Jimmy’s Old Town Tavern in Herndon is as much a restaurant and bar as a shrine to Buffalo sports. My favorite things on ESPN are dog shows and spelling bees. So why did I make a pilgrimage? Three words: beef on weck.
Despite living in Vermont for 17 years, I never made it to Buffalo, but I’ve heard tales of the satisfying sandwich from natives. It’s the French dip variation native to The Nickel City, roast beef with horseradish served on a kummelweck roll with beef jus for dipping. And that’s what I was craving, a salty, caraway-freckled roll filled with meat, ready to be submerged in even more beefy goodness.
You can get that alone for $11.25, with a side of hand cut fries at Jimmy’s, but why stop there? I instead ordered the Buffalo Platter for a mere $4.50 more and got something like a Buffalo bar buffet on a plate. There are crisp (but also a tad dry) hot wings prepared in the style of Buffalo’s famous Anchor Bar, which claims to be the birthplace of the Buffalo wing.
The side? A choice of fries or pierogi with slices of kielbasa. Never one to turn my nose up at a third meat on a single plate, the choice was obvious. I filled a takeout container with most of the five wings and the pierogi for another day, but I couldn’t resist the juicy, salt-flecked appeal of the beef on weck. You could say finishing that sandwich was my own Buffalo sport. And that makes me a winner. // 697 Spring St., Herndon
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