Healthier eats tips for Elmwood Village, where to find shrimp parm

Every workday, worn-out breadwinners finish shifts and head home with one more mission: pick up dinner.

They dial pizzeria numbers they know by heart, spend wild money for supermarket steam-table meals, or head for the past of least resistance: the dismal drive-thru. Swallowing a twinge of shame at feeding their families fries and chicken nuggets, they wish they knew of better options.

That’s why I wish more people knew about Salt Cuisine. A half mile from Buffalo’s busiest crossroads, the Amherst food shop has offered scratch-made meals for almost a decade. Beth James opened the shop at 2182 Kensington Ave., next to gluten-free champion Vin-Chet Bakery, in 2015.

Chelsae Steward, her longtime assistant, took over in 2022, keeping Salt Cuisine’s lineup of fresh ready-to-go meals and frozen heat-and-serve entrees coming. Chicken pot pie, meatloaf, soups, salads, and specials delight Salt Cuisine’s fans. Unfortunately, since the pandemic, there haven’t been enough of them.

In that regard, Steward has plenty of company in the restaurant business these days. Facing steady economic headwinds, many small restaurant owners tie on their apron every morning knowing they’ll probably lose money today, too.

Steward worked toward her own restaurant for a decade, graduating from Emerson School of Hospitality, the Buffalo Public School’s teaching kitchen, and taking culinary classes at Erie Community College. So she’s not giving up easily. But if she can’t find more fans, she has to find something else to do.

So if you are learning about Salt Cuisine for the first time, stop by soon. The menu changes each week. Maybe you’ll leave with a chicken pot pie in a double butter crust ($14.99). Or some soup, Buffalo chicken, loaded baked potato, or coconut curry cauliflower ($9.99). Whole quiches ($29.99) come in flavors like spinach, roasted red pepper, feta, and the classic bacon, cheddar, scallion.

Dinners ($14.99-$19.99) run from meatloaf and eggplant parm to stuffed peppers, BBQ pork ribs, and corned beef.

If more people know what Salt Cuisine has to offer, Chelsae Steward might be busier. She may decide to keep at it, offering better dinners to local families.

She’s already giving Salt Cuisine her all, but perhaps that’s not enough. That’s the way it works in the restaurant business sometimes, and she knows that all too well.

Salt Cuisine, 2182 Kensington Ave., saltcuisineinc.com, 716-839-0300

Hours: noon-5 p.m. Monday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. Closed Saturday, Sunday.

REVIEW: The sit-down pizza parlor once roamed in great herds across America before being driven to the brink of extinction by the expansion of delivery systems and takeout spots. At Hydraulic Hearth, in the redeveloped Larkin Square neighborhood, pizzaolos stretch dough and fire pies in the brick oven while customers stretch their legs and enjoy Hydraulic’s draft beer selections and rum-centered tiki cocktails. The result has friends and families lining up for casual dining that makes going out in the cold worth it. (Later today, for patrons)

EVENT: Steven Gedra and Bruce Wieszala have a date with a pig.

Raised at Always Something Farm, Darien, the animal will be expertly exploited by the chefs in a five-course Snout-to-Tail Dinner on March 10 at Beacon Grille.

Gedra, whose restaurant resume includes Black Sheep and St. Neri, has long practiced the art of whole-animal cookery, offering dishes like roasted pig’s head and trotter nachos. Wieszala, who has been turning animals into charcuterie and other delicacies for nearly two decades, was formerly Gedra’s sous chef at Bistro Europa in 2010.

Now it’s Wieszala hosting the porkapalooza, at Beacon Grille, his new fire-driven restaurant in Allentown. Here’s what to expect:

House cured meats

Pork liver devilled eggs with bacon jam

Pork phơ with pork skin noodles

Pork rillons, endive, apple, currant sauce. (Rillions are similar to rilletes, the confited pork spread. The difference is that rillions are chunked, not shredded, and made from belly.)

Sticky toffee pudding

Cost is $209.43 including tax and tip, get tickets here.

Shrimp parm sighting: Shrimp parm, the crustacean-based version of chicken parm, is popular in South Florida, New York City, and New Jersey, but not Buffalo. Roaming gourmand Larry Kerman reports that just across the river in Ft. Erie, you can find it on the menu at Rizzo’s House of Parm, Matty Matheson’s restaurant.

ASK THE CRITIC

Q: Where can we find more simple, healthy eating options (grilled protein, grain, vegetables) near the Elmwood Village?

• Wendy, Elmwood Village

A: Here’s some of the places I’d consider.

Street Asian Food: For both the Burmese national dish of tea leaf salad, but also its bracing ginger salad cousin, which swaps out the fermented tea leaves of lahpet thoat with fresh ginger root (both $7). Laos’ national dish, som tam, green papaya salad ($9), mango salad ($8), hardboiled egg curry ($14), and sushi rolls in vegetable, sweet potato, and avocado ($6).

Lexington Co-op: Lexi’s salad bar ($12.99/pound) includes grain salads, along with the usual salad bar fixings.

Globe Market: Caesar salad with grilled Greek chicken ($15.95) fits the bill, part of Globe’s substantial soup and salad repertoire.

Tipico Coffee: Chipotle cauliflower toast ($7) might hit the spot on a menu that puts house-baked Pullman loaves to good use.

Mr. Greek: Chicken souvlaki salad ($9.20) is grilled protein on a salad, probably the most Buffalo choice of all.

Close: Five Points Bakery, Power toast (organic pumpkin, sunflower and flaxseed bread) with local goat cheese and peach apricot jam ($10). Like all of Five Point’s breads, Power Bread ($7.75 a loaf) is made from flour ground in-house from New York-grown grain.

More reading from Michael Chelus:

• Mr. Galarneau wrote about the Thai and Burmese flavors now available in Allentown at Bamboo Ridge [Four Bites]

• Andrew also told us about the delicious ice cream offered by former Grange Community Kitchen pastry chef, Jenn Batt, under her brand – Quokka Sweets [Four Bites]

• As someone who just visited, I agree with Andrew that Puerto Rico is worth a trip [Four Bites]

• Chef James Roberts has agreed to take the position of Executive Chef for Wanakah Country Club [Buffalo News]

• Get Wagyu smash burgers and Nashville hot chicken sandwiches at Tito’s Tavern in Williamsville [Step Out Buffalo]

• Brian’s weekly roundup up of local beer news included the return of the NYS Craft Brewers Festival to Canalside, Magic Bear Beer Cellars with Syracuse’s Talking Cursive Brewery and more [Step Out Buffalo]

• Christa told us the story of Chef Valentina Garcia Montaño [Buffalo Spree]

• The Spree published its 2025 Fish Fry List [Buffalo Spree]

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