Despite suffering from a minor setback, caused by an isolated fire set off by spontaneous combustion (oils and rags combo), Midtown Kitchen (MTK) is back on course with plans to open Buffalo’s premier brunch spot shortly after St. Patrick’s Day. Why premier? Because the owners’ concept is to heavily concentrate on Saturday and Sunday brunches as a focal point (see original article).
Since originally writing on MTK, I have been eager for this group to open their doors for two reasons. The first is that I live for brunch (and great Bloody Mary’s), and second… I live right around the corner and couldn’t be happier that this stretch of Elmwood is finally seeing the type of investment that I have yearned for, for over two decades. There was a time that it seemed that we would simply have to face the fact that an infrastructure curse (during the Masiello administration) would forever halt any significant commercial advancements from Bryant to Utica.
Instead, news of Thin Man, and Dash’s, and Lloyd Taco, and even some new matching grant funding for building facades, has awoken the spirit of the 400 block of Elmwood.
When I heard that MTK had suffered a setback, a fire, I couldn’t believe it. Emails and text messages flooded in, delivering the news on January 16. I was very upset at first, and then extremely thankful once I heard that the fire had been contained so quickly due to critical eyes on the street and an incredible response time by the fire department.
“It could have been a lot worse,” said co-owner/daily operations manager Charlie Baron, as he caught me up to speed at the newly opened Perk’s Café across the street. “I feel like I got thrown out of my own house for three weeks. We were anticipating having our staff dry runs next week. Thankfully nobody was hurt. We were also lucky, because one week after the fire, all of the big items were scheduled to arrive. It was all smoke damage for the most part, but would have ruined the new equipment, which would have been a much greater issue. As it was, we had to rip out all of the drywall and start again. It’s given us some added time to think about the details. And now that we have announced our head chef, Adrian Bylewski, he is working along with us as we build out the space for a second time. Bylewski is self taught, but he has worked under some of the best in Buffalo – Mark Hutchinson and Mike Haefner (Hutch’s), and also Bruce Wieszala (Tabree, COPPA Meats) and Dustin Murphy (Tabree – and soon, Thin Man). We’re in the midst of teaming up with a number of local food enterprises as well, and taking this extra time to reflect and fine tune the operation.”
I asked Charlie about the local food enterprises, but he wanted to keep them a surprise. He did mention that they would be carrying a NYS coffee brand that he felt was one of the best, and most caffeinated, in the world – Death Wish Coffee. “They were chosen out of 15,000 companies to win a free Super Bowl commercial,” Charlie explained. “They are the number one selling coffee on the internet.”
Upon opening, MTK will be serving up brunch on Saturdays and Sundays, along with dinner throughout the week. The goal is to eventually open for lunch as well. Despite the setback, Charlie and his partners could not have found a better place to open a business, considering all of the changes that are taking place in the neighborhood. I’m looking forward to the day that the patio is open, and a dead spot on the street is filled with life once more.
Now one of the only missing pieces of the 400-block puzzle is, what’s going to happen to the old Ambrosia?