Patina 250, Jake's Cafe to open in August at 250 Delaware

The dust and symphonic sound of construction crews working serve as a foreshadow for Delaware North’s latest investment at its headquarters.

Crews continue to work on the 130-seat Patina 250 restaurant and adjoining Jake’s Cafe, both of which will offer food options in the company's new digs within Uniland Development Co.’s 250 Delaware Building.

Yet, the food offerings will be decidedly different, by design.

Jake’s Cafe, which will be open from early morning for breakfast through the early evening dinner hours, will focus on “grab-and-go” options along with bistro style offerings like freshly-grilled hamburgers and other types of sandwiches. Jake’s will have 20 inside seats but is really designed as a quick-serve diner than someone looking for a more formal sit-down experience.

“Think of it in the same vein as a small, New York City cafe,” said Jeff Sellers, Delaware North vice president of development and construction. “It is designed to get people in and out.”

Patina 250, Jake’s next door neighbor, will focus more on what is best described as casual but sophisticated dining, Sellers said.

Both are due to open in August, just a few weeks before Delaware North’s Westin hotel welcomes it first guest. The two restaurants along with the hotel are the final development pieces for what Delaware North brought to the 250 Delaware Building.

Patina 250’s menu is still evolving, said Victoria Hong, Delaware North director of corporate communications.

Located just off of the Westin’s main lobby, both Jake’s and Patina 250 will have street access off of Delaware Avenue, ready to serve both hotel guests and passersby.

“We’re on a good corner,” Sellers said.

Patina 250 will offer valet service and its interior will dominated by artwork from local artists.

The restaurant is the latest in a line of new, upscale and trendy eateries coming into the downtown’s central business district.

Sear, a steakhouse run by veteran restaurateur David Schutte with help from former Buffalo Bills Fred Jackson, is due to open in early fall inside Uniland’s Avant Building on Delaware Avenue and developer Mark Croce is bringing the fabled Chez Ami back to life as the anchor restaurant inside the Curtiss Hotel. The Chez Ami is also due to open by late summer.

Hong said the more, the merrier.

“It’s all part of the rejuvenation of Buffalo,” she said. “It gives people another reason to come into downtown Buffalo.”

The welcoming Buffalo theme will be prevalent inside Patina 250 and it goes beyond the local artwork.

Patina 250 is designed with a “neighborly feel,” Hong said.

“We want people to come in and feel comfortable,” Hong said. “It was important to make Patina 250 feel like you are in Buffalo, the new Buffalo.”

Interior finishes include a lounge area around the bar, an exposed “theater kitchen”, a private 18-person capacity dining room surrounded by enclosed wine racks and, in a nod to Buffalo’s industrial past, a millstone as a visual prop.

“The last thing we wanted was a stuffy, unwelcoming design,” Hong said.

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2016/06/15/patina-250-jakes-cafe-to-open-in-august-at-250.html

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