Restaurant Review
Where to Celebrate the Season
By Ann Blask
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The dining room at the Park Lane.
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Urban Sophistication at
The Park Lane
This Buffalo landmark restaurant, reborn and refurbished, is a perfect setting for elegant holiday dining. All the rooms, including the bar and dining areas, share an English pub atmosphere, with lots of dark wood and minimal accessories to distract from the stately Tudor-style decor. Still, each room is distinctively different. The focal point of the more formal Main Dining Room is the high, wood-beam ceiling with rustic wagon-wheel chandeliers. A fireplace at the far wall is always lit during cold weather months, probably more for the soft blush of color it adds to the room than for warmth. The more casual Tavern Room, with a wall of windows facing Gates Circle, is the perfect place to sit and enjoy the fall colors or the sparkle of fresh snow.
The menu is as updated as the decor. Head chef and co-owner James Cohen, who is nationally acclaimed for his exciting cuisine, has everything to do with it. His creations include Grilled Soy Marinated Tuna, Rock Shrimp and Pesto Spaghetti, and a Spicy Pork Chop served with fire roasted chilies. There are some tempting soups and starters as well, such as Corn & Basil Soup and Fennel Skewered Shrimp with White Beans & Arugula. But by far, the most popular appetizers are from the Raw Bar, an open, iced display of fresh oysters, clams and shellfish that you can order by the piece. Seafood lovers often make this their main meal.
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Another view of the Park Lane.
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For Hanukkah, the specials will include latkes and Sephardic Brisket. The brisket is the dish Cohen prepared on TV when he was a guest chef on the program Jewish Cooking in America.
A special New Year’s Eve of dinner and dancing will herald the year 2000. The evening will feature a prixe fixe dinner which includes appetizer, salad, main course and a champagne toast at midnight, for a symbolic $99. Throughout the evening there will be Latin jazz and dancing in the Wine Cellar. And, since there will be just one seating that night, diners will have their table for the entire evening so that they can party before dinner, between courses, and well into the night.
THE PARK LANE
33 Gates Circle, Buffalo
881-2603
Lunch from $5.95, dinner from $13.95, Prixe Fixe menu $19.99
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Chicken Pot Pie at the Old Orchard Inn.
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the Old Orchard
For most people, the holidays are laced with memories of family dinners with heaping bowls of mom’s turkey dressing and of grandma’s homemade pies. Those days may be gone, but you can still enjoy a traditional family-style dinner, with all your favorite comfort food, at the Old Orchard Inn.
This is one restaurant that gets rave reviews before people even step inside. Originally built as a hunting lodge in 1901, this charming country estate is tucked in a 25 acre park-like setting of towering pines and an apple orchard with distant views of rolling farmland and sunny meadows. Flagstone patios and shady gardens overlook a small pond, where you’ll usually see a few families of ducks marching to or from the water.
Adding to the postcard scenery are the festive holiday decorations. White lights trim the trees and patios, and giant sleds filled with pretty packages decorate the snow-covered lawns.
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The Old Orchard Inn.
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Aside from the holiday menus, the standard lunch and dinner menus offer a wide variety, but the long-standing favorites are the restaurant’s famous Chicken Pot Pie and Chicken Fricassee, both made from scratch with as-good-as-it-gets chicken gravy. When talented and innovative chef John Umlauf took over the kitchen, he brought some of his own recipes but he knew better than to mess with the chicken pot pie or chicken fricassee. “People don’t come here for trendy foods,” explains owner Jim Romanello. “Occasionally we include new dishes as daily chef’s specials, but they’re not interested in sun-dried tomato kind of things. They come here for the scenery and for traditional down-home food.”
The Old Orchard Inn
2095 Blakely Rd., East Aurora
652-4664
Lunch from $6.95, dinner from $13.95, Early Bird dinners from $9.95.
Holiday Dazzle at Salvatore’s Italian Gardens
A zillion or so lights will be turned on at Salvatore’s Italian Gardens on Thanksgiving Day, transforming this legendary and elaborate restaurant into a Christmas wonderland. Busloads of tourists come from as far away as Pittsburgh to see the display and, of course, to eat. The restaurant is usually open for dinner only, but from December 1-23 it’s also open for lunch to accommodate the extra crowds. And I mean crowds! Owner Russ Salvatore says they serve upwards of 300 lunches a day from their special First Noël Menu.
The term “lunch” is almost a misnomer for this menu. Each entree is dinner-size and served with Minestrone soup or Caesar Salad. Selections include Chicken Rollitini, a chicken breast stuffed with spinach, ham and cheese in a Mornay sauce, prime rib of beef, pork tenderloin with mushrooms and brandy, and fresh salmon topped with lobster dill sauce.
The dinner menu is extensive, including veal, beef, and lamb entrees, as well as seafood, pasta, poultry, and a number of special “Dinner for Two” selections. You’ll need extra time to ponder the appetizer list as there are lots of those as well. If you can’t decide on just one, you might opt for the Seafood Medley, which includes Crab Cakes, BBQ Scallops, and Lobster Puffs.
Paula Salvatore, a professional decorator and florist, choreographs all the decorations in the restaurant, often adding new features like this year’s large toy train in the front foyer. Watching the train will be beautifully dressed animated dolls, reindeer and snowmen. A snow-making machine emits continuous flurries over entering diners to help create a magical look. “Sometimes when we have a mild December, this is the first snow people see,” says Ms. Salvatore. The decorations in the three main dining rooms are more subdued with white and gold floral arrangements and large lighted snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, for a bit of added brilliance.
On New Year’s Eve the main ballroom will also be used for dining. A special package for the evening ($60 per person) will include a gourmet dinner, music and dancing, and, of course, party hats and horns.
Salvatore's Italian Gardens
6461 Transit Rd. Depew
683-7990
Dinner from $15.95, First Noel lunch from $8.95.
Down-Home Atmosphere and Value at Fieldstone Country Inn
If you like a cozy, country setting, home-style food, and family-friendly prices you’ll love the Fieldstone Country Inn. Two things catch your eye when you enter: The striking, heavy stone walls accented with light pine woodwork that create a casual, inviting mood and the collection of award plaques proudly hung in the foyer. In a Buffalo News poll last year, The Fieldstone ranked in the top five Western New York restaurants for Best Fish Fry, Best Service and Hospitality, and Worth the Drive categories. They were voted Number One for Best Bang for the Buck.
The menu lists lots of hearty favorites like Broiled Pork Chops with glazed apples, Beef Stroganoff with egg noodles, and various sizes of Prime Rib. But there are also some tempting surprises. Chicken Casablanca, one of chef Mark Brooks’ unusual creations, is a boneless chicken breast stuffed with lobster. Star billing goes to the House Specialty, BBQ Babyback Ribs. What’s so special about these ribs? As Brooks explains, “Cooking them is a two-day process. First they are slow-baked for several hours, then wrapped and cooled. The next day they are grilled and seasoned with a special barbecue sauce. The meat just falls off the bone.”
His inventive touch is also seen in the soups, which are different every day. One unusual creation is Peachy Shrimp, a cream soup with a shrimp stock base, vegetables and lots of diced shrimp and fresh peaches. Among the more traditional choices are Chicken and Dumpling, Chicken and Rice, and Black Pepper Spaetzle.
This is one restaurant where you must save room for dessert. There are always several fruit pies, cream pies, traditional apple or toffee apple, and peanut butter pie. Along with the pies, the list includes old-fashioned apple crisp with ice cream, bread pudding and rice pudding. The usual fare will be available during the holidays along with typical favorites like pumpkin, pecan and mince pie for Thanksgiving.
THE FIELDSTONE COUNTRY INN
5986 S. Transit Rd., Lockport
625-6193
Lunch from $3.99, dinner from $7.99.
Ann Blask is a consultant and freelance writer from Orchard Park.
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