What’s new at Taste of Buffalo

At his booth, Williams will serve his version of a Buffalo classic — a Weck beef egg roll with horseradish cream — and something unusual (fried carbonara balls).

“We wanted to show that we can do better things and still have fun,” Williams said.

It’s a sentiment that permeates this two-day food festival. Local restaurants offer bites of their most popular dishes as well as head-turning dishes, in hopes that attendees will spend some of their ticket (and stomach space) at their booths.

The 41st annual Taste of Buffalo will return from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. July 13 and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. July 14 along Delaware Avenue from Chippewa Street to Niagara Square.

Thirty-three veteran restaurants will return for this year’s festival. Ten new restaurants have joined the lineup: Allen Street Hardware, Carrubba’s Chicken Pit, DA Taste, Lime House Sushi & Ramen, Moneybags Dumplings, Not Just Cakes, Pierogi Pete’s, Resurgence Brewing Company, Sto Lat Bar and Barrell Factory.

Among the many options presented by the festival’s new restaurants, highlights include a shrimp burrito sprinkled with Cheetos (Lime House), chilled cucumber-dill soup (Allen Street Hardware) and smoked pork belly mac and cheese (DA Taste).

Beginners aren’t the only ones in for something new. Organizers also encouraged veterans’ inventiveness.

The Taste of Buffalo created a new award this year, following feedback from some attendees who felt the festival’s selections were starting to get a little “repetitive.”

“They wanted something new and fresh,” said Tom Mahoney, president of Taste of Buffalo, at a news conference at Tops on Niagara Street. “But the veterans say, ‘This sells.'”

The solution was to come up with a prize for the new favorite dish from an already open restaurant, which the participants, not the judges, would vote for. Participants can scan a QR code, displayed at each vendor’s booth, and vote online.

Twenty-four of the 34 returning restaurants have added a new menu item to compete for the award. New dishes include a collard greens and catfish taco from Dirty Bird Chicken N’ Waffles, a blueberry and honey pulled pork parfait from Kith & Kin Bakeshop & Bistro and a Buffalo peanut butter and jelly sundae topped with Cheerio from Sweet Melody’s.

“We’re supposed to get a taste of Buffalo,” Mahoney said. “We don’t want this to happen again.”

Also new this year: renowned chefs, including several James Beard Award nominees, will be roaming Rockstar Kitchen pop-up booths throughout the festival, selling their dishes in two-hour increments.

“We’ve created a place where very talented chefs can come and showcase their talent,” Mahoney said. “They don’t have to be there all weekend. They don’t have the capacity to do it, but for the Buffalo audience, it’s another aspect of enjoying incredible food.”

Expect to find James Beard-nominated Chef Ryan Fernandez serving coconut-spiced pork belly burnt ends, Bratts Hill Executive Chef Chris Sinclair McCalla with cassava fries drizzled with truffle oil and East Aurora bakery, Dopest Dough, offers tasty Japanese Yakiniku donuts. Chef Mike Andrzejewski, of the former Buffalo Seabar restaurant, will be coming from Florida to resurrect Seabar’s popular beef on weck rolls.

Each of the 15 featured chefs will serve their dishes in small “tasting” portions purchased with tickets, just like other vendors, for two hours at one of three booths set up throughout the festival.

To set your game plan for the Taste of Buffalo (always a good idea), read the festival guide online at Tasteofbuffalo.com. There you will find a complete list of each vendor and their offerings as well as a map of where each booth will be set up.

“Bring your appetite,” Mahoney said.