11 Buffalo Foods and Drinks Western New Yorkers Can’t Find Anywhere Else

Western New Yorkers who move away tend to learn one thing fast: you can’t get a proper Buffalo meal just anywhere.

Some of the city’s favorites rarely show up on menus outside the area.

Here are the Buffalo foods and drinks that are hard to find anywhere else.

1. Beef on Weck

Beef on weck, a Buffalo favorite, is roast beef with horseradish on a kümmelweck roll, according to the William G. Pomeroy Foundation’s historical marker in West Seneca.

The sandwich is popular throughout Western New York and was believed first served in the late 1800s.

The 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo introduced the sandwich to many visitors.

Visit Buffalo describes the beef as sliced from a top round and the roll as a kaiser covered in coarse salt and caraway seeds.

You’ll see the coarse salt and caraway seeds on the crust before you take a bite.

If you order one at Schwabl’s, you’re eating where the marker stands.

2. Sponge Candy

Sponge candy is caramelized sugar spun into a light, airy honeycomb and covered in melted chocolate, Visit Buffalo says.

Founded in 1901, Fowler’s Chocolates claims to be Buffalo’s original sponge candy creator, Atlas Obscura reports.

You may have heard it called sea foam candy, cinder candy, honeycomb or hokey-pokey.

It doesn’t travel well because it begins to melt in humid climates, though some vendors will ship it in a cooler.

If you’re shipping a box in a warm month, that cooler is the detail that matters.

Seven shops are listed, including Parkside Candy, a candy shop and ice cream parlor dating to 1927, and Park Edge Sweet Shoppe, in business since 1948.

At Parkside, the pieces stand approximately three quarters of an inch high instead of the customary one inch.

3. Loganberry

Buffalo’s loganberry drink takes its name from the loganberry, which PJ’s Crystal Beach Loganberry describes as a cross between blackberries and raspberries.

Buffalo Rising reported in 2005 that the drink was developed in the late 1800s at Crystal Beach, a summertime resort in Southern Ontario.

Aunt Rosie’s, distributed by a local Pepsi bottler, was the most popular version, commonly enjoyed in Western New York.

You could buy the drink in syrup form in local supermarkets to make at home.

PJ’s says the drink was first poured at Crystal Beach Amusement Park and became a summer tradition for families from Buffalo.

The family began bottling it in 1998 after customers didn’t want to wait for summer.

4. Buffalo-Style Pizza

Buffalo-style pizza centers on cup-and-char pepperoni, which Visit Buffalo’s pizza guide treats as the baseline.

If you order one, expect a thick, airy undercarriage, a sweet sauce and enough cheese to guarantee a stringy pull.

Santora’s Pizzeria, founded in 1927, is Buffalo’s oldest pizzeria.

Bocce Club Pizza began in 1946 as a bocce club downtown.

The guide says pies from bartender Dino Pacciotti’s basement oven got so popular that parishioners of a nearby church began skipping mass for pizza.

5. Chicken Finger Subs

The chicken finger sub is breaded chicken tenders shaken in hot sauce, with bleu cheese on the side, on a sandwich roll, Visit Buffalo says.

All signs point to Buffalo as the creator of the sandwich.

A 2022 profile in Western New York Papers says John’s Pizza & Subs in Tonawanda bought its original restaurant in 1982 and that the chicken finger sub started there.

Jim’s Steakout also claims it created the sub around the same time.

The credit is disputed.

If you order one at John’s, you’re ordering from a shop that claims the original.

6. Tom and Jerry

Buffalo’s Tom and Jerry is a spiced egg meringue batter with brandy and rum, topped with hot water and nutmeg.

The drink originated in London in the 1800s, WKBW, a Buffalo TV station, reports, and has grown into a celebrated Buffalo tradition.

Taverns like The Place and Schwabl’s are said to have started serving it in the 1940s.

The Place on Lexington Avenue has served it for more than 80 years.

As of December 2025, Visit Buffalo’s Tom and Jerry Trail includes more than 15 local taverns.

Schwabl’s serves it through St. Patrick’s Day, and McPartlan’s Corner serves it from Thanksgiving to Lent.

If you’re at Schwabl’s for beef on weck, WKBW says a Tom and Jerry pairs well with it.

7. Sahlen's Hot Dogs

The Buffalo Bills announced in 2015 that Sahlen's hot dogs were once again the team's official hot dog.

Sahlen's smokehouse hot dogs are famous for their carved-off-the-bone flavor.

The company behind them, Sahlen Packing Company, says it was founded in 1869 by Joseph Sahlen and calls itself a five-generation, family-owned business.

Its main products in the early 1900s were ham, ribs, loins, sausages, hot dogs and bologna.

You can pick between natural casing and tender casing, since Sahlen's lists a hot dog in each style.

8. Weber's Horseradish Mustard

Weber's Horseradish Mustard is what the Desmond family calls its "baby product," and WIVB, a Buffalo TV station, reported that it makes up 80 percent of the company's business.

The business behind it, Heintz & Weber Co., says it was founded in 1922 by Joseph C. Weber and John Heintz.

Weber bought Heintz out in 1926, and it has been family-owned and operated ever since.

Its history page also says Weber's is still the #1 selling mustard in Western New York.

If you pick up a jar of the horseradish mustard, you're buying the product behind 80 percent of the company's business.

9. Chiavetta's Chicken

Chiavetta's, a Buffalo-area barbecue company, produces a half a million bottles of its flagship flavor every year, the company says.

Its roots go back to 1954 and to Thomas and Eleanor Chiavetta, poultry farmers in Brant, New York.

By 1957, its barbecue was the centerpiece at weddings and banquet halls.

In 1988, the Chiavetta brothers, Peter and Paul, teamed up with a local business partner, Phil Pericak, and took control of the family business.

The company lists year-round pop-up BBQs and fundraising events, so you don't have to wait for summer to find the chicken.

10. Perry's Ice Cream

Perry's Ice Cream, a Buffalo-area brand, says it began in Akron, New York, in 1918 when H. Morton Perry bought a milk route there.

WIVB, a Buffalo TV station, reported that the business has grown from 29 gallons of milk to 11 million gallons of ice cream a year.

You now have more than 75 flavors to choose from.

Perry's calls itself a fourth-generation family business and says nearly all its milk comes from farms in the surrounding Akron communities.

11. Peanut Sticks

The peanut stick is a cake dough donut that's fried, dunked in glaze and tossed in crushed peanuts, Buffalo.com reports.

Visit Buffalo calls it a Buffalo specialty popularized by longtime and long-gone Freddie's Doughnuts.

Paula's Donuts started with one store at Kenmore and Englewood Avenues in 1996 and had three locations as of a 2020 update.