Jon Riggie brings Gongfu to Elmwood Village, Lucky Day has your seafood tower
Jon Riggie’s Elmwood Village tea shop offers Buffalo a new window into the oldest tea culture on the planet.
Tea has deep roots in China. From circa 2000 BCE mentions of brewing tea until the early 1800s, when England started tea plantations in India, tea was a Chinese thing.
At The Jade Turtle, it still is.
Walk into Riggie’s peaceful, sunlit space at 1007 Elmwood Ave., and Riggie will fill you in on your choices. For $7, he’ll brew aged loose-leaf tea the old-school way.
In Gongfu style, loose-leaf teas are brewed briefly and served in small cups, meant to be sipped hot before the most delicate essences evaporate, then filled repeatedly.
No creams, milks, lemon wedges, sweeteners, or other additives to interfere with the gossamer aromas and flavors of aged tea leaves. Gongfu tea drinkers adding sugar would be like wine connoisseurs topping off a glass of Chateau Lafite Rothschild with Diet Coke.
It’s a quiet, contemplative way to sip a warmer. In a town where tea is mostly used as a mixer, Riggie wasn’t sure Buffalo was ready for a Gongfu tea room when he opened Nov. 15. There’s no food, no to-go orders, no published menu.
Just the promise that for $7 per person, $10 for a couple, Riggie will pour you tea for 15 minutes or more. “You can drink it for 15 minutes, or two hours and 15 minutes if you like,” he said.
Tea has always been considered a health drink in China, an aid to stress relief and a better life. Riggie is an evangelist for its healthful properties, which start with forcing you to pause your day.
At The Jade Turtle, tea education comes free with every cup, starting with your opening selection chat with Riggie. Because tea comes in more forms than the familiar herbal, green, or black varieties. Riggie can pour white tea, made from juvenile leaves, oolong, which is between green and black.
Or pu-erh, tea leaves dry-fermented and aged. This type of tea develops more flavor the longer it ages, Riggie said. “This is from 1,200-year-old tea trees, pressed into this shape in 2016,” he said, showing visitors a paper-wrapped disc the size of a Frisbee.
Tea wrapping paper is made from mulberry fiber, which allows it to age without mold. “Every year it gets better,” Riggie said of aged teas. “In 60 years it’d be the best tea you’ve ever had.”
Riggie grew up in Buffalo, graduated from St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, then moved to Portland, Ore. for 15 years. There, Riggie managed marijuana dispensaries, a different sort of plant retailer. “Earthly things are definitely up my alley,” said Riggie. “But I think tea is a more beneficial thing.”
In Portland, Riggie met an experienced Gongfu master, who taught him about tea. The brewing ritual, precise actions carried out with respectful focus, echoes tai chi, the Chinese meditative exercise practice. Before she poured tea, she had to learn tai chi, Riggie recalled.
Last year, Riggie returned to Buffalo with partner Petra Nobilis and their 3-year-old daughter Nienna.
“Four months here, and I’ve already got a community built up around wellness,” Riggie said. “Tea helps with digestive health, mental clarity, mood elevation, it’s good for your blood. I just like the mellowness of it, getting energy and also calming your body at the same time.”
“It’s honestly about just giving people in Buffalo good tea,” Riggie said. “I’ve been doing this for 12 years, and it’s contributed to my wellness, so I’m just kind of sharing that with anybody that comes in here.”
1007 Elmwood Ave., 716-949-6559
Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Closed Sunday, Monday.
REVIEW: Extra Extra Pizza is more than a pitch-perfect Brooklyn-style slice shop. The busy Five Corners neighborhood restaurant is a thrilling example of a new restaurant model: worker-owned, with 401Ks for everyone, no tipping. The extra in Extra Extra Pizza is its oasis of simplicity at bill-paying time. No moral banana peel to step over before you can leave, no quick tussle with the better angels of your nature before putting a number on the line. Just pay the price. That’s the cherry on this tomato-sauced sundae: All that, and Extra Extra Pizza prices are on par with other topnotch Buffalo places. (Later today, for patrons.)
ASK THE CRITIC:
Q: What are the best places in Buffalo to get a seafood tower?
– Brad Loliger, Buffalo
A: Having ordered all the seafood towers that I could find in the Buffalo area, for research purposes, naturally, there’s only one still available I’d order again.
Lucky Day Whiskey Bar, a longtime favorite for its best-in-city happy hour steak frites and half-bacon cheeseburger, also offers the most legit seafood tower. Half dozen each oysters and Old Bay poached shrimp, 7-ounce lobster tail, salmon tartare, mignonette, lemon, and drawn butter.
That’ll be $150, reasonable these days. You can go to Hayes Seafood House in Clarence and assemble your own seafood feast, to be sure. But you cannot get Lucky Day happy hour $6 Manhattans.
More reading from Michael Chelus:
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Mr. Galarneau wrote about the distinct pleasures of Yemeni cooking found at Almandi Restaurant [Four Bites]
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Parker’s Great British Institution will be reopening its fish and chips shop [Four Bites]
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Co-founders of Mister Sizzles, Chris and Casey Casas, are moving forward with a new concept in Hamburg – Augie’s [Step Out Buffalo]
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The former Armor Inn in Hamburg has closed and will reopen as 1812 Tavern [Buffalo Business First]
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Francesca told us where to go on Maple Weekend including stops at Benz’s Sugar Shanty, Ploetz’s Maple Syrup and more [Buffalo News]
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Newell told us the story behind 195 Grant Street Kitchen and its owner, Jonathan Foreman [Buffalo Rising]
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Brett took us to Big Ditch’s newly opened second location in Lockport [Step Out Buffalo]
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Brett also wrote about the Burmese cuisine you can find at Millions Tin [Step Out Buffalo]
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