WAMPSVILLE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — America’s Best Restaurants (ABR), the national media and restaurant marketing company, is going to feature a local restaurant in the Central New York Community in late August.
ABR will be taking a trip to Wampsville’s Madison Bistro Farm To Table to showcase the local and independently-owned restaurant on August 31 from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m.
ABR will highlight popular dishes at the restaurant, along with an extensive on-camera interview with owner Victor Ramirez about the restaurant’s special place in the community.
The episode will be aired at a later date on social media channels.
According to ABR, Ramirez has been in the restaurant industry his whole career. His first job as a teenager was watching hospitality in action while bussing tables at a German restaurant that featured an Oompah band for entertainment.
“It was amazing seeing people locked in arms, singing German songs,” Ramirez recalls. “Something about that grabbed my attention.”
His inspirations range from the PBS television show The Galloping Gourmet — which he watched as a child — to visits to see his grandmother in Laredo, Texas, who cooked three meals a day for a large family.
“After working for Texas-based upscale grocer Central Market in various positions including an instructor in the cooking school, Ramirez moved to New York to be closer to his wife’s family and bought Madison Bistro. They have been open for thirteen years,” stated ABR.
Madison Bistro has also garnered statewide attention after winning local competitions in the past.
The restaurant was placed in the Best Burger in New York State list several times and won Best Steak in 2019 by the New York Beef Council, which is an honor that Ramirez still can’t quite believe.
“It was such a huge moment for us. It really felt like the David and Goliath story,” said Ramirez, who added his humble petite New York strip with compound butter won out over fancy tenderloins and tomahawk cuts.
“I’m a firm believer in faith but I didn’t have it at the time. I was very humbled in the fact that we won.”
ABR says that Ramirez’s steaks and burgers will be featured on the episode, including the prize-winning “Cowboy Burger,” a nod to Ramirez’s Texas roots, which has balsamic, bacon, onion jam and crunchy potato straws.
Ramirez describes the Texan burger as “just a really simple burger topped off with slabs of smoked brisket.”
Then there’s his famous burger, the King, or the “Elvis Burger,” which placed in the top four ‘Best Burger’ in 2018.
“The one that really was the game changer for us was the one that was done as a joke, the Elvis Burger,” Ramirez says. “It was served with a spoonful of peanut butter; it’s a bacon cheeseburger with fried red onion straws. It’s enormous. You can tell it’s made by hand, individually, every one.”
Madison Bistro Farm To Table is open Monday through Saturday and is located at 135 N Court Street in Wampsville.
For more information about Madison Bistro Farm To Table, visit their website or call 315-280-0559.
Restaurants featured on the ABR Roadshow are found through customer nominations or by a restaurant applying to be featured on their website.
