NIGHTLIFE
Friday, April 23, 1982
Adventures of the Lost Expedition, Part I:
Hors d’oeuvring in happy hour country.
CAPTAIN’S LOG: Bar Date I: For months, the Lost Expedition had been preparing for this moment, the kickoff of their long-awaited mission. The objective? To drink their way up Main Street, all the way from Memorial Auditorium to the last bright light before the Genesee County line, and come back to tell about it. The sheer, staggering immensity of this exercise suggested immediately that this would be something more than a one-night affair.
The first section to be traversed was happy hour country in the heart of downtown Buffalo. The expeditioners, determined to experience this stretch of barscape at what surely would be its peak, agreed to convene after work Friday. Chosen for a staging area was the southernmost oasis on Main Street, the Glass Abbey on the ground floor of what’s now the Roblin Building, in what used to be the Marine Midland cafeteria.
“I was beginning to wonder whether you guys were going to get here,” the first expeditioner remarked as the rest of this initial party of four strayed in about 5:30. Nonetheless, one could hardly ask for a more accommodating place to wait. Hot hors d’oeuvres – first chicken wings, then meatballs, then egg rolls – simmered on a heating tray in one corner. Lawrence McIntyre’s neatly executed lithographs of Buffalo architectural landmarks lined the walls. The bar offered special prices for ladies and waitress service to the half-dozen tall tables in the tiny lounge area.
“For ladies, all bar drinks are $1,” the waitress explained. “For a Labatts draft like you’ve got, it would be 75 cents instead of 90.”
Like the expeditioners, the rest of the Friday celebrants still bore the evidences of another tough day in the world of commerce – coats and ties, dresses and high heels, the urgent air of plans and deadlines and unfinished business. Two rounds of drinks and the focus softened remarkably. About 6 o’clock, the crowd began to thin out and the Expedition decided to do the same. “Wait a minute,” one of the party procrastinated. “They’re bringing out another tray of chicken wings.”
Next stop was what used to be Brinkworth’s Downtown at the Swan Street corner of the Ellicott Square. Now it’s called Square One. The corridor leading to the bar offers an invitation to linger and look at ancient photos of the Ellicott Square under construction. “You notice how they built it?” said one acute expeditioner. “They didn’t do it in panels. They did it one block at a time.”
Another office crowd, their cares well behind them at this point, clung to the far end of the bar. Among them were a pair of Neighborhood Legal Services lawyers who work upstairs, one of whom an expeditioner recognized as an old Elmwood Avenue acquaintance. “Sure, our funding has been cut back,” he said, “but we’re still here.”
Selection of beer at Square One was identical to the Glass Abbey – Labatts, Genesee and Miller Lite. 97 Rock blasted hard and heavy from the sound system. For hors d’oeuvres, there was cheese, crackers and frozen egg rolls.
A few steps to the other end of the Ellicott Square brought the Expedition to what used to be Nick Piteo’s, now rechristened Fields’ Pub in honor of that famous benefactor of dogs and children, comedian W. C. Fields. The place is festooned with memorabilia of the old curmudgeon – posters, portraits and, best of all, his wit and wisdom.
As in the Glass Abbey and Square One, the modest bar area was separated from the dining section by low walls, giving it a certain intimacy even with a crowd of less than 20. Easily discovered among the lingering revelers was Steve LaTona, in charge of department store advertising for The News, who introduced his brother Chuck, who’d flown in from California just in time for the first 80-degree day of the year.
The bartender had an introduction too – green eight-ounce cans of the finest non-diet light beer in the East, Rolling Rock, at two for a dollar. As for the hors d’oeuvres, too late. They’re done at 6:30. Happy hour downtown, the Expedition discovered anew when they left Fields’, is strictly an early-bird event. The final stop on this first leg of the tour – the Forum Lounge in Main Place Mall – was already darkened, locked and abandoned by 7:15. It would have to be explored on the next outing.
The expeditioners stifled their disappointment and beat a short retreat across the empty street and the debris of subway construction to the elegant lobby of One M&T Plaza, where the guards eyed them curiously until the elevator arrived to whisk them to the 20th floor.
“Dinner?” the hostess inquired. No, they said, trekking straight to the dimly lit and nearly empty Plaza Suite lounge just in time to watch dusk deepen across the top of the Buffalo skyline. Lights twinkled on the Canadian shore as they ordered a last round and appropriated a basket of popcorn on the bar.
“There’s a hot buffet for happy hour Monday through Thursday, but not Friday,” the bartender reported. Downtown seems a lot more deserted at this hour than it did 10 years ago, one expeditioner remarked to him. The barman, who’s worked here since 1968, agreed. “Evenings don’t amount to much,” he said, “unless there’s something going at the Aud.”
