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.

Bitterness Brewing at Main & South Grove

The few times I’ve been in a Teavana store, I have to admit I liked the place. For those who don’t know, Teavana is a chain of gourmet tea shops. Often located in malls (Galleria is the closest near Buffalo), Teavana sells a variety of unique, imported, and exotic leafy concoctions just waiting to be steeped in boiling water.

In addition to loose leaf teas, stores also have a cart of free samples parked out front and plenty of expensive pots and other steeping equipment for serious steepers of tea.

Unfortunately, I visit Galleria maybe once or twice a year at the most. Buffalo’s den of all things material is just too crowded, crazy, and far away for me to be a regular. Suffice to say, I don’t frequent Teavana.

Imagine my interest when I heard that an exotic tea shop is looking at setting up in East Aurora. Right on the edge of the Roycroft Campus, Roycroft Tea Co. seeks to sell exotic brews in the little yellow raised ranch that once housed the chamber of commerce. Entrepreneurs Michael and Maryna Caputo envision a second-story teahouse with administrative and fulfillment offices in the downstairs for their Web-based tea sales business. According to the report first seen in Sunday’s Buffalo News, the shop would also sell a mix of merchandise including tea accessories and local baked goods.

I like the idea. It’s fitting in a village like East Aurora to have an artsy place like a gourmet tea shop. Unfortunately, this venture is not without controversy.  For once it’s not the town impeding progress for the sake of preserving the historic feel. Those at the adjacent Roycroft Campus on South Grove St. feel the name is trademark infringement. Roycroft is not a name that’s just up for grabs they say. I can certainly see their point; Roycroft has come to define more than just an era of furniture and art making. It was a movement and today it’s an inn, restaurant, and arts community.

Caputo says he’s ready for battle royale in the courts. He’s also an experienced public relations practitioner and is currently working with “Mad as Hell” Carl Paladino’s campaign to overtake Albany. Obviously the guy is a marketing guru, and playing on the Roycroft namesake is great marketing in East Aurora.

The teahouse (whatever it’s name may end up being) has a target opening set for late May. It’ll be interesting to see what transpires with this over the next month. There’s already a placeholder website set up at roycrofttea.com. It’s furnished in the arts-and-crafts typeface that seems to decorate many businesses’ signs in this town. (Perhaps the Roycroft folk should’ve licensed that font long ago—they’d be wealthy off the royalties!)

Naming issues aside, I hope the business goes forth. If Teavana can survive in the malls, there’s no reason why a business like this can’t survive in artsy East Aurora. The village desperately needs something to fill the glut of vacant retail space. Plus, it'd just be urbane to sample fine exotic teas.

ROYCROFT GROWING—At the corner of S. Grove & Main a serene park has taken shape. It reflects the vision of the original Roycrofters and replaces an asbestos-laden A-frame that previously occupied the site. Will a teahouse also become part of the near-Roycroft landscape?

Rome-in' to Another Restaurant

Aside from reviewing restaurants, I’ve had nothing else to comment on this week. Call it blogger’s block. So here goes another one:

On the newly reconstructed Main Street in East Aurora stands Tony Rome’s, an EA landmark since the days when it served as the Globe Hotel stagecoach stop. When I was little, we ate at Rome’s virtually every week. I practically was raised on their chicken fingers, celery sticks, carrots, and bleu cheese (it’s all I’d eat in those days). When you’re young you don’t appreciate the charm that a preserved historic hotel has, but after dining there the other night I really took in the captive aura of a 19th-century hotel…if only those walls could speak…

Anyway, despite sounding Italianesque by name, Tony Rome’s is all American, and more specifically, all Buffalo dining. Fish is fried up with loads of mayo-based salads and fries every night. BBQ ribs, wings, and steaks are also standard fare. There’s fancier seafood, chicken, signature dishes, and nightly specials as well.

Visiting on a Tuesday evening, I decided to have the stuffed peppers special. For $9.95 dinner included soup or salad and bread to start. I always like salad and bread; it’s a nice light appetizer without actually ordering off the appetizer menu (something I pretty much never do). Salad was a colorful mix of greens, onions, and tomatoes. The house-made Italian dressing was on the bitter side, however, and wouldn’t stay blended. Served in a little cup, it wasn’t feasible to give all those spices, vinegar, and oil the good shaking they needed. Croutons were deep fried and very oily. The thick-sliced white bread in the breadbasket was soft and tasty.

Remember those chicken fingers I mentioned? In the barroom they were in a hotplate for the taking, along with plenty of dipping sauces. I didn’t try any though; something about bar snacks and not knowing whose hands have been in them scares me.

Dinner was presented on a colorful plate and consisted of three green peppers, all stuffed to bursting with seasoned ground beef and white rice. The filling was done to a nice, slight char. Only thing lacking was the sauce; I’d have liked to see a more robust marinara as opposed to what looked and tasted like Campbell’s tomato soup. It was refreshing that they didn’t smother the beef in any cheese, like some restaurants that add cheese to everything.

For my potato I opted for mashed…Make that smashed. Skin-on baby reds came seasoned with what tasted like garlic and maybe sour cream or some tart, acidic dairy. Capers served as a garnish. While not bad, there was something a bit off about the potatoes; I blame the tartness I couldn’t quite put my finger on. They looked nice though, whipped and flecked with the red skins—definitely showed freshness, not Potato Buds. Fresh boiled snap peas were served as the only choice for vegetable and proved to be a good one.

So overall I enjoyed visiting Tony Rome’s again. The atmosphere of this place is definitely unique and captures the charm of old East Aurora well. The food is reasonably good for what you pay, and the service was friendly and prompt. This is a place I would definitely patronize again.

Construction Updates Following Yesterday

In conjunction with my article published in yesterday’s paper, I figured I’d do a little “East Aurora Main Street construction update”.

It has been over a week since I shot the set of photos that complemented yesterday’s post, and as for when I wrote that article, even longer. Since the last photo shoot, quite a bit of progress has been made. There are new sidewalks. Victorian street lamps are appearing. And even some parts of Main are at least roughly repaved—better than they've been.

Patrons continue to get out and enjoy the patios at many Main Street eateries, surprising when you see the amount of dust in the air as construction goes straight through the dinner hour.

I may even make construction updates a regular posting topic on here. In the meantime, enjoy the slideshow below. Or click here to view the full screen version, and be sure to choose “Show Info” near the top right of the slideshow screen (that way you get to read all my witty little captions).

Construction on Main Street in East Aurora

In Buffalo News' "My View" column on the op-eds page, I had an article published today. If you care to read the full text, click here. Otherwise, I'll give a brief summary:

I wrote about my hometown and about the damage it's sustaining as Main Street is tore up and reconstructed. I also wrote about many of the challenges avid pedestrains, such as myself, face. Accompanying is a Flickr gallery illustrating my article:

(NOTE: use the link for a full-screen slidedshow Choose "Show Info" to read photo captions)