Making The Case For: Loganberry Bash
Western New York is rightfully proud of its contributions to the culinary world. When our local favourites turn into world-renowned cuisine, we deserve to celebrate that.
In 1985, the first BurgerFest was held in Hamburg to celebrate a century of burgers. Hamburgers – which owe their name to the town in which they were created – are widely believed to have originated at the Erie County Fairgrounds when the sausage stand run by Frank and Charles Menches ran out of pork, so they sold ground beef patties instead.
Although locals know to just call them “wings” (or at most, “chicken wings”), 2002 saw the inaugural National Buffalo Wing Festival come to the city to celebrate its most iconic dish. Inspired by Bill Murray’s insatiable character in the film Osmosis Jones, Drew “Wing King” Cerza acted fast to make the then-mythological event a now-spectacular reality.
Of course, we have other foods that are uniquely ours and widely appreciated (at least regionally, although the presence of Ted’s in Arizona and Southern Tier beers in more than 30 states would certainly push those boundaries). The list is the same as always, and while we’re all certainly familiar with it, let’s just rehash it again for the sake of the argument:
- Beef on weck
- Sponge candy
- Sahlen’s hot dogs
- Buffalo style pizza (with the cup-and-char peps)
- Weber’s mustard
- Chicken finger subs (although the fingers themselves
originated in New Hampshire)
- And stinger subs (we all know where the cheesesteak part
comes from)
- Stuffed banana peppers
And that doesn’t include items that originated elsewhere but have achieved elevated status here, like French onion dip (shoutout Bison), Tom & Jerrys, butter lambs, fish fry, or Labatt.
And this also doesn’t even get into the beloved favourite establishments like Lloyd, Mighty Taco, Bar-Bill, Antoinette’s, Chiavetta’s, Big Ditch, Anderson’s, Paula’s, Chef’s, Nick Charlap’s, Duff’s, King Condrell’s, Bocce, Lake Effect Ice Cream, Elmo’s, Charlie the Butcher, Salvatore’s, Resurgence, and … well I’m sure you get the picture.
Nor does it account for all the cultural food fests that dot the calendar every year, like the Polish Festival, Italian Heritage Fest, Greekfest, and the biggest kahuna of all, Taste of Buffalo.
However, arguably the most vaunted signature items our region boasts is loganberry. The sweet drink is the result of an accidental berry crossbreed by a Californian in the late 19th century, but became a staple thanks to the old Crystal Beach amusement park across the border.
Over many decades and generations, loganberry has proven to be both timeless and limitless. Many local restaurants carry Aunt Rosie’s or PJ’s Crystal Beach or Johnnie Ryan branded loganberries in their coolers or on their soda guns, and asking for one to accompany your beef on weck is (in my mind) compulsory, not optional.
Now, loganberry is not merely a hometown favourite drink. Rather, it’s a hometown favourite flavour. It’s in suckers, beers, wing sauces, milkshakes, wine, burgers, sponge candy, ciders, seltzers, lemonade, coffee, ice cream, barbecue sauces, and bubble tea. It’s durability and potential for use in recipes is expansive, which is why it is time to give loganberry its long overdue celebration day.
It’s time for Loganberry Bash.
Few Buffalo food items have loganberry’s potential for such a large-scale event. And while we love to brag about how tasty it is, we should take it a step further by creating an entire food festival around it.
Not only would doing so become one more must-attend day on the cuisine calendar, but the elevated stage on which loganberry would then be placed should also engender even more new creations that feature its flavour (loganberry cupcakes, anyone?). And personally, I hope it revives sparkling loganberry, which while easy enough to make at home, is much harder to share with the wider world so that more people can enjoy it.
So to round things out and wrap this up, consider this long-winded writeup my formal invitation to the people of Western New York to join me on this adventure. You can send your comments and business inquiries to dogflutie7@gmail.com.
Apologies for the AI image. While I know the ethics of it are questionable, I wanted to create as realistic an image as possible to pitch this idea.
