Umberto Battistoni brought Italian recipes and spice blends to Buffalo, NY. He called his company Bison and began selling handcrafted meats directly from the trunk of his car. The product that became most popular was the hog casing pepperoni. At some point in the 50’s or 60’s he moved the business to a 47,000 square-foot production facility at 81 Dingens Street in Buffalo. The facility, which has been updated and modernized many times, but walking through the halls you can feel the Battistoni legacy. The Buffalo Pepperoni has since been renamed “cup and char” and Bison Meats was rebranded Battistoni in 1994 to honor the family legacy. In 2026, George Gavros took over 81 Dingens Street. He formed Cup and Char Pepperoni Inc and brought with him the demand from Zoe’s Meats, a 20 year old artisan cured meat company headquartered in Petaluma CA named after his youngest daughter. With over 10 million pounds of capacity, pepperoni from Buffalo is on the rise. But, Gavros is quick to remind the world of it’s small batch approach. “Everything we do is in 1000 pound increments” he says. His first efforts, removing preservatives, and offering clean pepperoni!!!!