PicoBlog

In 2017, when Sweetness_7 ended its run at the corner of Parkside and Russell, across from the Buffalo Zoo, those who’d grown to appreciate a neighborhood spot mourned their loss. “We would have neighbors constantly coming up to us, asking us what we could do to help get a business in the neighborhood,” Amber Small remembered. The other part of the “we” was Monica Cichon, another Parkside Community Association leader. 

One Wednesday night a month I drive to the next town over, park in the gravel lot behind a former church, make my way down to the basement, and then take my clothes off. Two and a half hours later I drive back home with $60 in my pocket. This is not a longstanding practice of mine, taking my clothes off for money. Not due to any inherent modesty, which I seem not to have acquired at birth or any later point.

As a restaurant critic, providing restaurant recommendations is my bread and butter.  Not just reviews. The other service I provide is bespoke dossiers of dining intel, paired to individual palates. What delights one couple dismays another. Tastes vary in adventurousness, cost tolerance, and the importance of abundant free parking.  Before firing off recommendations, I need coordinates. Thus was born the hunger colloquy, questions designed to help me home in on their personal satisfaction zone.

In 2015 Vincenza Lapi, a young cook from Grand Island, introduced herself to Buffalo with an arancini-focused food truck named the Blue Balls Bus.  So it is especially delicious to see what Zina Lapi hath wrought at Allen and Elmwood, the crossroads of Buffalo nightlife. Casa Azul means “blue house” in Spanish. Sticking with the azure inspiration, Lapi swapped Italian-American snacks for a soulful lineup of Mexican-inspired cooking and insistence on what James Roberts of Toutant calls “doing things the hard way for the right reason.

With the advent of pre-Easter fasting, many Western New York families think of fish for dinner. Beer-battered fish fries, in haddock or cod, certainly get plenty of attention.  Once Fat Tuesday rolls by, fish fries start popping out of half the kitchens in Buffalo. This Lent, amid your regular stations of the tartar sauce, how about adding a ritual observance: making a pilgrimage to Hayes Seafood House, the last seafood restaurant like it in town.

I’m glad I took lots of photos, some of which you’ll see here, but I wish I’d taken more. Twenty years later, Cabrera is planning to retire after the 2023 season, and he will do so with Hall of Fame credentials: He’s one of seven players in baseball history with 500 home runs and 3,000 hits, not to mention two MVP awards and his 2012 Triple Crown. He’s played most of his career, the past 15 years, with the Detroit Tigers.

Waxlight Bar a Vin and Southern Junction have finally put Buffalo’s restaurants on the national stage, literally. On June 10, when America’s top restaurant honors are announced at Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Buffalonians responsible for those restaurants will step into the spotlight.  Whatever happens in Chicago, their James Beard Awards finalist achievements have put Buffalo on traveler itineraries. As one of five selected from 25 semi-finalists in each category, they have already raised the city’s profile on a list that’s essentially Michelin stars for all the places Michelin doesn’t go.

After decades of traveling from Oaxaca to work in the farms of Niagara County, the Rosario family decided to put down roots in Medina. The region’s eaters have since benefited from their decision, and their knack for business. Six Rosario brothers and a sister have expanded the reach of their culture and c… ncG1vNJzZmien6q%2Fo7XTnqpnq6WXwLWtwqRlnKedZL1wvsSvoJ6vXZbBbrnAorGapF2isrm1wpqlZqOZqbCpsc0%3D

You’ve probably been asked before: “if you could sit around a table with five humans, alive or not, who would you invite?” At My Table, a series on extraordinary women, is a response to this question. You’ll find links to other At My Table essays at the end of this piece. Please look here for other travel-focussed stories. Dear NE-One On Friday I was completely captivated by a photograph of a woman who is 106 years old.