Getting Me to the Greek...

Grand Opening—The Towne Bistro in East Aurora

In East Aurora there’s a new Greek in towne at the corner of Main and S. Willow Streets. The Towne Bistro has nothing Greek implicit in the name, but rather the Athenian-style typeface on the window sign gives it away.

This small bistro occupies the former site of Great Harvest (a.k.a. Montana Mills) Bread Co., a well-liked coffee-and-baked-goods stop. I had the opportunity to try The Towne Bistro for lunch on a drizzly Monday afternoon. The building has been completely renovated since the bread ovens left. Great Harvest wasn’t exactly a big place, and neither is Towne. Less than 10 tables for between two and four guests offset the small, but airy and un-crowded dining area. Authentic Eastern European music plays softly in the background and—thanks to a no-parking zone out front—diners can enjoy unblocked views of Main Street.

When I arrived around 11:30am, I was first for the lunch crowd. The menu is relatively short, but features authentic Greek dishes like souvlaki, gyro, mousaka, and pastitsio. Burgers, chicken fingers, grilled chicken salad, and a (limited) kids’ menu will please those who aren’t feeling so Greek.  Rice pudding, baklava, and loukoumades (Greek donuts) round out the dessert menu

I selected soulvaki on stick, opting for plain old chicken. Beef and lamb are also available, but I wasn’t feeling adventurous enough to try the mutton. My lunch was neatly presented with half the plate covered by Greek salad (romaine, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, chilis, feta cheese, and Greek dressing) and the other half with quartered grilled pita bread. A skewer of char-grilled chicken was laid across the center. On the side was tzatziki (Greek seasoned sour cream dip) and a flask of Greek dressing (although the salad was sufficiently drenched).

Everything was very good with huge chunks of vegetables in the salad and moist juicy chicken on the skewer. The thin pita was lightly buttered, hot, and flavorful without being overly doughy. The chicken was, however, a bit bland. In my mind, any soulvaki has to go up against Alton’s perfectly seasoned soulvaki, and Towne’s was comparatively bland. While it helped, the creamy tzatziki was also slightly short on flavor.

When asked, my server informed me of what I already suspected: The Towne Bistro is in fact run by the same owners as The Towne Restaurant on the corner of Allen and Elmwood Streets in downtown Buffalo. Think of it as the little brother to the larger Greek/Tuscan eatery, its menu populated by select items from the main restaurant.

Overall service was fast and friendly, and the food of an acceptable quality. The dining atmosphere was laid back and relaxing.  Free WiFi and long tables will appeal to the lunch-'n-laptop crowd. Menu prices are a bit high at around $10 for lunch and $15 for dinner. That said, I would try this place again.

As I was finishing up, a small lunchtime crowd was filing in. While the newness is certain to spur some interest, one can only hope this Greek can survive as something truly different in East Aurora’s dining scene. Sadly, in this town, too many restaurant ventures have gone the way of the Greek Empire no time.

Made in America

This morning’s Buffalo News featured a front-page article about Made in America, a store specializing in goods bearing its namesake. What really caught my attention with this story was the accompanying photo (check out the link above). Seeing the interior of the store was like déjà vu. I know I had been there before.

In fact, the new patriotic peddler of products, located on Maple Road in Elma, has set up shop in the showroom of one of my former employers: McCarthy Ford. The newer facility, complete with state-of-the-art service areas, has been in use as a towing and collision repair facility (talk about one-stop shopping!) since McCarthy’s closure and subsequent sale a few years ago. It looks as if the building may be gaining a little extra revenue as a commercial storefront now, too.

While many people gripe and complain every time they see “Made in China” adorning consumer packaged goods, whether this dealer in all things domestic can stay afloat remains to be seen.  But front-page coverage a week prior to grand opening—definitly some patriotic PR and buzz building. 

I hope owner Mark Andol carries some high-quality toys. Several years ago when I filled a long-term temporary position at the Fisher-Price factory store in East Aurora, it seemed all I put up with were customer gripes about Chinese-made crap. It didn’t help that this was during the same time that Mattel (Fisher-Price’s parent), was in hot water for lead-tainted Chinese toys. It got so bad that I developed an alternative-country-of-manufacture list (gotta keep it politically correct!) detailing merchandise not made in China. Even to this day at Kohl’s I hear complaints about shoes from China. Good luck finding shoes at big-box prices from anywhere else other than China. (Even made-in-USA champ New Balance generally doesn’t include 100% USA materials in its kicks.)

One final irony and then a few photos to enjoy. This morning on the way to work at Kohl’s, I took Maple Road so I could check out the new facility and snap a few photos.  The sun was rising directly in front of the building (best time for lighting). Then I jumped on NY-400 and headed to Transit Rd. I passed DeLacy Ford—the dealer thought largely responsible for McCarthy’s demise. Isn’t it funny the way so many of my jobs tied into this little blog post?  Irony, irony.