Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
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Beef on Weck Buffalo Chicken Wings Fish Fry Hot Dogs

As hinted at in the last season of the Travel Channel's No Reservations and confirmed in a subsequent blog posting by the show's host and star, semi-reluctant celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain is finally visiting Buffalo. Bourdain signaled that he'd be coming here when his film crew could capture some of the city's snow, and that his tour guide to the area would be Nelson Starr, a local musician who had submitted a contest entry to entice him to the area. Now he's in town, and so far, it looks like Starr's suggested itinerary is being followed.

According to WNYMedia.net and Buffalo Rising, Bourdain has thus far visited Ulrich's, a restaurant Starr selected for its Beef on Weck and fish fry, and Nietzsche’s, a club where Starr performs. Other likely candidates are the Anchor Bar for chicken wings - we'd hoped Tony would do better - and Ted's, which we think could have a good chance of winning over the chef with char-broiled Sahlen's hot dogs.

After reading that Buffalo would be sharing a spotlight with two other cities - Detroit and Baltimore - and that No Reservations would be filming our city in the style of Vincent Gallo's Buffalo 66, we penned a somewhat concerned letter to Bourdain and No Reservations' production company in early December. In it, we encouraged them to portray the city in a positive light, and visit Duff's, Charlie the Butcher's, Bocce, and Wegmans. Hopefully, these deserving places will get their time in the spotlight, too; they've done a lot to make this area a noteworthy place for resident foodies, and those who are only passing through. So while we all wait to see how Buffalo is portrayed on the show, check out Bourdain's books - including the excellent Kitchen Confidential, shown in the right-hand column - and of course the No Reservations show, which is frequently very entertaining and almost always educational.