Jackie Jocko’s plan puts protege at his piano in downtown Hyatt steakhouse

Polish Villa specials celebrate 45th year, The Nickel Plate food hall opens, and six African cuisines offered in Buffalo

Howard Goldman, left, is trading his Friday night cocktail piano session in Hyatt atrium to nightly, or close, at Hyatt restaurant, as mentor Jackie Jocko intended.

The opportunity to dine while a piano player tickles the ivories at a baby grand has disappeared from the Buffalo restaurant world.

That changes this summer, when modern steakhouse Johnny D’s opens in the Hyatt Regency Buffalo. Where legendary entertainer Jackie Jocko once held sway when it was E.B. Green’s, Howard Goldman will entertain.

Goldman has prepared for this moment for nearly two decades. Jocko trained him for three years, going to Goldman’s house after his E.B. Green’s shifts to drill Goldman on the fine points. Jocko’s piano, which became Goldman’s piano, will be moved to the restaurant’s dining room this week.

“That’s what Jocko was preparing me for,” said Goldman. “That’s what he wanted. Which seemed crazy, even to me. Because there were people that were much more talented, ready to do something like that.” said Goldman. “But he wanted me.” 

In 2011, as cocktail piano venues died out, Goldman started his own virtual venue, Lounge Academy. Using a homebrew multi-camera setup, fans of cocktail piano and the great American songbook tune into Lounge Academy’s Friday night sets from around the world. More than 100 guests might drift through Goldman’s penumbra on any given Friday night, online or around his piano, ensconced in the Hyatt atrium.

Cocktail pianists do more than offer fancier Muzak. They gauge the atmosphere in the room and aim to accent it with music. Talking to guests while they play is part of the role, as a greeter, master of ceremonies, and overall social sparkplug.

“We don’t do any new stuff,” said Goldman, who played throughout the interview. “The songs are the Great American Songbook, and we’re keeping that link from being broken, so it’s not just the three or four songs they hear at a wedding.”

When Dan Berger booked a trip to Buffalo from his home in Atlanta, he rescheduled dinner reservations to spend an hour next to Howard Goldman playing cocktail piano. That’s Berger’s Friday ritual, as one of Goldman’s longtime listeners, dubbed “lounge cadets.” 

The in-the-flesh session of Lounge Academy was extra special, since Berger usually participates via livestream, from his Georgia home. “It’s Friday night,” said Berger. “I’ve got a rye in my glass. It’s just starting to hit my bloodstream, and I say, ‘I’m cooking dinner, I need to turn on Howard.’ ”

Johnny D’s will start taking reservations by the end of June, if all goes well. 

“This is the first real job I’ve had since I was in school,” Goldman said. “I feel like my parents are sending me away to an amusement park.”

How would Jocko react to his protege getting to step up to the big time?

“He’d be squealing with delight.”

Butter roast dosa, with chutneys, at Nellai Banana Leaf

REVIEW: While 95 percent of Indian restaurant menus in Western New York offer the same core Northern Indian dishes, Nellai Banana Leaf offers a chance to explore Southern Indian cooking, which is dramatically different, with dosas, idly, vadai, and other genius gluten-free appetizers. Plus dishes from Chettinad culture, which rely more on balanced sourness for their savor than the sweet cream lullabies of butter chicken. (For patrons, later today.)

OPENINGS

The Nickel Plate is serving customers at Niagara Frontier Food Terminal after its grand opening last week.

Chicken fingers fried ($13), wings ($16), wraps ($9-$12), and totatchos, tater tots loaded with vegetarian nacho toppings, headline offerings. Read the menu here. 

A dozen taps dispense craft brews from Buffalo and elsewhere, along with two flavors of Labatts. Beer is also available for grab-and-go customers.

The Nickel Plate, 1500 Clinton St., Unit 174, tnpbuffalo.com, 716-939-2039. Hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. daily.

If you want to find Buffalo’s best eats, get Four Bites.

CELEBRATIONS

Polish Villa celebrates its 45th year in business with special pricing May 24-May 31, available 4 p.m.-6 p.m., while supplies last.

Polish Villa, 2954 Union Road, Cheektowaga, polishvillaunion.com, 716-683-9460

ASK THE CRITIC

Q: Where can I get African food in Buffalo? I’m from the District of Columbia, where Ethiopian and Somalian restaurants are everywhere.

  • Jan K., via email

A: Five African restaurants currently serve Buffalo, by my count. As always, readers, please do fill me in on what I’ve missed.

Abyssinia Ethiopian Cuisine, which serves Ethiopian vegetable and meat samplers on injera, and more, is in Downtown Bazaar, 617 Main St.

So is Nile River, a South Sudanese outfit with some broadly African dishes, like sukuma wiki, collard green stew, and ful medames.

Yalley’s peanut soup with chicken and fufu

Yalley’s, 290 Kenmore Ave., is Ghanaian, with red-red, peanut stew, fufu, deep-fried turkey tails, and jollof rice.

Malkia & Co., with a Congolese-centered menu, is in West Side Bazaar, 1432 Niagara St.

Buffalo Suya, 2383 Fillmore Ave., serves Nigerian cuisine, including nkwobi (spicy cow’s foot), abacha (spicy shredded cassava), and pepper goat.

More reading from Michael Chelus:

#30#

Leave a Reply