Enjoying Milton's, the Statler Lobby bar

Rare public ping pong table, grand architecture, and intriguing cooking from Adrian Bylewski are draws

If you didn’t know Adrian Bylewski was running the kitchen solo, you couldn’t tell from the dishes that land on the Milton’s table.

Walking up to Hotel Statler last night, across Niagara Square from City Hall, I realized it’d been more than a decade since I was inside the century-old edifice.

While its grand ballroom and 18 floors are renovated under ownership of Douglas Jemal’s Douglas Development, the lobby bar, now dubbed Milton’s, opens Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

The lobby and fountain are worth a goggle before heading up the stairs to the bar. Dark, clubby, equipped with a full-service bar and leather sofas, Milton’s is old-school swanky.

Adrian Bylewski, who once commanded the Buffalo Chophouse brigade as executive chef, is working on his own restaurant. His Cast & Coal Wood Fire Kitchen menu was such a hit that the usual one-week Milton’s stint has been extended through January.

Bylewski has the Milton’s kitchen to himself through Jan. 26.

Now folks have eight more days to check out his work – in a building that you probably want to check out anyways. Go for Bylewski’s cooking, and the grand architecture, echoes of a time when Buffalo was a big deal on the forefront of national commerce.

Stay for the ping-pong table. In the lobby, next to Milton’s entrance, a ping pong table, paddles, and balls await. I’ve searched for a public ping-pong table for years, ever since the University at Buffalo’s Student Union started checking IDs.

Here’s wishing more restaurants offered post-prandial table tennis to get the joints moving again and aid digestion. Of all the wacky marketing stunts operators are willing to bet on, surely places with room to swing and a ceiling high enough to accommodate lobs could get in on the paddle game.

The magnet that drew me to Milton’s was a pork chop. Mike Parkot of Always Something Farm provided Bylewski with cuts of a Mangalitsa pig raised in Darien, dry-aged 60 days to concentrate the flavor.

This wasn’t just any pig. Marilyn helped Always Something Farm make a name for itself, and Parkot penned her his own appreciation.

On the plate, Marilyn was honored. Dry-aging magnified the porcine aspects while imbuing each bite with wisps of husky blue cheese funk. A touch of fragrant sweet marsala wine and pan-fired grapes added to its pleasure.

The chops are probably gone by the time you read this. Usually I steer away from explicating dishes my readers can’t have, because that borders on cruelty. But Bylewski’s hoped-for restaurant should include comparable dishes, and there’s the rest of the Cast & Coal dishes on offer Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays through Jan. 26.

Like this beef tartare, with smoked pickled onion, capers, and a brilliant dusting of beet-horseradish powder ($16).