Allen Street Poutine Company

After a few preliminary rumblings over the past few years, with interpretations of varying accuracy popping up on the menu of local restaurants such as '''(716)''', Buffalo's proper introduction to Canada's favorite (or is that ''favourite''?) comfort food came in March 2015 with the opening of the city's first-ever poutinerie. The Allen Street Poutine Company is run by a pair of [[Fort Erie]] natives who got their start in [[Montreal]] — the birthplace of the dish — before coming south of the border to ply their trade. Like any poutinerie worth its salt, Allen Street offers not only the traditional fries/gravy/cheese curd setup but also a host of different specialty toppings including General Tso's (with hot peppers and the titular Chinese chicken preparation), Montreal Smoked Meat (another classic of Canadian cuisine making its Buffalo debut here), and the gargantuan "Boss Poutine" smothered with five kinds of meat. The vibe is spot-on — a trendy Allentown take on the greasy-spoon snack bar template familiar to native Canadians — and, now that they've addressed the problem of their gravy, so is the food. Though it's still scratch-made daily from bone broth and a secret blend of herbs, a little tweak in the recipe took the end result from thick, floury, and lacking in flavor to a savory perfection worthy of any poutinerie in the Great White North; add that to delicious hand-cut French fries and locally produced '''Yancey's Fancy''' cheese curds and you've got a take on a Canadian blue-collar classic that's upscale without crossing the line into pretentiousness. Allen Street Poutine's winning streak continues with their topnotch service — these folks really live up to the stereotype of Canadians as unfailingly friendly, polite, and self-effacing — and the interior, which is a fabulous reimagining of the space that once housed '''Crust Pizza''', eschewing the bright, warm colors for trendy dark hues and dim lighting, with a majestic picture window looking onto Allen Street and a huge, snazzy interior neon sign above the counter.