ORCHARD PARK -- Pigskins and now pucks. Rain, shine or snow. If there's a game at Ralph Wilson Stadium, you can count on Ken Johnson holding a cookout on the hood of his 1980 red Pinto wagon out in the parking lot.

"I've got burgers, that's Philly cheesesteak, and I've got chicken wings boiling in the army helmet," Johnson said Tuesday morning, proudly showing off his tailgating area in Lot 1 near Pole 5 prior to the NHL Winter Classic outdoor game between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins.

If anyone's in the mood for pizza, he's got that cooking in the top shelf of an office filing cabinet. And there's a bar set up for those interested in having a shot of Polish cherry liqueur poured out of the thumbhole of a bowling ball.

"I call it my 16-pound shot glass," Johnson said. "It actually tastes like crap. I don't know why people drink it. But I go through 12-14 bottles of this a game."

Johnson's been doing this since 1989, a stretch in which he hasn't missed a Buffalo Bills home game. And there was no way the Sabres and Bills season ticket-holder was going to pass up an opportunity to provide the free spread — it costs the computer software engineer about $4,000 a year — for the NHL's first outdoor game in the United States.

And this wasn't Johnson's first Sabres tailgate. The Rochester native held a smaller version in a parking lot outside of Buffalo's HSBC Arena in 1999 when the Sabres hosted Dallas in the Stanley Cup finals.

"This is Buffalo," crowed Dan Barrett, of nearby Fort Erie, Ontario, while making his way through the parking lot as a light snow fell.

"Pass 'em around boys," someone was overheard saying, while distributing a handful of Jell-O shots.

There were tents and tuques (winter hats, as they're known in Canada), grills, gloves and Christmas cookies. There were Sabres flags flying from cars and vans. One group of fans gathered in a converted school bus and watched TV while being warmed by a propane heater.