Cecil Township restaurant bans buffalo sauce ahead of Steelers-Bills matchup
The Pittsburgh Steelers will be playing football next door to Canada Sunday afternoon, but a local restaurateur hopes fans can put old grievances behind them and come together with one goal in mind – beat the Buffalo Bills.
Bubba Snider is the owner of Bubba’s Gourmet Burghers & Beer in Cecil Township, but is probably better known as the host of the Bubba Show on 100.7 FM. Once the wild card weekend schedule was set, Snider announced on the air that his restaurant would stop selling buffalo sauce.
“I made a decision … That I was done with all of the negativity always around the Steelers this past year or so. You heard more about ‘Fire Matt Canada!’ or ‘This guy is moping’ or ‘This guy is not happy,” Snider said, adding that fans all share a common enemy: Whoever the Steelers are playing.
So in the spirit of rallying fans around the home team, Snider nixed Buffalo’s staple cuisine from the menu, until the game is over, at least.
“Our buffalo sauce has won awards, and it’s amazing. We sell a ridiculous amount of buffalo chicken dip. I’m going to take the hit. I’m going to ban buffalo sauce from my restaurant in solidarity with the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Snider said.
Though Snider notes some customers have not been happy to learn about the temporary menu change, the vast majority get just as big a kick out of the move as they would a healthy serving of buffalo sauce.
Snider also went to lengths to make sure they don’t even sell buffalo sauce by accident. He said the sauce stockpile is currently hidden, and that he asked staff to take home any buffalo chicken dip.
“The 20% they get that are angry, hopefully they understand, but the 80% of the people that get it are all fired up about it,” Snider said.
Snider said so far he feels he has accomplished his goal of building a team-first attitude heading into Sunday’s game at 1 p.m.
“I wanted to give everyone a distraction that was fun and lighthearted. I never had any idea how huge this would go,” Snider said. “It made national news. I’ve done interviews in Buffalo. Bubba’s Gourmet Burghers & Beer is public enemy number one in Buffalo today. I’ll take that all day.”