Grange turning Pano’s into Mira, Lena Brown-Young at Broadway Market, and German takeout

Brian Nagy beat the restaurant odds with Yankee BBQ, keeping his Hamburg smoker fired up for five years, through a pandemic and out the other side. 

Now he’s opening a full-fledged restaurant and bar in the former Raphael’s, 4572 Clark St., Hamburg. “We’re going for a sports bar with barbecue, not a restaurant with a bar,” he said. Hopefully it’ll open in January.

The new Yankee BBQ will seat 50, with enough television screens for everyone. With more room to cook, Nagy will broaden his current menu of smoked meat specialties like Brontosaurus-sized beef ribs, brisket, and loganberry-glazed pork belly bites.

Brisket cheesesteak with onions and peppers is coming. Barbecue ramen, the love child of two passionate cuisines, will join the menu, in smoked beef brisket, and pork belly with chicharrones.

He’s adding fryers filled with beef tallow, so expect loaded fry baskets, and smoked-then-fried chicken wings.

When Nagy decided to quit his job as a pile driver operator and chase his barbecue dream, he found that some skills transferred nicely from his construction career. A certified welder can build their own smokers at a steep discount.

Then there was the mindset. Barbecue is the opposite of fast-paced a la minute line cooking. It’s the most engineering-adjacent cuisine, requiring mastery of supply, strategy, and systems, requiring a firm grasp of basic thermodynamics.

Barbecue is unforgiving. You can’t make up for poor planning with hustle. That’s why the ingredients for a successful barbecue joint include patience, attention to detail, and leadership, he said. “It takes as long as it takes.”

REVIEW: Pita Gourmet, launched in 2005 by Lebanese immigrant Samira Mahfouz and run by her children, has grown into a local six-store chain whose chicken souvlaki might be the best in town. It also treats its employees better than most fast food places – how many workers at quick-serve restaurants are eligible for 401K with match? That has resulted in more experienced cooks, and customers reap the rewards. (Later today, for patrons.)

Scoops no longer impress these news-mad days. But I’ll long remember Tuesday, Nov. 12, when I managed to tamp down my giddiness long enough to report that the mothballed Pano’s would become Mira, from the Grange Community Kitchen folks.

My number one favorite restaurant in Western New York is finally coming to Buffalo. Owners Brad Rowell, Caryn Dujanovich, and their team have added Ellicottville’s West Rose, Orchard Park’s Grange Outpost, and Wayland Brewing to its Hamburg flagship.

What I’ve seen, heard, and eaten since, only strengthened my case for the Grange outfit. Now Mira takes one of the biggest stages in town, headed by Manuel Ocasio, who I reviewed at the Grange with my first Four Bites critical effort.

I’ve followed since I met him at 18 in the kitchen of Steven Gedra’s The Black Sheep. Have you had Ocasio’s shrimp in pepperoni butter? It’s worth the trip to Hamburg by itself. 

If you’re the sort of Buffalonian who gets the bends when you stray over the city line, sit tight. If all goes well, next year the best outfit in town will show Elmwood what it can do.

Meanwhile, Hamburg is right there.

My wishes have a high mortality rate, but this one hatched. That put me in a reflective mood, so I looked up the statistics on my news bulletin.

My Instagram post was seen by 22,012 accounts. That’s roughly the same number of copies as the Concord (N.H.) Monitor printed daily in 1988, when I joined as a rookie reporter.

My Facebook post reached 14,446. Twitter/X, 39.9K, for roughly 80,000 views. There’s certainly a lot of overlapping accounts, so I’d guess 30,000 human beings reached?

That’s probably more than the number of copies my former employer prints in Cleveland on weekdays. So thank you for your attention, and especially to those brave souls who have, despite repeated warnings and public service announcements, sent $50 to a stranger on the Internet. You makes this possible.

The Pano’s news marks the official end of the Pano’s era on Buffalo. Decades of fans posted their farewells. Did you know the writer who enshrined Pano’s in literature works right down the street?

Today Michael Gibney is chef-owner of Inizio, the popular fresh pasta specialist at 534 Elmwood Ave. Before heading away to the big city for his culinary polishing, he held down the grill at the original Pano’s. Before taking up the fresh pasta lifestyle, he wrote about what it was like to hold down the fort at 2 a.m. in his book.

What do you mean you’ve never read “Sous Chef: 24 Hours on the Line”? If you wonder what Anthony Bourdain would’ve written if he started smashing homefries on Elmwood, you should pick up a copy.

Also, expect an Inizio review soon, for patrons.

EVENT: Meet Lina Brown-Young, who continues the work of Buffalo wing pioneer John Young by serving crispy whole wings slathered in her dad’s mambo sauce.

On Nov. 23, she’ll launch her second sauce, a spicy version. Head to the Broadway Market, 999 Broadway, where she’ll serve samples from noon to 4 p.m.

Since launching in January, the brand has topped $50,000 in sales, reports business partner Marc Moscato. John Young’s Original Mambo Sauce is also on local shelves at Price Choppers, Mandela Market, Big Bear BBQ, Dilly Dallies Spices and Sauces, and Sgt. Pepper’s Hot Sauces Etc.

ASK THE CRITIC

Q: Do you know of a German restaurant locally that does good takeout? I’d like to get some for my father in law’s birthday. Can’t go out for a meal because my mother in law just had major surgery.

• Chris Babin

A: Nearby, my recommendation would be Gerhard’s German Catering, operated by Gerhard Braun, chef-owner of the late, lamented Black Forest Adler. You can follow Gerhard’s on Facebook to see what he’s offering next week, and order dinner delivered.

If you’re more wide-ranging, Swan Market in Rochester is a full-fledged German restaurant. With frosty liters of German brews on tap, no less. Click here for a look at the dishes and surroundings.

One more suggestion, offered because people who’ve been to Germany recently tend to bring it up when German food is mentioned: Rheinblick, in Canandaigua. That’s an 85-minute drive from Buffalo City Hall. If the sauerbraten cravings become too much, it’s not the wurst idea.

More reading from Michael Chelus:

• Mr. Galarneau told us about the variety of Asian cuisines to be found at Inchin’s Bamboo Garden in Amherst [Four Bites]

• Andrew also argued that Buffalo finally has a proper cheese shop in Amabel Provisions [Four Bites]

• Watch Chef Diego Castillo of Breva Kitchen teach a class on how to make arepas [Buffalo News]

• Anastasia’s Artisan Bread is now open in North Tonawanda [Buffalo Rising]

• Andrew gave us a Thanksgiving shopping cheat sheet with great things to buy like a Black Sheep Sticky Toffee Pudding kit from the Farm Shop, real mincemeat pies from Moriarty Meats and more [Four Bites]

• On Saturdays, you can get a burger from Buffalo Bros Burgers before you get your ice cream from Rosie Handcrafted Ice Cream’s city location as the food truck parks right out front [Buffalo Rising]

• Get your beer advent calendars from places like Magic Bear Beer Cellar, Bottle Rocket and more [Buffalo News]

• The team behind the Grange Community Kitchen will open Mira in the space that formerly housed Pano’s on Elmwood [Buffalo Rising]

• Brett wrote about T-Squared Tees & Taps’ newly opened second location on Hertel [Step Out Buffalo]

• Brett also told us about the handmade classics you can get at Roseland’s Atlas before they formally open the restaurant [Step Out Buffalo]

• Brian’s Buffalo Beer Briefs told us of the annual return of Stoutsgiving to Big Ditch, the annual lighting of the fireplace at Hamburg Brewing and more [Step Out Buffalo]

• Unapologetic Coffee is headed further downtown [Buffalo Rising]

• Francesca told us that you can find a proper Southern Brunch at Loud House Buffalo on Hertel Avenue [Buffalo News]

#30#