At Adelaide’s, the new restaurant at Asa Ransom House, scallops with rhubarb, fava beans, charred spring onions, and brown butter crumbs.
The oldest restaurant building in Western New York, has new owners, a new name, and a new chef.
Clarence’s Asa Ransom House, a restaurant and inn, is based on an 1853 structure built by one of the first white settlers in the area, silversmith-turned-tavernkeeper Asa Ransom.
Most recently operated by Robert Lenz for four decades, in 2021 the property was purchased by Bradley and Cassandra McCallum, a couple from Montana. She’s a landscape architect, he’s a seasoned resort operator, and they hired Isaac Layzod, last of Share Kitchen, to run their dining operation.
Now the restaurant at 10529 Main St. is called Adelaide’s, serving a fine Continental-leaning menu Friday through Monday, as well as afternoon tea on Thursdays and Saturdays.
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Appetizers include oysters with absinthe and American caviar ($18), and a “flight of fish” ($14) including salmon mousse, smoked whitefish pate, and trout spread, with crusty bread and crème fraiche.
Entrees include Idaho trout stuffed with braised kale and goat cheese, with fregola sarda pasta ($38), scallops with fava beans, rhubarb, charred spring onions, and brown butter crumbs ($38), pork belly sauerbraten with spaetzle ($34), and gnocchi with ramps, crispy mushrooms, and aged gouda cheese ($28).
“I love the room, I love the building, the history. It’s cool,” Layzod said. “A 200 year-old kitchen where I’m literally cooking where the hearth was. It’s pretty neat.”
Call 716-759-2315 for reservations, or read the full Adelaide’s menu at asaransom.com.
Southern Junction’s smoked & fried cauliflower packs a punch of flavor and crunch. From market food to a Southern Junction staple, the classic Indian gobi manchurian (deep-fried cauliflower and spicy sauce) gets a Ryan Fernandez twist: it’s coated in his house barbecue rub then smoked. Get the full recipe >>
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DINING REVIEWS
Shu-shi duck, roast bone-in duck in shu-shi curry with vegetables at Jasmine Thai.
Jasmine Thai: On the Tonawanda side of Niagara Falls Boulevard, the oldest Thai restaurant in Western New York still draws crowds for its bang-up versions of roast duck in shu-shi curry, calamari in tamarind sauce, and the irreplaceable mee krob, the sweet-salty-smoky stir-fried noodles that actually do melt in your mouth. Read more
Korean fried chicken chain bb.q Chicken opened at 1424 Millersport Highway in Amherst.
Up next: bb.q Chicken: Americans like to think southern fried chicken and Buffalo-style wings are the height of deep-fried poultry. Korean fried chicken, newly available in Amherst, may make its way into your rankings. Fried twice for an uber-crunchy crust and duded up with wild sauces from sweet maple crunch to Sichuan-inspired “wings of fire,” it’s another animal, so to speak. Here’s a video rundown
OPENINGS & CLOSINGS
Blue Cave: The former Casa Azul space at 128 Genesee St. has a new restaurant already — and they didn’t even have to repaint that facade. Blue Cave, an Italian restaurant from Mario Bianca, a native Sicilian, opened Thursday. On offer are appetizers like antipasto trinacria ($22), Sicilian chickpea fritters, arancini, and caponata, pastas like spaghetti con bottarga ($20), saffron, cream garlic, extra virgin olive oil, chile, and cured fish roe, and risotto nero ($27), with squid ink, pistachios, and cherry tomato confit.
Hours: 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 4:30 to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Phone: 716-259-8145. Read more
OBITUARIES
Conor Casey: Conor Casey, the founding chef of Main Street mainstay Coco Bistro, died June 7, at 34.
He was 24 when he opened the place with owner Maura Crawford. His talent and discipline helped put the place on Buffalo diners’ shortlists.
“Conor was known for his infectious enthusiasm, largely appropriate sense of humor, gastronomic ardor, apropos movie quotes, love of corduroy, abhorrence of denim, and never-ending appreciation of a good time,” his obituary said.
Donations in his memory can be made to StacheStrong.org for glioblastoma research. Read more
Eddie Brady: Edward Patrick “Eddie” Brady, an old-school tavern owner who could pour a perfect pint or win a smile from a glum customer with equal ease, died on Sunday, at 70.
The former Courier Express paper boy started at Mulligan’s Brick Bar, managed Hemingway’s, and opened Eddie Brady’s Tavern in 1990.
Patrick Brady, his youngest brother, is keeping the family legacy going at 97 Genesee St. Read more
ASK THE CRITIC
Last week’s column led with the arrival of Strong Hearts, a successful Syracuse vegan fast-food restaurant.
Posted on Facebook, it drew this comment: “Vegans are .01% of us. They just brag the loudest. Waste of menu space.”
Since I’ve been hearing those objections from the day I started spotlighting vegan offerings, here’s some perspective on animal-free dining in the United States of America.
People who don’t care about the option of avoiding animal products are the tiny minority on this issue. More than half of Americans would reconsider going to a place without a vegan or vegetarian option, and only 3% said plant-based alternatives were “not at all” important to them in a survey last year.
To be sure, that survey was commissioned by a vegan food manufacturer, so you might take it with a grain of nutritional yeast. But the independent Gallup poll found 69% of Americans make a point to eliminate meat entirely from some meals, and that was in 2019.
That’s why more restaurant operators are making sure their menu includes robust vegan and vegetarian items. Because more customers are asking for them, and selling hungry people what they want is how restaurants stay in business.
Send restaurant tips, heartfelt recipes and questions to agalarneau@buffnews.com or One News Plaza, P.O. Box 100, Buffalo, NY 14240.
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