The 'Sauer Krause' Burger - Essex St. Pub and the Custom Burger Challenge

Two weeks ago, Bob and I went to Essex St. Pub for some late night beers and eats following the Mexican International Dinner, as per our tradition. Jillian, Macky's badass and bodacious waitress, told us about the custom burger challenge and pointed out the board which had four burgers listed.


We ended up choosing the 'Holy Moe' which includes peperjack cheese, jalapenos, mushrooms and macaroni & cheese on a smoked burger. It was pretty tasty.

It got us thinking about all the times we came up with really great burger combos at home and how we could totally create a burger that would leave these four in the dust.

And lo, the 'Sauer Krause' was created!

The marble rye bread, which is like eating a pillow (Oh, it's so soft!) is toasted on the inside. Yes! The inside!

Then a nice layer of not too little and not too much sauerkraut is added. A smoked burger is sliced in half and then drizzled with roasted garlic and cilantro dressing. Served with kettle chips and a crisp pickle, this slim burger eats like a sandwich with a punch of flavor in every nibble.



Like a mouthgasam in every bite. I kid you not, this burger is fan-fuckin-tastic!

Notice the perfection in the close up on the right? I know, right?! Amazing!

You should also know that the best beer pairing for this is an amber. Nothing dark like a porter or a stout, and no pale ales either. We had ours with the ever perfect, Flying Bison, Rusty Chain.

Next time you get a hankering for delicious meat, stop by the Essex and say, "Eins 'Sauer Krause", bitte?"

Otto's Restaurant

Otto's Restaurant is located in Cheektowaga, NY, not far from the Walden Galleria Mall. This decades old restaurant shows it's age, and some reviews have not been kind, but I find that long lasting eateries are still in business because they are doing something right. The decor is dated and the service is a bit pokey but it seemed endearing rather than obnoxious.  Whether it's the traditional Italian dishes or family traditions that keep patrons returning I'm not certain, but our visit was rather pleasant.

We ate at 3pm on a Saturday, and there were only a handful of tables in the whole of this sprawling building that were occupied and quite a large number of servers. We were seated immediately on the patio, and our waiter was quick, efficient, and polite.

We ordered beers and golden fried mushrooms, a guilty pleasure of mine. I was expecting the boxed variety of factory dipped button mushrooms but was surprised by the fresh large caps served with Ranch flavored sour cream. They were super hot and very flavorful.

The bar isn't anything to rave about, not much to choose from, but the large product glasses were a nice touch, rather than the expected small beer glasses you might see at an older restaurant.

Bob ordered the Seafood Platter, which featured a large filet of freshly battered cod, fried strip clams, and crisp shrimp. He remarked the clams casino and the German potatoes were tasty. It certainly smelled fresh and tasty.

I ordered the grilled chicken sandwich, which was very juicy. The fries were a bit bland but were served hot and crisp.

It was a nice visit. Family friendly and clean, I wouldn't mind going again with my children in tow.

Essex St. Pub - Bringing the Kitchen back to Life

The kitchen currently offers 14 traditional pub styled dishes. We tried five of the options, washing everything down with pints of local Rusty Chain and Irish Guinness.

We tried the grilled three cheese with tomato, made with cheddar, pepper jack, and Land o' Lakes American on Texas toast.

Mackies Grand Champion JD Chili is slow simmered and served with pepper jack cheese.   A mild, well flavored,  hearty red bean, beef, and tomato based chili, it was served with butter and toast.

The Evil Rufus key bomb is a sliced hot Mineo & Sapio Italian sausage link with peppers and onions in a spicy marinara with melted mozzarella cheese  and tucked in a warm Lugi hoagie roll. This was outstanding, a flash of flavor, scent, and color.       

The smoked bourbon surfer barbeque chicken wings were rubbed then smoked then dry fried and then coated with house made bourbon surfer barbeque sauce. The meat was falling off the bone, with the right blend of wet and sticky and not too much sauce. They were very, very good!

The wings came with a small salad with a bit of basil lemon oil. It was refreshing, like a palate cleanser.

Lastly, a P.L.T. This is a grilled pastrami, lettuce, tomato, with chipotle mayo on an XL Lugi's sliced and toasted sandwich. The pastrami is made in house. Seasoned and smoked, it's rich flavor makes the most moist and delicious sandwich I've had in a long time.

We came in just as the kitchen was starting up, catching Bob and Mitch off guard with our extra large order. When they asked how many in the party and heard only two, Bob peeked out the half door with his brows peaked in surprise. Barbara handled the bar and served baskets of hot food and cold beer with a sassy smile and quick wit. Mitch was prepping the juicy roast beef while we were there. Bob, the pub's head chef, was originally a soux chef from Mothers and jumped at the opportunity to run this new kitchen. He was prepping the dishes and smoking the chicken wings.

Bob had chili bubbling, burgers smoking, and pastrami grilling when I came in the kitchen to visit and catch them in action. The in house smoker uses hickory chips, no artificial liquid flavor here! All of the produce is locally sourced, as are the breads, which come from Luigi's Bakery.

When I spoke with owner Macky, he talked about how much work went into bringing the pub, from basement to attic, back to life.

With a great deal of pride shining on his face, he shared his vision of creating an indoor garden on the third floor to grow herbs and lettuces and more to be added to the dishes and how each step and the amazing feedback from the community has just reinforced how right it was in deciding to bring back the kitchen. 

I love this pub. It's close to home, serves a good drink at a fair price, and now with the kitchen up and running, a fine plate of food at an equally fair price. It has me looking for an excuse to visit more frequently. 

Jerk Ribs and Jamaican Coat of Arms

At the last IN event, Chef Krista won the evening's competition with her Jamaican Hot Sauce. She gave me a bottle of her new Jamaican Hot Sauce. She warned me that this was an error bottle, twice the chillies had been added when it was made. New bottles were being produced but she handed a few of these out. I love hot sauce and figured a batch of coat of arms would be perfect to try this "error" sauce on.

I totally underestimated how hot this hot sauce would get!

My eyes, nose, and upper lip were on fire. It so delicious!



I used some of her jerk sauce to marinate a rack of organic ribs and grilled them. They were served up with lightly steamed broccoli and a pile of coats of arms and a tall glass of Flying Bison's Buffalo Lager.

2 (16 ounce) cans coconut milk
2 cups white rice
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
32 ounces canned black-eyed peas
1/4 teaspoon allspice

In a medium saucepan, combine the black eyed peas with the allspice and simmer on low heat. In another medium saucepan, combine the coconut milk, rice, onion and garlic. Bring to a boil over high heat and stir. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 30 minutes, or until all of the liquid has absorbed. When the rice is done, remove the black-eyed peas from the heat. Rinse and drain them very well and mix in with the rice. Serve hot.

Community Beer Works

Ethan, Dan, David and Greg are pictured here (Rudy must have been off on an adventure that morning), proudly showing off their Community Beer Works gear and growlers at the Elmwood-Bidwell Farmers Market.

Long time home brewers, Ethan, Dan and Rudy and the rest of the team of brewers were inspired by the growing popularity of professional nano breweries sprouting all over the US, like San Diego's Hess, to start one up here in Buffalo.

Currently, C.B.W creates two brews. Frank and the Whale. Pictured to the left in a glass and growler is Frank, an American Pale Ale with 4.6% abv.

"We start with a mellow malt base to showcase the hops against a lightly grainy sweetness. Zeus, Centennial and Zythos hops are used in the boil and again in dry hopping to maximize hop aroma and flavor. The result is a superbly drinkable Pale Ale loaded with zest, pine, and a touch of citrus."

A pretty good description though I would add that it was akin to chewing on a really good grilled steak, every bite making you want another one...and another...and another...
EMPTY GROWLER?! How did that happen?

A malted beer's primary ingredient is malted barley grain, which has been allowed to sprout slightly before it is processed. Fermented barley sugars flavored with hops are what creates ales and lagers. These two pallets show the variety of malts that the guys at C.B.W. use to produce their zippy Frank and robust the Whale.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain. Used as animal feed, fermented for beer brewing, it can also be found in traditional European soups, stews, and breads. The rice sized grains are large and sweet smelling and dense.

As part of their drive to be an integral part of Buffalo's Westside community, they donate their "spent grain to the Massachusetts Avenue Project, disposing of it in an ecologically friendly, mutually beneficial manner, and are planning similar partnerships with other community organizations in the city."

On their website, they explain, "We’re a 1.5 bbl brewery: that’s one and a half barrels, or about 47 US gallons, per batch. We brew on a three burner Psychobrew system using Stout kettles and fermenters.

Generally we do a double batch every brewday, filling up two of our conical fermenters. We have six of them, which is the limiting factor for our capacity: we could brew night and day, but you have to have somewhere to put it.

We have two 3 bbl brite tanks on order, which will increase our capacity by 2/3: after a double batch is done fermenting we can put it in one of our brite tanks for clarification and carbonation while we brew another batch. (They came in recently and are pictured below and to the right.)

Our clarification methods start and end with crash cooling the beer to drop the yeast out of suspension. We do not filter or use clarifying agents on our beer, which leaves in more nutrients and keeps it vegetarian." The addition of irish moss to the boil and whirlpooling allows for the partial removal of cold break before the wort is transfered to the fermenter, both which clarifies the beer. The yeast is racked to clarify the beer further.

These two fermenters sit in a cold room doing a great deal of their work in the dark. Besides these there are six 1.5 bbl stainless conical fermenters, which are all primary fermenters, though they have been doing single tank fermentation so far.


This helps brewers to get the most out of their beer at this stage, maturing the beer to create a beautiful full flavored brew. The tubes shown here help some of the CO2 blow off to relieve the pressure.

These SMT brite tanks with GW Kent valves mean that six more barrels of beer can be put into production. These tanks will clarify, condition, and carbonate the beer once they are all hooked up and ready to go. They are double insulated and glycol lined, meaning they will be able to cool the beer quicker and more efficiently.

The tanks stand as sentinels against the south wall waiting to be installed. Increasing production will allow for more delicious beer to be distributed throughout the area's bars, pubs and restaurants which really boils down to more opportunities to get tipsy on some outstanding Buffalo suds.

In regards to what exactly separates a nano from a micro brewery, no solid definition exists. Though how small a brewery has to be to qualify as nano has grown popular enough to attract federal regulator's attention. Leading the Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau a few years back to issue a friendly but firm reminder to homebrewers looking to go pro that their efforts would lose tax exempt status after 100 gallons of production per year. Unofficial designations suggest systems of one-half to two barrels in size qualify as nano. So Community Beer Works currently falls neatly under this definition of nano with room to grow into a micro.

What is unique about C.B.W. is their commitment to quality and consistency, which can sometimes be a difficult thing to achieve when small batching. They also have retained their fanboy impishness without loosing sight of the beer and their fans, and it's that charming combination that keeps beer lovers like me coming back for more.

Surf & Turf Date Night

 I am addicted to this blend of Simply Organic's Grind to a Salt. Sea salt, organic mustard, organic celery seed, organic garlic, organic onion, organic chili peppers, organic black pepper. This is tasty on rice, quinoa and popcorn. Especially popcorn!

I had picked up these two organic petite tenderloin tips and organic shrimp from Wegmans just for a night like this. An unexpected kid free evening gave me just the impetus for a surf & turf dinner.

The foil tray was seasoned with two pats of butter, a bit of olive oil, lemon juice and a bit of Grind to a Salt. A drizzle of oil and seasoning on top of the sliced tips and shrimp and then broiled until just golden.

This salad mix is scrumptious with sweet peppers, kumatos, a bit of balsamic vinaigrette and pistachios.

Asiago cheese bread from Lexington Co-op.

 Served with Rainbow Quinoa...

...and Magic Hat's Elder Betty.

Irish Supper - Colcannon, Glazed Baked Brisket, and Ginger Carrots

"Did you ever eat Colcannon, made from lovely pickled cream?

With the greens and scallions mingled like a picture in a dream.

Did you ever make a hole on top to hold the melting flake

Of the creamy, flavoured butter that your mother used to make?"

"Yes you did, so you did, so did he and so did I. 

And the more I think about it sure the nearer I'm to cry.

Oh, wasn't it the happy days when troubles we had not,

And our mothers made Colcannon in the little skillet pot."

Colcannon -

4 russet potatoes (2 to 2 1/2 pounds), peeled and cut
Salt
5-6 Tbsp unsalted butter (with more butter for serving)
3 lightly packed cups of chopped kale, cabbage, chard, or other leafy green (I made it with purple cabbage for it's stunning color, go with white when making a traditional Colcannon.)
3 green onions (including the green onion greens), minced (about 1/2 cup)
1 cup milk or cream

Put the potatoes in a medium pot and cover with cold water by at least an inch. Add 2 tablespoons of salt, and bring to a boil. Boil until the potatoes are fork tender (15 to 20 minutes). Drain in a colander.

Return the pot to the stove and set over medium-high heat. Melt the butter in the pot and once it's hot, add the greens. Cook the greens for 3-4 minutes, or until they are wilted and have given off some of their water. Add the green onions and cook 1 minute more.

Pour in the milk or cream, mix well, and add the potatoes. Reduce the heat to medium. Use a fork or potato masher and mash the potatoes, mixing them up with the greens. Add salt to taste and serve hot, with a knob of butter in the center.

Ginger carrots are thinly sliced and seasoned with slivered ginger, molasses, and pale brown sugar then baked in a tightly lidded dish at 350 degrees for one hour.

The glazed baked brisket recipe originally came from the Lexington Co-op, but I tweaked the recipe to lessen the sweetness. I marinated the beef for three hours in the glaze and then baked it in a tightly lidded container for 2 1/2 hours at 350 degrees.

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup prepared mustard
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder









We had this with a loaf of hot cheese bread, a large salad and McSorley's Irish Black Lager.

Sláinte mhaith!