Theatre district eats...

We try to always eat somewhere off the beaten path when traveling, because a place is often remembered by a specific meal as much as the other activities.

We found a gem in the downtown theatre district of Buffalo, N.Y. It was Perfetto, a cozy Italian based restaurant with ambiance and absolutely nobody dining in it.

We walked in to find the waiter hanging out at the bar and as we walked in he waved real big, "hey!"

"Hey, are you guys open?"

"Yes, we've just been chillin' waiting on somebody to come in and eat!"

He told us we had our pick of seating (with humor, of course) and we chose a cozy corner table next to the faux fire place. "You'll have your own personal chef tonight, so take your time!"

It was our lucky day. The place was great, and the waiter was phenomenal.



You would think a restaurant of that caliber that sat completely empty may have something wrong with it, but after a conversation with the waiter we discovered that a mass construction project out their front windows, paired with nothing going on in the district made for a fairly quiet night.

"Most people live in suburban Buffalo," he explained. "They only come here to work, or if there is something going on down here to bring them back to the city - especially on a Saturday night."

It made perfect sense. It reminded me a lot of downtown Topeka. After 5 p.m. it's a ghost town unless the Performing Arts Center has something going on. Add that to the war zone like construction right at their front door, complete with a chain link fence, it wasn't exactly welcoming.

"They'll be done with all of this in November, and by that time it'll be better. There are many nights that this place is packed to the gills - especially in the winter time," he explained. "The water front restaurants are all packed this time of year and then it flips when the weather turns colder and the show season starts back up."

I am happy we found the place because it was divine. I had Carbonara. Anything with butter and bacon over freshly made pasta has to be good, and it was!  We started with a little bruschetta and fresh baked rolls with red pepper pesto, and finished off the meal by splitting a delicious pastry dish four ways that included blood orange sorbet paired with puff pastry filled with sweetened ricotta. We were all four in heaven.

One of the perks of traveling is finding these places off the beaten path, and rolling out the door to tell everybody about them.