good meats and cheeses

[dragonlady7]

Spar's European Sausages, 405 Amherst St., Buffalo, NY 14207. (716) 876-6607.

They're in the Black Rock neighborhood of Buffalo-- Black Rock was a village so long ago it was burned, along with the city of Buffalo, during the war of 1812.
Now it's heavily industrial, and is home or neighbor to a GM Powertrain (tm) engine manufacturing plant, a Ford plant, a DuPont plant, a Dunlop tire plant, and assorted other chemical and heavy industrial manufacturing centers.
It has long been a blue-collar neighborhood and remains such.

And there's an awesome little German / Central- / Eastern European sausage shop there. It's just a couple of blocks down from the massive, upscale Wegman's That Has Everything. So we do our shopping at the Weggie's, except for sausages, cold cuts, and cheese, and then we drive the 3 blocks or so over to Spar's. Their stuff is made fresh on Thursdays, so we go then (though Fridays and Saturdays are good days to show up too). Thursday mornings are mobbed but they have very competent staff and the store's well laid out, so you won't stand around forever or get jostled.

We picked up about a dozen assorted sausages today to grill-- Dave's uncle Maris and his girlfriend came in from Toronto for the day. So we bought Hungarian sausage, fresh chorizos, hot cajun sausage, German bratwurst with beer, smoked bratwurst, bratwurst with cheese...
Excellent, all. And Dave got himself some very stinky cheese and some elaborate homemade bologna for his sammiches this week.

So, for anyone looking for things to do in Buffalo, who is at least mildly carnivorous, that place gets my ringing endorsement.

And oh, I've never spent more than $25 there, but I've taken some pretty heavily loaded bags out of there. They're sort of... a working-class gourmet, in that I mean it's good stuff, and it's quality, and well-made, and even exotic, but their biggest customers are the locals who make engines and tires and Stain-Master Carpets for a living. It's just plain good grub.

I recommend the jaegerwurst they have hanging up behind the counter, and the spicy dried pepperettes they have in the case. If you don't see them, ask for them. Also, during summer months they have homemade German potato salad, made by real Germans-- ask for that as well.

Goooooood foooooood.