This week in Buffalo food: Artusi serves high-end Neapolitan pizza at fast-casual prices
Chef Dave Chicane's small menu at Artusi centers on 10 hand-held, folded Neapolitan pizzas inspired by a popular Naples street food.
Chef Dave Chicane's life has come full circle.
After spending 30 years away, he is back in Buffalo and engaged again to the fiancée he had at 20 years old. At his new restaurant, he's making the kind of familial Italian food that initially sparked his love of cooking.
Chicane recently opened Artusi (3975 Main St., Amherst), an Italian fast-casual restaurant with the feel of a modern European bistro. Customers order at the counter, then sit wherever they want while they wait for a server to bring their food.
"I wanted to create kind of an elevated, fast-casual atmosphere – so, the speed of Chipotle, but a little bit more elegant," Chicane said. "I have a fine dining background, and I want to use those techniques but make it accessible for a neighborhood joint, so everything we do is from scratch."
His small menu centers on 10 hand-held folded Neapolitan pizzas ($16 to $19) inspired by a popular Naples street food. He makes the Neapolitan dough from scratch over a couple of days, roasts his own vegetables and makes his own aiolis. The fillings are combinations of traditional pizza toppings, from pepperoni and cheese, to prosciutto and fig jam, to chicken cutlet and pesto.
"We touch every base. We have our version of what a pizza would be, our version of what a grilled cheese would be, our chicken cutlet, our meatball bomber," Chicane said. "They're inspired by those classic Italian sandwiches."
Chicane also sells a few salads ($14 to $15), rotating daily soup specials ($6) and a cup of cookies ($4), which are baked by his fiancée Deana Summerson.
Artusi is Chicane's sixth restaurant. Most recently, he ran a farm-to-table restaurant in the Hudson Valley for 10 years.
Love brought him back to his hometown. A couple of years ago, he reconnected with Summerson. The two were engaged when Chicane was 20, then spent decades apart, before becoming engaged again recently.
"When I was first engaged, she had her Sunday dinner ... the whole family would get together, and have these really incredible meals, and laugh, and argue, but it was family together," Chicane said. "When we broke up and went our own separate ways, I was kind of at a loss of what to do, but I wanted that feeling, and so I got into cooking."
Beginning in a month, Artusi will also be open for sit-down, farm-to-table dinner Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays by reservation only. Dinner will feature an ever-changing menu and table service.
"It's very intimate," Chicane said. "That's where I'll try to highlight local produce and local chickens and pork and things like that as I find them. That will allow me to spread my wings as a chef."
Artusi is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Restaurant news
Crawfish, grits and shrimp jambalaya are coming to Barker. The Louisiana Cookery, a New Orleans-style restaurant, has closed its Cheektowaga location and is moving to Barker, just a mile and a half from Lake Ontario. The menu will carry over and feature some new items. The new location is at 8671 Lake Road, Barker, at the former site of The Barnyard restaurant.
Guud & Evul Vegan Eats (21 Main St., Tonawanda) has closed its restaurant and catering business. Owner Shawn Mereau said on Instagram that he is stepping back from the restaurant business to focus on family.
"The long hours, the constant grind and the endless responsibilities have taken a toll," Mereau said. "It's time for us to heal, reconnect and realign with what truly matters at our core."
East Aurora bakery and coffee shop Blue Eyed Baker (636 E. Fillmore Ave. East Aurora) has expanded upstairs and opened a rooftop restaurant for bar and dinner service. The dinner menu includes French entrees, such as ratatouille and beef bourguignon, along with sourdough pizza, salads and appetizers. The bar is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Dinner service is 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.
Food events
For a taste of Buffalo's Polish American foods, including pierogi, sausage and golabki (boiled cabbaged-wrapped beef and pork rolls), swing by one of the many Dyngus Day celebrations around the city beginning at noon on April 21. Buffalo, not Poland, is the epicenter of Dyngus Day, a holiday that celebrates the region's Polish ancestry. If you buy a $15 "pussy willow pass" from any Tops location, then you'll gain entry into all eight festival-backed parties. Polish food and drinks will be served at all of the parties and also at some bars and restaurants. Read the official Dyngus Day guide for a full list.
A carousel is a more fitting backdrop for tea than most locations. The Herschell Carousel Factory Museum (180 Thompson St., North Tonawanda) is hosting an afternoon tea with pastries and sandwiches from 2 to 4 p.m. April 26. Tickets are $40. Preregister by calling 716-693-1885.
