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"Pizza Plant's prior cannoli cone was a thing of wonder, feature scoops of cannoli filling untraditionally placed atop an ice cream cone and served upside down in a dish."
When local food news is of interest to our editors, we'll bring it to you here. In this week's update: first word on a brand new location of Duff's, an update on The Eastern Pearl, "WNY's newest fine dining Chinese restaurant," some mixed details on the bankruptcy of Buffalo's Dunkin' Donuts franchisee Kainos Partners, and an exciting, nostalgic addition to the Pizza Plant dessert menu. If your restaurant has news to share with Buffalo Chow's thousands of readers, e-mail us at hungry (at) buffalochow (dot) com!
Duff's is coming to Depew, Buffalo Chow has learned. Like other recently-opened locations of the venerable Amherst chicken wing restaurant, this one will be a franchise, but it will be operated by someone with years of experience at the Amherst location. Like the Orchard Park Duff's, which we weren't as impressed by, it will have a sports bar theme. No word yet on its opening date or menu - both the Orchard Park and Toronto, Canada locations offer sauces that aren't available at the Amherst one.
The Eastern Pearl, the gourmet Chinese restaurant originally slated to open earlier this year as a replacement for Williamsville's Chang's Garden, remains under construction. Extensively remodeled following the fire that shut down its predecessor, The Eastern Pearl now has a grand, Maple Road-facing entrance and is in the process of recruiting staff via a web site.
Local Dunkin' Donuts franchise owner Kainos Partners has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing sales declines and rising food costs as issues impacting its ability to operate locations. Kainos, which has 56 current Dunkin' restaurants and 8 more under construction, also operates in South Carolina, and Nevada; Dunkin' Donuts' parent company says that it "remain[s] committed to the Buffalo, Greenville and Las Vegas markets" served by Kainos, though it's unclear how much the local Dunkin' restaurants will suffer from the filing. Reports indicate that four locations will close this Saturday, two in or near the Boulevard Mall, and two in Cheektowaga, with Kainos's largest creditor taking a majority stake in the franchisee and keeping it afloat.
Loved for its pods, Pizza Plant has announced the return of a Buffalo Chow favorite - the cannoli cone - as an addition to its summertime menu. The prior cannoli cone was a thing of wonder, feature scoops of cannoli filling untraditionally placed atop an ice cream cone and served upside down in a dish. We're looking forward to giving one of the restaurant's most memorable past desserts another try real soon.
In brief Buffalo Chow news, we've added ratings to our reviews of Old Man River and China Max based on follow-up visits, and also expanded our rating system to include quarter-stars - a move that we felt necessary given the number of restaurants that deserved a little more or a little less than half-stars could offer. As we had previously indicated in our reviews every time a restaurant was right in the middle of two ratings, we'll update the stars as appropriate to reflect what was in our prior text.
