Defy death with every bite, then settle in for some beans & greens at Little Italy holdout

“What would you choose for your last meal?” is a fun icebreaker at parties. The answer can tell you more about a person than their resume. 

As a professional chowhound, my interests are more granular. 

“What do you let yourself have every once in a while?” works better to triangulate hunger zones. What is your reward for completing another circumnavigation of the sun?

The deep-fried calzone at Michael’s comes to mind. Take the dough for a medium pizza. Fill it with seasoned ricotta, mozzarella and favored pizza toppings. Then pinch it off and deep-fry.

Sprawling across the box like a great golden-brown whale, Michael’s calzone represents a pinnacle of the pizzeria arts.  At $19 for the cheese-plus-one-topping, $16 straight up, with a cup of Michael’s tomato sauce for dunking, every bite blows death a hale raspberry.

Tomorrow we may die, but tonight we feast.

This particular calzone has had my number for almost 20 years. When I worked at the Niagara County bureau of The Buffalo News, Michael’s was high on my list of go-to lunches. There was another place that had interesting pastas, served in a former automobile service station with selections from the Godfather movies on the television.

That lasted a season. Michael’s has been a Pine Avenue stalwart since 1960. Michael Capizzi bought the restaurant he’d worked at to start Michael’s. Run by son Michael Capizzi Jr. today, it’s the rare family restaurant that has survived generational transition.

Second-generation customers return to Michael’s Restaurant for reliable Italian-American favorites that seem to stay the course when everything else is up for grabs. They come by for a quart of beans and greens, packed with foliage and legumes in a romano cheese broth. Or the chef salad, whose rolled mozzarella and dill pickle chips make it inexplicably craveable.

Out front is an ornamental arch marking the entrance to Little Italy, dedicated in 2002. Two decades later, Michael’s Restaurant is one of the last Italian restaurants on Pine Avenue. Fortunately for Niagara Falls, Michael’s carries on.

So go for a calzone, or stuffed shells, or gnocchi with mushrooms and a bowl or beans and greens. As long as Michael’s runs, there’s still a little Italian in Little Italy.

Michael’s Restaurant, 3011 Pine Ave., Niagara Falls, michaelsniagarafalls.com, 716-282-4043

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