Meet the 2024 Restaurant Survey champion

The 2024 Restaurant Survey makes one thing clear: Business First readers are loyal to their favorite restaurants.

This annual feature asks you, our readers: What is your favorite restaurant? We accept up to five responses and tabulate the results by giving greatest weight to the first response and then lessening weights to Nos. 2-5.

This year's winner? Oliver's, the Delaware Avenue restaurant that extends its 2023 victory for another year.

The other names in the top five will be no surprise to readers familiar with the survey. Hutch's, Ristorante Lombardo, Lucia's on the Lake, Prescott's Provisions — they've all made at least two appearances in previous years' top fives.

Click here to read more about them all.

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Brookfield Country Club's $27M renovation

The clubhouse at Brookfield Country Club in Clarence has been transformed in a $27.5 million project more than two years in the making.

The project was first announced in 2022 as a $15 million expansion. That price tag ballooned as construction costs rose and the scope of the project grew, according to Mark Maier, Brookfield general manager and chief operating officer Mark Maier.

Work is scheduled to wrap up in March, and Maier said the ambitious project has been worth it.

"Our end goal was to make this a year-round lifestyle center facility, not just as a restaurant and a golf course," he said. | Read more (and see inside)

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U.S. Navy invests millions in North Tonawanda company

A North Tonawanda company that’s been investing in new equipment for the last two years is planning another $10 million in upgrades with help from the U.S. Navy.

Buffalo Pumps , a subsidiary of the public company Ampco-Pittsburgh Corporation , plans to upgrade its facility and buy new additive manufacturing equipment to double production capacity in three years and add 20 jobs at the 874 Oliver St. facility.

“For years our parent company didn’t invest in this business,” company President John Rice said. “Most of our machine shop and factory equipment was super old with an average of 42 years old.” | Read more

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Concert venues face tests as costs soar and ticket sales slow

Since countless venues like the Fredonia Opera House won't land on Taylor Swift's tour arena list, they have to do what they can to battle for entertainment dollars made scarce by incessant inflation.

Pollstar found the average concert ticket price cost was $127.38 as of the middle of this year, up from $92.42 five years ago and $105.55 two years ago.

That 34.3% increase hasn't yielded higher proceeds for artists, though. Average show grosses are down about 7% from a year ago, to $1.37 million. That forces artists to increase their fees to maintain their incomes.

Venues like the Fredonia Opera House, which posted a total attendance of 8,565 in 2023 and 3,490 so far this year, won't approach numbers like this. But they perhaps feel the effects of inflation more. | Read more

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County to auction off 100-acre ECC campus

Erie Community College 's South Campus is headed to the auction block, opening up more than 100 acres of developable land right next door to the Buffalo Bills new stadium.

Many new NFL stadiums include plans for hotels, restaurants, retail and other amenities in their initial design. That's not the case for New Highmark Stadium.

Developers have described several obstacles discouraging private investment near the stadium site, and the lack of usable land is one of the largest. The campus is the most obvious site for development, with two large parcels between Southwestern Boulevard and Big Tree Road, bordering the stadium site.

Now that property is expected to go up for sale, though many procedural steps still must be taken before that happens. | Read more

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What’s new at Quaker Crossing? Tenants, expansion & more

Quaker Crossing, the shopping center located at 3420 Amelia Drive in Orchard Park, has managed to keep a high occupancy rate and attract mixed-use tenants, mirroring a larger trend among outdoor shopping centers.

“At our core, we believe that the foundation of our success lies in the success of our tenants, which is why we have such an extensive list of tenants that have been with us from the beginning,” wrote Carly Calorico, lease administrator, in an email. |

Quaker Crossing is an excellent example of a trend that has been growing nationwide for years — and it's working. | Read more

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Wingnutz to take over sports bar near airport

Wingnutz is opening a second restaurant near the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

The restaurant inside the Buffalo Airport Hotel at 4600 Genesee St., will replace Sports 365 Bar & Grill. Wingnutz Buffalo finalized a deal Oct. 9 to open the new site in partnership with Stephen Development, which acquired the hotel three years ago and opened the bar in the former Max’s.

The partnership gives Wingnutz a highly visible location next to the airport, while giving the hotel a built-in draw for wing-lovers here and outside the region: Wingnutz has received visitors from all over since it was named the No. 1 chicken wing in the world by Barstool Sports, the digital sports media company. | Read more

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This Weekly Edition was compiled by Sara Paulson Meehan. Questions? Comments? Concerns??Send them [email protected].