Last night, as we were planning for the obligatory Friday fish fry, we got a call asking if we’d like to join a larger party at Vinos. No thought needed; we were ready. Vinos is a smallish restaurant that cropped up on Elmwood Avenue nearly three years ago. Very good when they opened their doors, it’s gotten better and more popular ever since.
Family owned by Kathleen and Tony Cangianiello, Vinos is a delight in every way. The bar is ample, the wine list complete and the food is very, very – can I say it one more time? – very good.
Because we arrived ahead of our party and before the evening onslaught of non-stop customers, Kathleen was good enough to let us sample some wines at the bar, where a beautiful display of Kathleen’s homemade desserts line one end as a reminder to leave room at the end of dinner. Wine connoisseurs will wince at this next statement, but having grown up in a family, and a town, where the preferred wine was whatever was in the barrel in the cellar, I’ve never taken the time to educate my palate. I drink whatever is served, period.
We did, however, enjoy a Valpolicello “baby Amarone” at the bar, switching to a Sartori Amarone della Valpolicella Classico at the table. The first was light and new tasting (barrel wine in November). The grown-up version was heavier, as it should be when one is enjoying pastas, homemade sausage and other rich foods, so I am told.
I had a lot of questions for Kathleen about the wine. When I made my confession about my lack of knowledge, she laughed, “Well, you were sitting with the ‘cork dorks’. You’re like my husband Tony. He was born in Naples and in grew up in Canada, and he keeps a Dago Red under the bar. I’m not sure what the alcohol content is, but it makes people very happy.”
Aside from her extensive wine knowledge, Kathleen makes the aforementioned desserts and salad dressing, while Tony and his namesake younger son, Anthony, do all of the cooking, and older son Joe preps during the day. Reservations are a must at Vinos on weekend nights, unless you want to take your chances at 5:00 or after 8:00. “Wednesday and Thursday are not so bad,” Kathleen said, and I can usually seat people.
“Not so bad” is a funny choice of words because business in this little restaurant is so good, that one would never know what’s going on with the economy in general.
“Tony and I were just talking about this,” Kathleen says, referring to the constant flow of customers they enjoy. “There’s a lot of things, but our pricing is low. There’s nothing over $12.95 on the menu, and a lot at $9.95. It’s fresh, we have a nice environment, the same servers we had when we started; it’s good and affordable. Beyond that, the two, in their 30th year of marriage, obviously have a way of working well in tandem.
“Tony won’t freeze anything, and everything has to be made fresh for that night, so he’ll ask me what bookings look like, and if I tell him 100 people, he’ll roll 200 meatballs,” Kathleen explains. “And he only makes 40 specials, so when people call for reservations, it’s not a bad idea to have me put specials aside for them if that’s what they want.” Kathleen says that some people get upset when they run out of specials after 7:30, but that’s the nature of serving fresh without end-of evening waste.
“Fridays are always fish and Thursdays are Beef Braciole, but Wednesday and Saturday specials vary,” according to Kathleen. “Whatever looks good to Tony.”
I did miss Tony’s Haddock ala Vino, pan-fried and served over angel hair with pomodoro and asparagus. Still, the Ravioli ($9.95) filled in nicely, and gave me an even better excuse to come back. Kathleen says that Tony runs all over town for ingredients, including their Saturday morning ritual of getting coffee and cruising the Bidwell Farmers Market in the warm months. “Tony can’t wait.” she says, “It’s one of our favorite things to do.”
The food? First of all, there’s been a months-long hunt for stuffed hot peppers that are really hot, and we found them at Vinos. “Tony does something with habeneros inside,” Kathleen divulged. The flavor was outstanding and the burn was just enough. Habeneros can supply an angry and somewhat flavorless heat, but these peppers, just kissed with habenero, were a delightful hybrid.
One of our tablemates had the Steak Ala Vino, a 4 oz. filet, halved on garlic toast and served with a side of garbanzo salad ($7.95). Another had the Meat Lasagna ($9.95), and then there was the Pasta with Garlic & Oil ($9.95) and plain old Spaghetti ($9.95). I jest though, nothing about Tony’s tangy homemade sauce allows even standbys to be remotely run-of-the-mill. The dessert was Rum Cake, loaded with nuts and rum (no picture for obvious reasons).
Not bad for a couple who sold cars out of the lot next door, bought the building, moved upstairs and wondered what to do with the storefront below, where Tinney’s Bar and Grill was for over 5 decades. “Tony wanted a restaurant, and here we are,” Kathleen muses. “I was so nervous. The failure rate for restaurants is high. We’re only opened 14 hours per week, but it’s a an intense 14 hours, and then there’s all the behind-the-scenes work. All the prep goes into those 2 hours every night when we get slammed, but it’s so much fun.” Tony will be letting his car dealer’s license run out this year, having found the “day job” the couple was obviously meant for.
Vinos
1652 Elmwood Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14207
716.332.2145
Wed-Sat Seatings 5 – 9PM
To-go 4:30 – 8:30PM
(no longer serving lunch)