It looks as if the Liberty Hound restaurant will stay put after all. After experiencing some turbulence related to securing a lease, the original owners, Jason Davidson and Mike Shatzel, are happy with the final outcome, although there are still further negotiations to come. It is yet to be determined whether the community that rallied behind Davidson and Shatzel had anything to do with the outcome, but right from the start people came out of the woodwork to support the owners who had put so much time, energy, and resources into establishing the enterprise.
There is a presumption that there was a flat response to the Request For Proposal (RFP) that was issued, due to the controversy that surrounded the issue. Public support was aligned with the original owners, who had battled it out to create a reliable restaurant presence on the waterfront, when no one else was willing to take a chance. But as the site got busier over the years, thanks to the fortitude of the owners, it looked as if their hard fought effort to establish the site might be for nought. Thankfully, that was not the case.
Moving forward, Buffalo Naval Park will enter into negotiations with Liberty Hound, according to Davidson, who says that he is happy with the end result. It is hoped that the renewed lease arrangement will present opportunities for an expanded Liberty Hound restaurant setting. That would be the next logical step.
