It's a busy time for a Northside Syracuse butcher shop
SYRACUSE --
It may not be the Fourth without a cookout, and for many people with roots here in Central New York, it's not a cookout without Liehs and Steigerwald.
The Northside Syracuse butcher shop has been making hot dogs since 1936, and this weekend they've doubled, and even tripled, the numbers of some of the sausages they produce.
Co-owner Chuck Madonna is proud of his dogs and cooneys, but beams when he talks about his bratwurst. The traditional German smoked brats are his best seller, but there are 18 varieties in all, seven of them all chicken---including his second-best seller, 'chicken wing'--complete with blue cheese in the sausage. Madonna says the old German founders would approve: they still have the traditional meats and sausages, but have expanded to include BBQ ribs, salads, and the varieties of brats.
This weekend, they're seeing a lot of 'returns'---people from as far away as Wisconsin and Florida, here to celebrate with family, who come in to get specialty meats to take home with them. Renee Bennet was shopping for her two sons, coming in from Cleveland and St. Louis for the holiday. Matt Thomas, in from Brooklyn, says it's nice to be home, with the tradition of brats for grilling.
Both remember another shop tradition: young people get a piece of ring bologna to chew on, while parents are shopping. It's a memory that keeps the generations coming back---and it's a tradition that keeps going. They were giving out bologna today, at the Grant Boulevard shop. 
