Missing Upstate New York? Here are the places you can get a taste of home in Charlotte
New York transplants — especially those from Upstate New York — have cheered this week’s news about Rochester, NY-based Wegmans Food Markets plans to open a Ballantyne location. And there’s a lot of them out there looking for familiar shops, restaurants and other tastes of home.
Only South Carolina and Florida sent more people to Mecklenburg County than New York, from 2016 through 2020, the most recent years of available data. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which asked people in the five-year survey where they lived the previous year, some 4,600 said New York. Some 600 people came from Long Island’s Suffolk County alone, data show. About 420 moved from Monroe County, N.Y., home of Wegmans.
A few years back, CharlotteFive writer Jessica Swannie — who grew up in Buffalo, NY — shared some of her favorite spots to find upstate and Western New York foods such as Buffalo wings, sheet pizza and Beef on Weck.
Now, we’re taking a fresh look to see where Wegemans fans and other Upstate New Yorkers can find the flavors they’ve been craving here in Charlotte:
Abbott’s Frozen Custard
Location: 10070 Edison Square Drive NW, Concord, North Carolina 28027
Location: 1157 Stonecrest Blvd., Suite 101, Tega Cay, South Carolina 29708
Abbott’s Frozen Custard was founded in Rochester, NY, with a stand along Lake Ontario’s Charlotte Beach, and now it’s found its way to our city of Charlotte, too.
Look for a vast lineup of frozen custard options, along with sundaes, splits, milkshakes and its signature Turtle treat.
[TREAT YOURSELF: Ultimate guide to Charlotte-area ice cream, gelato, custard, fro yo and more.]
Bisonte Pizza Co.
Location: 710 W Trade St, Charlotte, NC 28202
Location: 1381 Chestnut Ln, Matthews, NC 28104
Location: 8133 Ardrey Kell Road, Charlotte, NC 28277
Bisonte Pizza Co. — the CharlotteFive Readers’ Choice winner for best pizza — is owned by Jim and Steve DaPolito, brothers from Buffalo, NY. So you know the restaurant has Buffalo-style pizza and wings you can count on.
You can order a Western NY-style sheet pizza, a Buffalo chicken finger pizza and pizza logs to get the flavors you’re craving. Pair them with wings in quantities ranging from a single order of six all the way up to a bucket of 50 wings.
Dilworth Neighborhood Grille
Location: 911 E Morehead St, Charlotte, NC 28204
Spiedies, which are marinated meat sandwiches served on a crusty sub roll with reserved marinade, originated upstate in Binghamton, NY, in the 1930s. But you can’t find them just anywhere in Charlotte.
Historian and writer Tom Hanchett introduced us to spiedies back in 2019, when he featured the WhatzaSpiedie food truck. It’s since closed, but there’s still hope for those craving the flavors.
Fortunately, Dilworth Neighborhood Grille offers a special place on the menu for spiedies, which comes with your choice of side. You can also get a chicken spiedie pizza pie or a Buffalo chicken pie.
The Garbage Can
Location: City West Commons, 1540 West Blvd Unit 103, Charlotte, NC 28208
The Garbage Can and its mobile counterpart, The Garbage Truck, call themselves the “Home of the Legendary Rochester, NY Trash Plate.”
Pick a traditional base of half macaroni salad and half home fries — or just one of those things — then load it up with a cheeseburger patty, hot dog or chicken. Customize it how you like with ketchup, onions and mustard; The Garbage Can’s Crack Sauce; or egg, bacon, jalapeno and extra meat hot sauce.
The takeout only restaurant also offers pizza logs, Trash Burgers, Trash Dogs, Trash Fries and even a Trash-A-Dilla.
The Horseshoe
Location: 1515 S Mint St # B, Charlotte, NC 28203
Chicken riggies, an Italian-American staple in the Utica, NY, area is hard to find in Charlotte, but not impossible. Tucked into The Horseshoe’s menu is Chicken Riggies, which features rigatoni pasta, mushrooms, onions, cherry peppers and chicken in a spicy, creamy pasta sauce.
JJ’s Red Hots
Location: 1514 East Blvd, Charlotte, NC 28203
JJ’s Red Hots serves smokehouse hot dogs and sausages from Sahlen’s, which was founded in Buffalo, NY, back in 1869 and is still headquartered there today.
Try the restaurant’s chili cheese coney — loaded with house-made chili, shredded cheese and diced onions — which was featured on Food Network’s “Diners Drive-ins & Dives.” Or you can build your own from JJ’s selection of 23 toppings, such as rocket sauce, remoulade, sriracha honey and hot blonde mustard.
Lebowski’s Neighborhood Grill
Location: 1524 East Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28203
Lebowski’s Neighborhood Grill, named after the 1998 movie “The Big Lebowski,” underwent an ownership change and renovations last year. But you can still find Upstate New York favorites on the menu.
Look for Buffalo, NY, staples including Beef on Weck, fried fish and Buffalo wings. You can even get all of them at once with the Lebowski Sampler, which comes with three wings or two chicken tenders, a Beef on Weck slider, beer battered haddock and your choice of slide.
Taste of Buffalo Pizzeria
Location: 9610 Sherrill Estates Rd B, Huntersville, NC 28078
When the restaurant name literally promises a Taste of Buffalo, you know you’re heading to the right spot. On the menu, you’ll find 20 flavors of wings, ranging from a single order of 10 to a bucket of 50 wings or a barrel of 75 wings.
Other Upstate New York tastes include Beef on Weck, Sahlen’s hot dogs, sheet pizza and Buffalo-style potato poutines.
Tavern on the Tracks
Location: 1411 S Tryon St, Charlotte, NC 28203
Drop in to Tavern on the Tracks to watch a Buffalo Bills or Buffalo Sabres game and snack on pizza logs, a fried haddock sandwich or its variation of the trash plate, the Tavern Trash Bowl.
You’ll also find Western New York flavors with its Sahlen’s Loaded Duo Dogs — two hot dogs topped with chili, cheese and onions — and its Beef on Weck.
Towne Tavern
Location: 2000 SC-160, Fort Mill, SC 29708
Location: 9789 Charlotte Hwy, Indian Land, SC 29707
Location: 2012 Cherry Rd, Rock Hill, SC 29732
Location: 105 Garner St, York, SC 29745
Buffalo Bills fans will feel right at home at Town Tavern, where the games are always on and jerseys are hung throughout the space. The menu listing for its Beef on Weck even says, ”A Western New York Favorite. Caraway seed and Kosher salt make this a special treat | GO BILLS!”
More options include its Blue Ribbon Fish Fry haddock, wings and house-fried Saratoga chips. Or you can pair a few things together with its Buffalo Surf ‘n’ Turf, a half pound beer battered haddock fillet paired with a full Beef on Weck sandwich, Tavern fries and creamy coleslaw.
Gavin Off contributed to this article.
