At 282 Alexander Street in Rochester’s East End, an iconic brick Victorian building has witnessed over 140 years of history. Originally a family home later refitted into one of the city’s most famous restaurants — Rio Bamba — the space has been a whirling dervish of food, drinks, gossip, music, dancing, mafia activity and possibly even a ghost.
Now it’s home to The Alexander, a new venture from the Swan Family of Restaurants that welcomes larger events while still offering a more typical sit-down dinner service. While new coats of paint and furnishings have given the space a fresh, breezy-yet-classy feel, echoes of the past resonate from the brick archways and detailed woodwork still preserved from its original construction.
Restaurateur Robin Banister, one of the owners of both The Alexander and its predecessor, Ox and Stone, loves the building. When Ox and Stone had a hard time finding footing again after COVID, she and her son Jonathan Swan considered closing up and leaving the space entirely. But they didn’t want to abandon that building.
“Our worry was, what will happen to it?” Banister said. “Who’s going to come in here? Is it going to be condos? What’s going to happen to this whole area and who would take this space?”
Now, with The Alexander, that concern can wait.
Elaborate beginnings
Up two flights of the dramatic 19th-century staircase that was hidden under carpet when Ox and Stone started to take shape in 2014, the cordoned-off third floor of the building hints at some of its earliest occupants. Strips of old, dry wallpaper still cling to the walls and small, childish, hand-painted murals of women and flowers nod back to the pre-restaurant origins and some likely childhood bedrooms. A second, narrower set of stairs toward the back of the building suggests that the family housed servants. An ad looking for a cook and “second girl” to work at the address was published in the “Democrat & Chronicle” in 1885. In the iconic turret, some original stained glass remains.
The home was occupied by a few different families, including the Warrens and Stacys, the latter’s patriarch Orrin T. Stacy heading up a local candy manufacturer, O. T. Stacy Co. In 1917, the lot was put up for sale for $14,500. With inflation, that equals a bit over $350,000 today. Ads for rooms to lease in the building popped up in the D&C shortly after, boasting “beautifully furnished apartments” with steam heating and electricity. (Banister noted the wiring in the building to be one of the biggest challenges with operating in modern times.)
Celeb sightings
The first foray into food at 282 Alexander was the southern, casual chain restaurant Toddle House in 1939 – a precursor to Waffle House. A standalone eatery was built in front of the house, as evidenced by a photograph with the D&C’s announcement, while the main house was split into as many as 10 rooms (with two bathrooms to share) to rent. The grill joint operated there until 1948, when the space’s new identity began to form.
In 1949, Alfred Greene opened Rio Bamba in the space. Greene took inspiration from a nightclub named Riobamba in Midtown Manhattan, which was owned by a mafia boss and shuttered after two years in ‘44. Rochester’s version was an instant hit, earning glowing reviews with its elevated menu, luxurious design and swanky entertainment.
Rio Bamba’s reputation grew and it was regarded for a long time as Rochester’s best and most expensive spot for dinner. Politicians and business bigwigs were known to dine at the bold, elegant restaurant. D&C columnists Henry Clune and Bill Beeney wrote abundantly about rubbing elbows with powerful locals, artists, and celebrities throughout the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, peppering their gossip with name drops like actors Louise Brooks (“Pandora’s Box”) and Cleo Moore (“Over-Exposed”); writer and humorist Art Buchwald; artist Colleen Browning, whose murals adorned Rio Bamba; politician Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr.; and various Hollywood producers, directors, movers and shakers. Special guests and friends of the owners were gifted solid gold keys and given access to a plush, exclusive room built in 1953.
Suspicious activities
It wasn’t always celebrities and warm welcomes, though. In October 1980, Rochester mafia underboss Richard Marino was leaving another restaurant down the street when a man bumped into him, sparking an argument. The man flashed a gun, halting the altercation until a short while later when Marino and some friends followed him into Rio Bamba and attacked him with a tire iron, taking a chunk out of the bar in the process.
Marino was indicted for various crimes over several years including multiple assaults, a weapons charge and murder — only some of them actually sticking. He eventually landed a 40-year sentence in 1984 for racketeering and conspiracy along with a handful of other Cosa Nostra mafia members.
Former Ox and Stone bartender Kevin Wade said guests and old employees of Rio Bamba would recount stories of poker games upstairs featuring both mafia affiliates and police, and other altercations, including a man getting his face beat with an ashtray. There are also stories of a ghost named Charlotte who might cause lights to flicker, things to fall over, doors to close or even an original brick from an archway near the kitchen to disappear and reappear.
“We always said, ‘Good night, Charlotte!’ as we were leaving the building,” Wade said. “Just to be on the safe side.”
Restaurant row
Rio Bamba helped bolster that area of Alexander Street into what became known as “Restaurant Row” in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Other much-frequented spots like the Supper Club, Chez Jean-Pierre and Lloyd’s popped up over the years, creating a hotbed of activity between Monroe and University Avenues.
The restaurant changed hands several times, pivoting its name to other spin-offs like Bamba Bistro, The Rio and a brief return to Rio Bamba in the 2000s. Layers of paint came and went, and an addition was built which now houses the bulk of the dining space. Although the name is gone, the legacy of Rio Bamba lives on. One chef helming Rio Bamba’s kitchen in the 1970s was Jerry Vorrasi. After making a name for himself there, he went on to head up Brasserie and then the more recent 2 Vine. Many local restaurants have ties to 2 Vine, which closed in 2018, making way for Richard Reddington’s REDD.
Banister dined at Rio Bamba just once in 1983. She was 21, and it was a work-related celebration dinner replete with a limo. She remembers the space being elegant. When she pitched the building owner Don Calabrese their idea to take over the space with Ox and Stone, Banister and Swan hearkened back to the old days. The Alexander, while done differently and with less flair, captures a piece of what came before.
“There are a lot of people over (the age of) 70 that come in here that are just so happy to see it like this versus Ox and Stone,” Banister said. “They feel more comfortable coming in here. The menu is more of what they desire and they feel like it’s been brought back more to its glory days.”
Kellen Beck is a contributor to CITY.
This article appears in Oct 1-31, 2024.
