Charlie the Butcher’s Kitchen

One of Buffalo, NY’s most famous foods – though a distant second to Buffalo Wings – is called beef on weck, abbreviating the combination of sliced roast beef on a German kümmelweck roll. While one can easily find and prepare roast beef at home, the rolls are a little less common; pillowy white buns need to be lightly moistened, then covered in large, coarse salt grains and caraway seeds. Some people finish the sandwich with horseradish and/or jus runoff from roasting the beef; others go without. (Trivia: International wing chain Buffalo Wild Wings was originally called “BW3,” Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck, before dropping weck – a decision that radically reduced the sandwich’s subsequent public exposure as BWW restaurants spread to over 1,000 locations across the world.)

While countless Buffalo-area restaurants still sell beef on weck sandwiches, only one business – Charlie the Butcher’s Kitchen – turns it into a steak sandwich, one day per week (Saturday), at certain locations. The Herb Roasted Prime Rib elevates the roast beef into a 7-ounce slab of slow roasted prime rib, specially encrusted with rosemary, pepper, and salt, served moist as can be with jus. It’s salty, typically fatty unless you request the fat be trimmed off, and substantial, though quite likely to generate immediate demand for another.