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Food & Drink

Best Roast Beef Sandwich 

Beef on Weck Europa, A Café

323 East 55th Street
816-523-1212
A $9 roast beef sandwich may give some customers a cow, but Brookside's Europa, a Café is the only restaurant in town serving roast beef on weck, the most famous sandwich to come out of Buffalo, New York. Europa's chef and co-owner, Scott Cowell, fell in love with the distinctive beef-and-bun combo years ago when he was visiting friends in upstate New York. The kummelweck (or kimmelweck) bun is what makes the sandwich unique: a kaiser roll brushed with pretzel salt and caraway seeds before it goes in the oven. The City Tavern bakes the rolls to Cowell's specifications, and whereas New York bakers use a sourdough base and City Tavern doesn't, it's still as close to the Buffalo version as possible -- slightly underbaked, the crusty rolls are chewy, like a great pretzel. Cowell heaps on 6 ounces of Italian roast beef and soaks the top of the bun in beef au jus, serving it with both traditional horseradish and a milder horseradish sauce. The sandwich either sells so fast he runs out of rolls or, Cowell says, he doesn't sell any. But autumn is weck weather: "We always sell a lot of them in the fall, because customers like a heavier sandwich."

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Beef on 'weck my *ss. I've enjoyed my first nine months in KC, but when I heard of a place serving Beef on Weck "just like in Buffalo" I had to give it a shot. I ordered five for myself and the folks I work with. Boy was I disappointed when I looked into the bag (we say "bag" in Buffalo, not "sack"...) The characteristic rock salt on the roll, the just-right heating of the sandwich and the tasty au jus--none were as it should be.
I am sad indeed. False advertising! A decent sandwich, perhaps. Beef on 'weck-- not so.

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Posted by Alan on October 24, 2007 at 3:37 PM

Beef on 'weck my *ss. I've enjoyed my first nine months in KC, but when I heard of a place serving Beef on Weck "just like in Buffalo" I had to give it a shot. I ordered five for myself and the folks I work with. Boy was I disappointed when I looked into the bag (we say "bag" in Buffalo, not "sack"...) The characteristic rock salt on the roll, the just-right heating of the sandwich and the tasty au jus--none were as it should be. I am sad indeed. False advertising! A decent sandwich, perhaps. Beef on 'weck-- not so.

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Posted by Alan on October 24, 2007 at 12:37 PM
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