Dining	Food News You Can Use by AV Editorial

Scott and Jaclyn Wisz are off to a sweet start with their European-style confectionery and café, Chow Chocolat (731 Main Street). The brand new establishment, opened just last week, offers a great assortment of international flavors—authentic French croissants and pain au chocolat, homemade artisan chocolates, sipping chocolate, single-origin coffees, and exotic teas—that are otherwise rarely encountered in the Queen City. The Wiszes are long-time proprietors of baking business Cookie Confections, whose products you’ve probably seen before at the Bidwell Farmers Market. The large space at Chow Chocolat has allowed them to move their baking operations for that business into the commercial kitchen in back. In front is a spacious, comfortable café with an open floor plan that centers around two striking crystal chandeliers. Twenty-foot high ceilings and correspondingly high windows allow ample natural light to wash over the space, which is furnished with half a dozen or so café tables, several plush red chairs and a couch. The chocolates range in flavor from exotic (coconut curry, passion fruit, orange/grand marnier, lemon) to more common varieties (milk, dark, white, espresso). The Wiszes are committed to running an environmentally sustainable business, which means their straws, disposable cups, and lids are compostable and made from corn, napkins are made from 100 percent recycled, post-consumer materials, and products such as sugar, fair trade chocolate and fair trade coffees are all organic. Notably, the coffees they sell come from single coffee estates (rather than being mixes from several farms) around the world in countries like Kenya, Yemen, Ethiopia, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Sumatra. Once the espresso machine arrives next week and the Wiszes secure an al fresco dining permit, Chow Chocolat will probably be the next best thing to actually hopping on a plane and visiting Paris.

Chow Chocolat

While we’re on the topic of France, it should be mentioned that French bistro Tabree (423 Elmwood Avenue), is making final preparations for its upcoming opening. The restaurant, which is a partnership between Bryan Bryndle and Tara DeJoseph, has been completely renovated to include a 10-seat, full-service bar, and the old booths have been moved outside to the huge patio. Café tables decorate the indoor dining area. The menu is simple, classic French—steak au poivre, foie gras, and, of course, canard—and is peppered with a fair sampling of that language, lending it an exotic, adventurous flair. All dishes stress fresh, clean ingredients, particularly fruits and vegetables, and none ring in over $30. Now all they’ve got to do is secure their plumbing permit so the restaurant and liquor licenses can go through. According to Bryndle, it should probably be another three weeks or so before the opening.

You’ll be reading more about Cocktails and More (1412 Kensington Avenue, near the corner of Eggert) in these pages soon enough, but we’ll start plugging the place now: This music club for grownups has terrific food and a handsome patio, and the regular musical lineup includes a jazz quartet every Thursday and every other Tuesday, (Rey Scott, Greg Millar, Ron Peterson, and Robert Garrett). On the alternate Tuesdays, legendary R&B guitarist Count Rabbit takes the stage. The menu is short, sweet, and cheap: For about $10 you can have a plate of jerk chicken or beautifully cooked salmon with two sides—the collard greens and the candied yams are both standouts. The service is friendly and considerate; introduce yourself to the owners, Irene and Larry, and ask them what their mission is. It’ll inspire you.

There’s a new snack food delivery business here in Buffalo that promises to make life easier for the busy, the weary, and, it’s implied, the stoned. Who’s Got the Munchies? (828-6927 / whosgotthemunchiesonline.com) is run by 25-year-old Mark Czerniejewski, a former heating and air conditioning salesman who “got tired of arguing with the girlfriend about who gets the snacks.” That apparently lit a light bulb in his head, and he started buying snacks wholesale from companies like Frito Lay and Hostess and delivering them out of his Richmond Avenue apartment with a partner. Who’s Got the Munchies? delivers candy bars, Doritos, Hostess snacks, nuts, cookies, granola bars, popcorn, and on and on, each at a modest mark-up from in-store prices. They’re waiting on a tobacco license right now, after which they’ll offer cigarettes and blunts. Depending on how business shapes up, WGM may add fresh-baked, homemade daily specials like cookies and cupcakes. And Czerniejewski’s artist-girlfriend will decorate every delivery bag with a unique work of Sharpie art.