New: Beacon Grille is a passion project in Allentown

We have always been drawn to fire, from Stone Age campfires to Burning Man. We use it to cook. We use it for light. We use it for fun. When we light a fire, it becomes a gathering place for people.

On Allen Street at the new Beacon Grille, owners Amanda and Bruce Wieszala have embraced the power of real fire to deliver a scintillating restaurant experience driven by personal passions.

When I visited the restaurant in January, it was cold. Snow was falling outside as Amanda gave me a tour of the ongoing renovations. As we stepped over plastic tarps and around unfinished floors, she explained that the initial inspiration for Beacon Grille was the open-fire restaurants of the American South, where beef, chicken, pork, fish and vegetables are grilled or roasted over the heat of an open flame.

So… wait a minute. It’s one thing to imagine having a wood-fired kitchen in Allentown. It’s another to actually build it. I’m no expert on the municipal codes of Argentina or Brazil, but it’s safe to say that New York State and the City of Buffalo are much stricter about indoor wood-fired cooking.

Amanda said the biggest challenge in getting there was making sure everything under the high-fire grill was fireproof. That meant cutting out wooden boards and joists and replacing them with concrete and steel beams. She told me that building the two-story brick building and the rest was “mentally, physically and financially exhausting.”

“It was a lot more complicated than we anticipated,” Amanda says, pointing to the concrete floor where the olive grill would sit. “It ended up being a $100,000 hole in the ground, which was not in our original budget.”

“So it was really interesting…” she said dryly, “and it took a while.”

Having a live grill is pretty cool, but the vision for the Beacon Grille goes beyond culinary novelty. As we continued our tour, Amanda told me that she and Bruce were also inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s musings on fire as a gathering point.

“One of the things (Wright) always said is that the fireplace is the heart of the home,” she said. “It was the gathering point back then and where most of the nighttime activities took place. For us, that grill is our home and our heart. We want people to gather around it.”

When I returned for a soft opening in June, just a week after losing The Old Pink to a fire, the Beacon Grille had come back to life. The space buzzed with conversation as the flames visibly returned to the open kitchen. I watched as plates of charred octopus ($14), grilled radicchio ($14), and roasted chicken ($36) were served to wide-eyed diners. Behind the bar, a rainbow of colorful drinks was being prepared as bar patrons clinked wine glasses. Amanda beamed with pride as she greeted her guests and fellow diners.

As lively as opening night is, the owners see the Beacon Grille as more than just a trendy restaurant that draws customers with wood-fired food and well-crafted drinks. They see it as a beacon in their industry.

At the end of our January tour, Amanda spoke about her many years of hard work in hospitality, where she endured all sorts of bullshit that is unfortunately commonplace in her industry. She said it took COVID for her and others to realize that there are more important things in life: there’s no need to shame, bully, or guilt your staff when they don’t do exactly what you want. Amanda outlined the small steps she’s taking to show her employees that Beacon Grille is meant to be as welcoming to them as it is to guests. For starters, they’re looking to break down the animosity between front-of-house and front-of-house staff that’s all too common. All staff will wear the same uniform, and a daily meal will involve the front-of-house staff preparing food for everyone.

“We bring everyone together, whether it’s for 15 or 20 minutes every day, just to say that we’re a team and we’re all in this together,” Amanda says. “That’s really important to us and it’s something that doesn’t happen often enough in the Buffalo food industry. It’s a change that needs to happen, and the only way we’re going to do it is by doing it ourselves.”

“We take care of our staff,” she explained, bringing the Beacon Grille’s vision to life. “Our staff takes care of the customers. The customers take care of everyone: the business, the servers, the bartenders. It’s very symbiotic: you take care of each other, and they take care of you.”

Hours at time of publication (subject to change): Tuesday to Thursday 4:30pm to midnight, Friday and Saturday 10pm to 2am, bar opens at 4pm for Happy Hour, limited late night menu after 10pm, Sunday and Monday CLOSED

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