Charlie Miller Has a Taste for Syracuse
Food writer has eaten at hundreds of eateries in the region. He talks about chicken wings, pizza, diners and the best decision he made in his journalistic career
Story by Mary Beth Roach
He finds the best food, drinks and fun throughout Central New York.’
This is the description on syracuse.com’s website for its popular food writer Charlie Miller.
But when Miller, now 59, was first offered the job about eight years ago, he turned it down — more than once. He was comfortable with running the sports department at the media company.
One of the reasons for the initial refusal, he said, was that he didn’t feel qualified.
“I’m not a food critic. I don’t know enough about culinary arts to judge one thing over the next,” he said.
But he finally decided in 2018 to officially make the move and looking back, he called it “the best decision I ever made.”
Miller didn’t need to be concerned about any culinary credentials he might have lacked. His then-boss, Steve Carlic, told him he didn’t have to be a critic, he just had to write what he liked, what he thought was good and what he thought people in Central New York would like.
And so, over about the past eight years, he has eaten countless meals, chicken wings and pizza slices and he’s written hundreds of articles about his experiences. He most recently ran a series of stories featuring diners in Central New York.
He started this gig by visiting and writing about the top five restaurants that had been selected by syracuse.com readers for having the best chicken wings and pizza.
But after a while, he started to change the flavor of the pieces. He said he didn’t really like deciding for people who had the best chicken wings or pizza. He also started to get a better taste for what his readers liked and he wanted to showcase all that Syracuse eateries had to offer.
“We have good food here. It’s not just chicken wings and pizza, but I would argue that we have the best wings in the state. Sorry Buffalo,” he said. “I think people in Syracuse take a lot of pride in what we have.”
He likes to serve up stories about the restaurants, delving into their histories, their owners, chefs and how they operate.
“I embrace it because I know how much it means to people. I find good stories and I get to know all the people,” he said.
And he does truly embrace it.
For example, he arrived at Bagel Bagel in Liverpool at 4 a.m. one day a few months ago and stayed there until noon, learning everything he could about how they make bagels.
He is syracuse.com’s and The Post-Standard’s main eyes and ears at the New York State Fair, hanging out there several days before the fair starts, to offer readers tips on things to see and foods to eat. In 2024, he was selected as the grand marshal at the Green Beer Sunday Parade at Coleman’s on Tipperary Hill.
His columns often feel interactive not only for the vivid descriptions, but also because he invites readers to share tips on different places. He provides both his email address and phone number in his pieces.
“I don’t mind people texting me with ideas or questions. It helps me keep up with what’s going on around town,” Miller noted in an email statement.
And he’s all over social media. HoosierCuse (a reference to his Indiana roots) is his “handle” (or username) on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. He produced a video of each diner he visited the second half of the year, and he said they would each get about 200,000 to 350,000 views on social media. His State Fair videos averaged about 100,000. His email newsletter is named after the Where Syracuse Eats group on Facebook, and that has about 4,500 subscribers.
“Charlie Miller is among the most beloved and best-read writers in the city,” said Katrina Tulloch, life and culture editor at syracuse.com and The Post-Standard, in an email. “From his popular New York State Fair coverage to his daily beat coverage on food and restaurants, he has earned the trust of his readers and viewers over nearly four decades. That longevity is rare in local journalism, but — and he tells me this often — he’s having the most fun of his career. His passionate work reporting for syracuse.com and The Post-Standard draws millions of readers each year from across the globe. He puts Syracuse and our food scene on the map, and we’re so lucky he made Salt City his home.”
His ‘culinary crusades’
Following his well-received CNY Pizza Tour in 2024, during which he highlighted a different pizza place each week, he and editor Tulloch decided that for 2025 he’d do a similar tour of diners, which he loves.
“Every diner has a story to tell and it’s often served with a side of bacon and eggs,” Miller said. “Whether it’s a beloved recipe, a family legacy spanning generations or the camaraderie of regulars at the counter, these places are more than just eateries — they’re community gathering places.”
On this particular year-long culinary crusade, as he called it, he hit 20 diners and, as promised, he ate their signature dishes and uncovered “the stories that make each one special.” The diners’ menus are only part of the story; it’s also about the people on the grills and on both sides of the counter.
One example is a piece he wrote during the holiday season that told of an anonymous couple who left a $1,000 tip to two long-time waitresses each at two different diners, with a simple message, “Happy Holidays.”
“I had gotten a tip that the couple was going to be at those diners. So, I woke up early and watched it happen. I don’t know who they were, but it was fun,” he explained.
For 2026, he said he has a lot of different story ideas, writing up new restaurants in what he calls “First Look,” finding more hidden gems, focusing on places that have been around for a while that people don’t know about or might have forgotten and picking a dish, like homemade hash or happy hour snacks, and suggesting some of the best places to find them.
He did offer his thoughts on some of his favorites.
For chicken wings, he enjoys Swallow’s salt-and-pepper wings and those at the Brickyard Tavern and Barbecue, Shifty’s, Change of Pace and Nibsy’s, as well. For pizza, he gave a shout-out to the original Twin Trees and Mario and Salvo’s. When it comes to more upscale restaurants, he likes the Cider Mill, not too far from his home in the western Syracuse suburbs. Two of his all-time favorites, Kelley’s and The Inn Between, have closed, Kelley’s in 2020 and The Inn Between in early 2025.
In writing about new places, he said he first visits them as a regular patron, not a writer. He gets a meal and then observes how the place is being run, how the crowd is, how other patrons react to the food. He said that if he feels the food is good, he’ll introduce himself to the manager or owner and tell them he’d like to come back and do a story.
Miller doesn’t just write the stories. As a multimedia journalist, he also shoots photos and records videos to accompany his pieces, infusing his sense of humor.
Contributing to the appeal of his stories, too, is his easy writing style, for which he credits his mother, Holly. A professional writer and reporter, Holly Miller has had an impressive career and now in her 80s, she is still freelance writing, mostly for corporate communications, back in Miller’s hometown of Anderson, Indiana.
“’Don’t use these long words. Just write like you talk.’ She beat that into me so hard,” he said.
Instructing the next generation
Now Charlie Miller is passing along lessons as an adjunct professor in newswriting at the Newhoue School at Syracuse University. He was approached to teach the class in 1997 — on the same day he graduated with his master’s in public communications from Newhouse. Since then, he has taught a course each semester and for about 20 summers, he had a class of grad students.
Of his students, he is very optimistic about the future of the journalism field.
“I think they’re more competitive now than ever because they all want to be Bob Costas or Mike Tirico or work at the Washington Post or the New York Times. He’s had students that have even gone onto to win Pulitzers.
His journey to Syracuse
Miller graduated from Indiana University. In his junior year there, he applied for an internship in Syracuse.
He has told the story that he was offered the internship by the editor of the former Syracuse Herald-Journal just hours before the national basketball championship game in 1987 when Syracuse University was going up against Indiana. He wondered if that offer would still be on the table the next day if Indiana beat Syracuse. Well, basketball fans will recall that Indiana did beat Syracuse by one point thanks to a last-second basket. But the offer still held.
Upon graduation in 1988, he did another internship, this one at the Toledo Blade, covering breaking news, some feature reporting and filling in, when needed, on government and court beats. Toward the end of that summer, he was interviewed by the Syracuse Newspapers for a breaking news reporting position.
“I started in mid-August [of 1988] and have been here since,” he explained.
In 1997, he moved to the sports department, and when the then-sports editor Carlic became the editor of the life and culture division in 2003, Miller moved into the position that Carlic had vacated. After a few years, Carlic approached Miller and eventually succeeded in getting him to transfer to his division to begin this new chapter of his career.
Miller joked that he thought Syracuse would be a steppingstone, that he’d only be here for a short time. But he’s very happy that fate intervened.
About 25 years ago, he told of a job offer he had accepted as a sports editor for the Indianapolis Star. But after more consideration and getting a raise here, he decided to stay — and he’s glad he did. He learned that within six months, the Gannett Newspapers bought the Star, and proceeded to lay off a number of people, including the sports editor.
He’s not only found success with the Syracuse media outlet; it’s also where he met his wife, Ellen.
She had worked at The Post-Standard as an editorial assistant, writer and reporter for a while and in less than a year from their first date, they were married. Ellen has since gone into teaching and works for the West Genesee School District. The couple recently celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary.
As he continues on more culinary journeys to find the best food, drinks and fun in Central New York, he says, “I will do this job as long as they let me.”