Beef On Weck Is An Iconic Buffalo Sandwich, But What On Earth Is Weck?

Buffalo, NY has a lot of proud traditions: jumping through tables at Bills football tailgates, Dyngus Day Polish celebrations, and, of course, Buffalo wings. With so much attention put on wings, it's not surprising that what gets overlooked in the rest of country is weck. Well, beef on weck, to be exact. You might have already guessed that the beef is roast beef, ideally cooked rare, sliced thin, and dunked in its own simmered juices. But what exactly is the weck?

It's actually short for kummelweck, which is the type of roll the beef is served up on. It's basically a kaiser roll, but it gets a little seasoning upgrade with flecks of kosher salt and caraway seeds. This might be obvious to German speakers, as that's literally its name. In German, "weck" translates to "roll" and "kummel" to "caraway." In fact, the weck is what distinguishes the sandwich from a regular French dip — it's all about the roll, which, in addition to its seasoning, must have an outer crunch and an inner softness. Depending on where you get your beef on weck from, the top bun might be moistened with a quick dunk in the jus tank, but it's always served up with a smear of spicy, pungent horseradish sauce, which gives it a nice bite.

Okay, to be fair, food historians aren't entirely sure of the origins of beef on weck, but they have a good working theory. It starts with a German guy named William Wahr, who came from the old country to settle in Buffalo, NY in the late 19th century. Wahr apparently owned and operated a bar on Buffalo's lakefront (Buffalo is on the shoreline of Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes, if you didn't know). He actually (however unwittingly) applied some serious science when creating beef on weck, because the kummelweck buns, which he split and piled roast beef between, had salt on top, perfect for making his bar patrons want to tipple even more.

Now you might be thinking, wait, I thought buffalo wings were the OG Buffalo-based cuisine, but it just isn't true. While the legend of beef on weck doesn't say what Wahr's bar was called or what happened to it, Buffalo eatery Schwabl's has been serving up the beefy, carby delicacy for over a century. That means that beef on weck is at least 60-some years older (and likely more, judging by the Wahr story) than Buffalo wings, as those famous chicken wings weren't invented until 1964.