Western New York isn’t short on impressive dining experiences. But there are some eateries tucked away within arts institutions that may slip under the radar when it comes to picking your next meal. Sure, they’re there for peckish people who are already in house to see the art, but these cafés and restaurants aren’t just places to procure refreshments between long strolls through curated collections and cultural lectures. They’re serving up artful meals — on platters which may be works of art, themselves — and they are worthy of a visit even when you’re not there to see a show. No admission required to dine.
Brown Hound Downtown @ The Memorial Art Gallery
500 University Ave. | brownhounddowntown.com
Opened at the Memorial Art Gallery in 2016 by decorated chef Trish Aser, Brown Hound is the second iteration of the eatery. The restaurant debuted as Brown Hound Bistro in South Bristol in 2005, but closed in 2016. Aser, who is also co-owner of Old School Café in Naples, is an industry heavy hitter—in 2020, she was invited to be a presenter in the esteemed James Beard House in Manhattan. Aser started the gallery spot as a farm-to-table place that focused on lighter fare and locally sourced ingredients.
In 2021, Aser placed the Brown Hound’s Rochester kitchen and menus in the hands of Chef Mike McInerny, who brought his experience in country clubs and a love of BBQ to the balcony restaurant above the MAG’s central atrium.
McInerny has created a brunch-centric but welcome-anytime menu consisting of about a dozen light, yet hearty dishes. There’s a classic breakfast sandwich on a torta roll with home fries, a chicken salad sandwich on a croissant, street-style tacos, naan flatbread pizza, chicken and waffles, decadent French toast, and more; a structure of mainstays that are amenable to seasonal variation. The current menu’s dishes are filled with autumnal flavors that include Trentino apples and mushrooms from local growers Fun Guys, with accents like cranberry sriracha maple syrup and maple shallot vinaigrette.
“The flavors have to flow together to make something beautiful,” McInerny said. “We’re using the colors and the spices and everything — that’s kind of our version of a painter’s palette.”
Then there is also a mainstay named for the restaurant’s general manager, Webster Blackmon, who spent 15 years in Hawai’i. ‘Web’s Loco Moco’ is McInerny’s take on the traditional Loco Moco Hawaiian dish, which at Brown Hound includes sticky rice, slices of pork belly, pickled onion, and over-easy eggs with toast, all topped with kona coffee BBQ drizzle, and togarashi seasoning.
Brown Hound is open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. There is dinner service, with a limited menu, on Thursdays from 5 to 8 p.m.
Open Face @ George Eastman Museum
900 University Ave. | eastman.org/open-face-eastman-museum
Since its stint in the South Wedge, Open Face has been a longtime local favorite serving variations of vegetable, fruit, and protein sammies — not to mention popular side dishes like ginger carrots and pickled beets — for decades.
The South Ave. spot closed in 2017, but reopened in the renovated George Eastman Museum in 2021 with a familiar menu. True to its name, Open Face specializes in generous portioned open-faced sandwiches.
Classics include the corn mash with apricot BBQ glaze, which hits the comfort food spot of savory and sweet, and the toasted brie with apricot preserves, tart cherry butter, and poppy seeds. Roasted chicken with maple mustard, chicken salad, and flaked albacore are featured as well, all with the option of ordering in melt-form.
The Open Face signature dish is actually a bowl, filled with toasted and cubed buttered bread, roasted chicken, a parmesan wafer, and French-fried onions, topped with soup-like gravy.
Open Face also sells some of its mashes by the pint and quart (with 24-hours’ notice) and offers a rotation of soups, as well as selections from its Tea Pharmacy, which offers a variety of brews. Bakery items include house-made cookies as well as treats by Cheesy Eddie’s, Red Fern, Black Cat, and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams.
The restaurant is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Cornelia @ The Buffalo AKG Art Museum
1285 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo | buffaloakg.org/visit/dining
When Buffalo’s major museum reopened this summer, it introduced Cornelia — a cafe named for the museum’s second director, painter Cornelia Bentley Sage Quinton, who was the first woman to direct a major art museum in the United States (1910-1924).
More than just a compact kitchen and dining space, Cornelia immerses visitors in visionary art of consequence, with a site-specific work commissioned from Dominican artist Firelei Báez: a 30-foot-long mosaic based on an Afrofuturist myth about women cast overboard in the Middle Passage thriving underwater, titled “Chorus of the Deep (something ephemeral and beautifully whole, when seen from the edge of one’s vision, too full when taken head on).”
The art is siren-like, seductive at first glance, and educational if patrons choose to read the provided text as they chow down on Cornelia’s menu by executive chef Tony Martina. There are taste bud-pleasing small plates; sandwiches of the toasted or breakfast variety; hearty plates that range from pasta to polenta, a chicken cutlet; and a roasted tomato and parmesan frittata. For a sweet date idea, order a picnic basket to enjoy on the sprawling outdoor campus or, weather demanding, in the museum’s indoor commons that still offer a great view of the sky.
Cornelia is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Saturday, and Sunday, and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday.
Rebecca Rafferty is an arts writer at CITY and the producer-host of art/WORK, an arts conversation video series created in collaboration with WXXI. She can be reached at becca@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Nov 1-30, 2023.
