Restaurants in Syracuse, NY

BBQ aficionados know Syracuse, New York, as home of the original Dinosaur Bar-b-que, which opened in 1988 with a biker-bar, honky-tonk ambience and soon grew into a small chain of restaurants, most of them upstate. Roadfooders in search of something less audacious favor local diners (of which Syracuse has several). Many of them specialize in frittatas — a favorite dish in this part of the world, where it most often features a combo of pepperoni and broccoli. Some of the best are made at Mother’s Cupboard, a tiny shack known for its giant 6-pound frittata (mere 3-pounders and 1/4 size frittatas also are available). A popular variation of the frittata, known locally as a fretta, is made with all the same ingredients, but scrambled up together rather than arranged.