Sunday News: Buffalo’s first Burmese restaurateur throttles back to enjoy life

Kevin and Stephanie Lin keeping Williamsville Sun, closing original, adding restaurant ‘pod’

Kevin Lin took off his Titleist baseball cap for a portrait in the room where he introduced me to Burmese cuisine.

Kevin Lin, Buffalo’s first Burmese restaurateur, is closing his original restaurant and starting Buffalo’s first restaurant pod, aiming to create opportunities for others.

The Williamsville location of Sun Cuisines, 5759 Main St., will stay open, but the original Sun location at 1989 Niagara St. will become a different restaurant.

What exactly remains to be seen, but this much is for sure: Lin won’t run it. He’s looking for another operator, so he can switch to a landlord role. “Less headaches,” he said. Now he can spend more time living a life that includes meditating and golfing, in addition to his business ventures.

Inspired by a visit to Portland, Oregon, Lin is also developing Buffalo’s first restaurant pod. That’s a spot where independent food operators can set up trailers to sell food on a daily basis, like an outdoor food court. Lin sees the pod approach as a way for small one or two-person operations to see how their menu hits before locking in concepts.

“I already know life is not permanent,” said Lin, “so I want to be ready for my retirement, semi-retirement, whatever.”

Lin and his wife Stephanie arrived in the United States from Burma in 1996, after winning an immigration lottery. Another Burmese immigrant from Lin’s hometown of Dawei got Kevin and Stephanie into the sushi-rolling business.

In Buffalo, Kevin and Stephanie worked on learning English, making their first appearance in The Buffalo News in 2002. A photograph shows them listening to Literacy Volunteers tutor Brenda Capers at a literacy center on Delaware Avenue.

For a decade, the couple rolled sushi under contract in Wegmans stores in Western New York and Erie, Pa. In his spare time, Lin bought and rehabilitated Buffalo buildings.

Sun International Market opened at 1989 Niagara St. in 2010, becoming a restaurant the following year. There, Lin introduced me to owno koksware, the Burmese curry coconut chicken noodle soup.

About 100 Burmese immigrants have learned how to work in an American kitchen at Sun, Lin said. Most went on to open their own places or continue their restaurant careers. “I trained them,” he said. “I told them how to open, how to make recipe, and if you take care, you will grow, you will make money.”

There are now at least 15 Burmese-Thai restaurants in the Buffalo area. Lin expects the operation that takes over his Niagara Street restaurant to do something different.

Meanwhile, other up-and-coming food operations can get a spot in the Niagara Street pod to start making their way in the world, Lin said. He’s looking for operations that want to set up there, while work is under way to install proper electricity and wastewater systems for the pod.

He’s also looking for an operator to take over the restaurant. His email is kevinsuncuisine@gmail.com.

At Inizio, the promise of Michael Gibney’s pesto is potent motivation to survive another Buffalo winter.

REVIEW: Michael Gibney’s restaurant Inizio has survived pandemic and conflagration, buoyed by its role as a steady Elmwood Village favorite and the fact that it does one thing better than any restaurant in Buffalo: fresh pasta, dressed for the occasion. The noodles themselves are all eggless, vegan by design, and arrive in a marvelous menagerie of pasta topographies. Seasonal attractions like deeply aromatic pesto and classics like tagliatelle Bolognese have made it a happy place for pasta diehards and diners who want fine food without stuffy surroundings. (Later today, for patrons.)

Cookies for a Cause: For a decade, Rebecca Decker has helped home bakers and cookie fans harness the power of holiday cheer to help build a better Buffalo.

The 10th Cookies for a Cause will have home-baked holiday cookies ready for pickup 2 p.m.-5 p.m. Dec. 14, at Flying Bison Brewing Co., 840 Seneca St.

At $15 a dozen, $50 for a box of about 30, 100 percent of the cookie sale proceeds go to the Matt Urban Center, 1080 Broadway. So far, Decker’s baking brigade and its customers have raised more than $18,000 for the center. “We are hoping to break $20,000 this year,” Decker said.

To buy cookies, order here. To join the brigade, email Decker at cookiesforacausebuf@gmail.com.

ASK THE CRITIC

On r/Buffalo, u/Mother_Demand1833 wrote: “I moved away from Buffalo about eight years ago for work-related reasons, but I sometimes come back to visit.

When I was there last spring, it really hit me that my hometown is now missing something that I once felt was integral to its identity: the 24 hour Greek-American diner.

I guess I took it for granted while growing up, but we had so many of these places. The Olympic, The Royal, Tom’s Diner, The Hillview and The Forestview, Pano’s, The Towne… Whether I was in the city proper or the suburbs, I was always close to some cozy establishment where I could eat spanakopita and rice pudding at 3:00 AM.”

What happened to Buffalo’s Greek diners, and what are the best diner-like settings today?

My contribution to the conversation that followed:

The Greek diner culture flourished at a time when you could make a living selling potatoes, eggs, hot dogs, and chicken souvlaki. The margins, costs, and minimum legal wages post-pandemic were enough for a lot of progeny to seek their fortunes elsewhere.

These days, many of the folks serving post-midnight eats are Indian or Bengali.

The Holy Feast truck, in the parking lot of the gas station at Main and Winspear, 3198 Main St, is open till 4 am Thursday-Saturday, otherwise midnight.

Taste of Bengal, 3065 Bailey Ave, is open until 2 am Friday and Saturday, 1 am otherwise.

Also, if you mourn Buffalo’s Greek diner culture, this might be a good way to waste some time: watching diehard diner lovers Kevin Thurston, Roy Bakos, and myself discussing the matter at length in a conversation published to the currently moribund Four Bites YouTube channel. We passionately disagreed on many points, but united over Sophia’s rebuilt Military Road site as our current ideal.

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