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| A classic Buffalo tavern/dining experience |
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Tucked away in a forgotten neighborhood, near Buffalo’s Schiller Park, is one of Western New York’s most storied restaurants. For over 40 years, Margarete Scharf and family have been serving up authentic German delicacies that include rouladen, sauerbraten, wienerschnitzel and the area’s BEST potato pancakes. It is a family owned feast that is worth the trip to the city line. More than just a restaurant, it’s a uniquely Buffalo experience not to be missed.
German’s were the first major ethnic group to arrive in Buffalo during the early 1800s. The first wave of immigrants left their homeland to escape famine and revolution. Setting just east of Buffalo’s Main Street, where they practiced the trades of tanners, bakers, brewers, and butchers. In time, the Germans soon became the city’s leaders in banking, insurance and politics. The Germans were well established when other waves of immigrants (Italian & Polish) began to flood the city in the 1880s. As the German community grew, it expanded to areas in East Buffalo near Genesee Street. At the end of the Genesee Street streetcar line at Pine Ridge Road, were German owned picnic groves and band shelters. As Buffalo expanded during the 1920s, German neighborhoods were established near Schiller Park, named after Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, a German poet, historian and philospeher.
Margarete Scharf came to America in the early 1950s from Nuremberg, Germany. Cooking was in her blood as she was the niece of the owners of Troidl’s, another famous Buffalo German located on Olympic Ave near East Delavan. After learning the trade at Troidl’s, she decided to start her own restaurant by purchasing the former Schiller Park Tavern in 1967.
In addition to German dishes, Scharf’s offers a fine selection of German beers including Paulaner Hefeweizen, Spaten Hefeweisse, Spaten (Light and Dark), Beck's (Light and Dark), St. Pauli Girl (Light and Dark), Löwenbräu and the seasonal Spaten Oktoberfest. Scharf’s is also known for its German style salad dressing which is available for purchase in bottles.
Scharf’s is the LAST of the great German taverns and restaurants in the Schiller Park neighborhood that once included the Deutsches Haus, Beep and Bob Huesingers, later Strinkas Taverns, Blendinger Tavern, Days Tavern on Genesee Street and The Alpine Village on East Delavan. Don’t miss a chance to visit Scharf’s this Oktoberfest season. Scharf’s Schiller Park Restaurant located on South Crossman Street in Buffalo (895-7249).
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