheep, by far the best Buffalo restaurant, if you ask me. Limited hours, make reservations. The chef takes meat seriously. Eastern European ideas.

2. Dobutsu, Asian but it's changing over.

3. Las Puertas, fusion type Mexican food, really good Chef, not typical Mexican

4. Toutant: southern American cuisine, New Orleans, etc.

5. Waxlight Bar a Vin, never know what you'll get, it's a shared concept of rotating chefs from other restaurants trying experimental cooking

6. Hutch's restaurant: straight ahead American fare

More affordable than the above:

1. Roost: American and experimental cuisine

2. Mother's: American

3. Left Bank: American

4. Casa Azul: Mexican



A new place has opened up called Moriarty's Meats, and it has a lot of great reviews in a short time, haven't been. It's a butcher shop, with a cafe bar with limited hours, but apparently, you can't get a better sandwich anywhere in this world.

I've never been but I've only heard good things about Buffalo from people who actually spend time there. It seems it's the people who know nothing about it who rip on it.

My friends parents, who spent their entire adult lives in San Diego moved to Buffalo after their retirement around 5 years ago. It's certainly not the retirement move you would expect.

 

[August_West]

I once drove to Notre Dame and got off the highway in Indiana to find a place to get some gas, and I drove and drove for 45 minutes until I found a place.

80/90 shouldn’t have that problem . If you were driving N/S I could see it.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

If we really want to dive into this subject I-80 through Iowa and Nebraska is bad enough that you start questioning whether life is actually worth living.

Having done the cross-country drive on a number of occasions both solo and with other people that stretch of I-80 through Nebraska is the absolute worst for me. Profoundly depressing, especially alone. Texas can be boring, and the cops are dicks, but nothing was as soul crushing as that stretch of Nebraska. You really have to push to make it to Colorado when things start to look up.

 

[August_West]

Having done the cross-country drive on a number of occasions both solo and with other people that stretch of I-80 through Nebraska is the absolute worst for me. Profoundly depressing, especially alone. Texas can be boring, and the cops are dicks, but nothing was as soul crushing as that stretch of Nebraska. You really have to push to make it to Colorado when things start to look up.

Summer of 95 I did it during the heatwave of the century in mid July and the air conditioning quit in Illinois. I really just wanted to tap out. And it’s saying something that the other occasions were only marginally more tolerable.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Summer of 95 I did it during the heatwave of the century in mid July and the air conditioning quit in Illinois. I really just wanted to tap out. And it’s saying something that the other occasions were only marginally more tolerable.

It's crazy to think back to doing that drive solo in a broken down Saab with 130k on the odometer, no cell phone, and nothing but a log of dip and a pile of books on tape for company. I can remember checking in to some terrible motel in North Platte and hoping someone would break in the room and blow my brains out.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

i-80 in penn, worst run in the land? hardly.
try 1-5, dallas to galveston, aboot the same 300 mile distance, but in another league of 'don't do this.' literally, as it is one of the drives in the country where ur chance of being dedded is off the charts. and boring.
time to hit the beach while living in big d? nightmare.
time to get off the beach cuz a cane is coming while living in galveston?
good luck!
actually, as much as i luv Texas, driving anywhere distant there is nutz.
i mean, they describe driving distance in six-packs.
take the plane instead, and ur butt and nerves will thank you.

 

[elmcityboy]

Agreed, I like Buffalo itself; I just hate the drive.

Driving to Albany and taking the train is not bad, but I am a big fan of train travel. When I was in law school I would get a ton of work done on the train there and back.

just want to shout out this post! i was thinking of going to the game(s), but was dreading making the drive solo -- just bought a train ticket for $50 and i am incredibly excited.

i love buffalo! i love train travel! i love the huskies!!! can't wait.

 

[upstater]

I've never been but I've only heard good things about Buffalo from people who actually spend time there. It seems it's the people who know nothing about it who rip on it.

My friends parents, who spent their entire adult lives in San Diego moved to Buffalo after their retirement around 5 years ago. It's certainly not the retirement move you would expect.

I mean, I don't like the cold, and it is not a city really, more a town, but I like it. Few times I've been in San Diego I've loved it, can't understand why my friends who work in La Jolla commute from southern parts of LA (i.e. Palos Verdes, OC).

 

[upstater]

Talk about driving, I'd much rather drive these flat stretches than do what I did this past summer for a month. Drive 20 miles each day from Bucks County to downtown Philly. 1:20 minutes each way.

 

[Kolumbo]

 

[HuskyHawk]

Yep. Driving across Pennsylvania on I-80 is my least-favorite drive in the country.

I-80 in Wyoming is even worse, except fewer speed traps. The speed traps are what make PA so bad for me. When I crossed Wyoming we rarely dipped under 100. I-70 between Topeka and Denver is pretty awful. Eastern Colorado is ugly as sin.

 

[August_West]

It's crazy to think back to doing that drive solo in a broken down Saab with 130k on the odometer, no cell phone, and nothing but a log of dip and a pile of books on tape for company. I can remember checking in to some terrible motel in North Platte and hoping someone would break in the room and blow my brains out.

See. You get me. Are you on tinder?

 

[elmcityboy]

new mexico state fans lamenting on their board that airfare to buffalo is $600+

good!! stay home!!

 

[8893]

just want to shout out this post! i was thinking of going to the game(s), but was dreading making the drive solo -- just bought a train ticket for $50 and i am incredibly excited.

i love buffalo! i love train travel! i love the huskies!!! can't wait.

Awesome. I'm glad it helped someone. I'm jealous. There are a lot worse things than having five hours to chill, read, listen to music, stream video and/or work with no one bugging you.

 

[August_West]

new mexico state fans lamenting on their board that airfare to buffalo is $600+

good!! stay home!!

its 468 from providence. Get a job!

 

[HCCForever]

I've never been to another stadium where I see people peeing in the concourse. Maybe 1980s Foxboro?!?!

I was at the Patriots playoff game against Jacksonville in 2008. Maybe not the concourse but some guy was peeing in the corner in the bathroom instead of waiting for the urinal.

 

[8893]

its 468 from providence. Get a job!

If that's round trip that's not bad. Bummer that it's not direct though; takes about the same time as the train at the end of the day, and costs a lot more.

 

[methodology]

Yep. Driving across Pennsylvania on I-80 is my least-favorite drive in the country.

that's the other one. Just did a CT to Michigan at the beginning of Covid because flying was banned by company at that early time. It exceeds the tedium of the NYS Thruway. But I'm just talking bad stuff on the East coast here. If we really want to dive into this subject I-80 through Iowa and Nebraska is bad enough that you start questioning whether life is actually worth living.

Done both drives numerous times. This past summer was working in Lackawanna(right outside Buffalo) then from there to Peoria, IL then to Harwich Port on the cape back to Peoria from there to St. Louis to Austin,tx to destin, fl and back to CT

81 is western Virginia is also a dreadful drive

 

[August_West]

I was at the Patriots playoff game against Jacksonville in 2008. Maybe not the concourse but some guy was peeing in the corner in the bathroom instead of waiting for the urinal.

Thats how you know its going to be a good crowd.

 

[August_West]

If that's round trip that's not bad. Bummer that it's not direct though; takes about the same time as the train at the end of the day, and costs a lot more.

round trip. one way under 100