'Savory Summer': Readers vote The Silo as home to 'WNY's Best Burger,' 'Best Hot Dog,' 'Best Fries'

NFP’s audience chose winners in annual summer food contest

By Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

The Silo Restaurant repeated as the big winner in Niagara Frontier Publications’ annual “Savory Summer” food contest. Lewiston’s popular waterfront eatery took home three awards: “WNY’s Best Burger,” “WNY’s Best Hot Dog” and “WNY’s Best Fries.”

General Manager Lexi Alfiere-David said, “It's an honor because, when you get feedback in this industry, it's usually the angry people. So, for someone to take the time (to vote) when they're happy, it means they were really happy.

“We love what we do here, but to know that we do it good is a whole different level of love. So, it really is an honor.

“And, noticeably this season, we've given back to the customers. We have done major social media deals, deals in the paper. We're giving out free sandwiches left and right. Just the other day, we did a ‘Josh Allen special’ where they got two sandwiches, two drinks and a fry for $17.17.

“We saw the love from the customers, and we worked really, really hard this season to give it back to them, which I think it went over really well. We have gotten some awesome messages from customers, saying thank you for the deals – because it's a tough economy, and we want them to keep coming here, and there's only so much we can do. We have to pay our people a good wage. We have to buy the premium, good-quality food. We have to keep our prices at a certain point. But what we can do is offer deals and specials, and it's going over really well.”

‘WNY’s Best Burger’

“The burger is a premium burger,” Alfiere-David said. “We have a lot of choices when it comes to burgers, and we choose the more expensive-costing-one to us. We don't always reflect the high cost to our customers, but it's important to us that we keep the high quality. So, we choose a very good burger. You can taste it when you eat it – it's not too fatty; it's not too greasy; but it has the flavor.

“Our burgers have been very, very popular this season.”

She added, “I'm happy to hear the burger is the most popular, because we did a switch a couple years ago to try a new burger, and we weren't in love with it.

“I'm happy that this burger went over well. We got a lot of good feedback on it.”

In addition to the regular “Silo burger,” patrons can try a Buffalo burger, or an “Austin burger” with pepper jack cheese, guacamole and chipotle.

‘WNY’s Best Hot Dog’

“The hot dog, of course, classic Sahlen’s – doesn't get better than that,” Alfiere-David said.

The Silo offers regular and footlong hot dogs, with specialties including a “Dixie dog” that’s topped with onion, bacon, barbecue sauce, coleslaw and a few fries.

Any hot dog can be topped with onion and pickle for free – or try The Silo’s own secret sauce.

‘WNY’s Best Fries’

“The trick with the french fries is that they're cooked to perfection and salted to perfection,” Alfiere-David said. “Our french fries this year, we went with a thinner-cut fry, and it really was popular. We got a lot of good feedback on it.”

Repeating as champion

The Silo is a seasonal restaurant and, with that, has a fair amount of staff turnover each season. As such, management offers a special training process to ensure consistency each summer.

“We do a ‘Haystack University’ in the beginning of every season, which is where we train the staff on how to cook each item,” Alfiere-David said. “The Haystack” steak, cheese and crispy potato straw sandwich is the restaurant’s signature item, and was featured on “Man V. Food.”

“Basically, their first section of training is listening and watching – with our most experienced staff – and then they make it themselves,” Alfiere-David said. “Then we do a week of just hands-on training, practicing our most basic items on the menu, and then we taste it. If we need to tweak it a little bit, then we do that.

“ ‘Haystack University’ we started a couple years ago and, basically, they don't graduate – they can't cook for customers – until they pass the test, which is making it taste the exact same way every single time.”

Alfiere-David said The Silo had about 30 kitchen staff members this season.

Patrons have until Sunday, Sept. 28, to enjoy The Silo. The restaurant decided to stay open a little later last year, and has continued that new fall schedule into 2025.

In addition to the award-winning food – and though it’s still technically summer – guests can try Halloween-themed sundaes at the adjoining ice cream caboose.

The Silo is located at 115 N. Water St., Lewiston. For more information, call 716-754-9680 or check out https://www.lewistonsilo.com. Visit on social media via Facebook // X/Twitter // Instagram.

Based on fan voting this summer, NFP divided the food categories into local and chain restaurant categories. In the latter division, Mooney’s Sports Bar and Grill won “WNY’s Best Hamburger,” Ted’s Hot Dogs took “WNY’s Best Hot Dog,” and Burger King had its way in taking “WNY’s Best Fries.”

Stay tuned for more “Savory Summer” winner announcements.