Also called Beef On Wick, an alternative spelling usually used by older people from Buffalo and eastern suburbanites. This sandwich is a unique staple of Buffalo, New York’s bars and taverns. Few, if any, restaurants outside of the Buffalo area serve this sandwich or even know what it is.

It is a roast beef sandwich on a salty kummelweck roll. In fact, it is this roll that makes the sandwich unique. Made only in the Buffalo-Rochester area, the kummelweck—often alternatively spelled kimmelweck—is basically a Kaiser roll topped with lots of pretzel salt and caraway seeds. Kummelweck is simply shortened to “weck.” The sandwich is usually served with sinus-clearing horseradish (you can tell a native Buffalonian by the amount of horseradish he or she used), a couple of huge kosher dill pickle slices on the side, and extra beef juice served straight from the roast. Wash it all down with a cold, locally brewed ale.

Although the exact history of the sandwich can’t be documented, it is believed that William Wahr, a German baker, brought the kummelweck to Buffalo from the Black Forest. In this area of Germany, bread rolls are called "weck." German immigrants had already made the city a center of brewing.

Check out Linda's favorite Beef On Weck Sandwich Recipe.

Comments from readers:

Here in the Erie PA area there are a few local delicacies found only here. The local version of Beef on Wick is called Ox Roast. It is virtually the same except that the roll is plain (sometimes only thich slices of home made bread) but the cooked in an overnight outdoor roaster made of corrugated steel. The story on the Ox Roast is that it was brought by the railroad workers. Erie was the hub of east-west, north-south railroads back in the day. The story is the guys building the railroads used this method to feed the workers. During my boyhood all town fairs, carnivals etc. included the firemen sponsoring an "OX Roast". - Jim (12/15/05)