These days it’s not so unusual to see a business pick up and move to Hertel. The more it happens, the more businesses follow. Each year Hertel picks up more and more speed. Now we’re seeing a surprise move by Allentown’s Sample restaurant, which recently closed on Allen Street in anticipation of opening in the former La Dolce Vita location on Hertel.
The new restaurant will be called “Crave” and will allow restaurant owner Jennifer Goetz and husband/head chef, Adam Goetz, to spread their wings a bit. “The original motivation was to secure a new spot in order to serve our customer base better,” Jennifer told me. “We were looking for better accessibility to our customers in the Northtowns. In Allentown we were more of a destination. But we want to be part of the daily mix. The new location will allow us to have a bigger and better kitchen and more room for catering. The space was a no brainer. Our original Sample menu has evolved from serving just samples… we were always limited by the menu.
“Now there are no limitations. Crave is a sort of reinvention of the original concept. The restaurant’s seating capacity will be about 45 seats, and the dining area will be separate from the bar – that is very important to us. The addition of a patio will triple the number of outdoor seats that we had in Allentown. Our motivation is to serve food that people are craving. We’ll be reinventing some old favorites and introducing new items. There will be chef tastings of the menu, and shared menu items. We’ll also be introducing pizzas and pastas, with half and full size portions. There’s a pizza oven in the building, and we’ll be making bread in house (in the pizza oven). Most of the pastas will also be made in-house, depending on the dish being served.
“We’re planning on opening for lunch and dinner, and on Sunday for brunch. We’ve already closed on Allen Street, and we’re hoping to be open for lunch on Hertel next week. At this point, we’re waiting on approval for full liquor license, upon which time Crave will open for dinner. Adam and I are excited to be a part of the bustling street traffic that we are seeing during the day, not just at night. We had a good run in Allentown, but we were looking to grow… this is the perfect spot to do just that.”
Crave
1472 Hertel Avenue
Buffalo NY 14216
(716) 883-1675