Brodo is coming downtown. The popular soup and wine bar will be opening a take-out only location at 501 Main Street. Brodo co-owner Don Warfe will be renovating the 6,000 sq.ft., three-story building that he purchased in early October. The building has been vacant for years and was last occupied by Stewart & Benson Travel Services.
The upper floors will be converted into two residential units and the ground floor will include enclosed parking (alley access off E. Mohawk Street) and 1,000 sq.ft. for Brodo’s take-out and catering business. Plans call for creating a more welcoming entrance and preserving the building’s historic façade. Recessed patios will overlook Main Street from the second and third floor residences.
“What Don is doing is so pioneering for the 21st century and so very retro,” says Clinton E. Brown, whose architectural firm is designing the project. “It was the way people lived on Main Street in the 19th century from the Erie Canal’s opening until the Civil War. One or two residences over the shop with a place for the horse off the alley.”
Warfe, who plans to occupy one of the building’s residential units, runs the Brodo locations on Elmwood Avenue and Main Street in Snyder and is also the restaurant and events manager for the The Clubhouse at the Buffalo Yacht Club.
“These projects are so exciting for everyone at Clinton Brown Company because we work for entrepreneurs who are regenerating one of America’s great cities through the way they live and work,” says Brown. “Just like what made us great the first time.”
Brodo is also planning to sell soup and “other light fare” downtown from carts. He disclosed his plans at a Buffalo Place meeting last week, telling the Buffalo News:
“It would work like a hot dog cart, but instead people would come up and grab a bowl of soup,” Warfe said. “It will be fast and delicious.”
The “takeout only” downtown Brodo will offer a limited selection of soups, salads and entrees, as well as supporting the food cart operation.
Brodo opened at 765 Elmwood Avenue in 2004 and opened a location on Main Street in Snyder one year later.
Brodo joins two other Elmwood restaurants that have opened downtown locations in recent years. Delish! spin-off Chop Chop opened at 302 Main and Globe Market operates in neighboring 298 Main.
Get connected: Brodo, 716.881.1117; Clinton Brown Company Architecture, 716.852.2020