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Devoted to Buffalo, However Far They Roam

May 20, 2010
By LEANNE SHEAR

Daniel Barry for The New York Times
 
Buffalo specialties served at Bonnie’s Grill: beef on weck and chicken wings.New York City is filled with expatriate tribes. There are the Brits who pack Fiddlesticks for rugby games and Tea and Sympathy for scones, the diplomats in and around the United Nations, and French and Francophiles who play boules every July 14 on Macdougal Street.

But there is another group, perhaps a little bit less known, but no less passionate in their ties to home and their feelings for it. They came from a gritty city to the north and west, on the shore of a great body of water, in a place where it happens to snow a lot.

Of course, we’re speaking of Buffalonians.

They flock to places like Bar Italia on the Upper East Side (the chef/owner, Denis Franceschani, hails directly from Italy, but his wife, Colleen, is a Buffalonian) and Smith & Wollensky (the head bartender, Patty Ford, is a legend by way of Buffalo). Black Finn is for hockey games, and McFadden’s is for football games. On Thursday, the Buffalo Expat Network, known as the BEN, is even holding a mixer for Buffalo Expats at Bongo in the West Village.

The chef and owner of Bonnie’s Grill, Mike Naber, draws the Buffalo expat crowd.Then there’s Bonnie’s Grill in Park Slope. Brooklyn. The owner, Mike Naber, has been dishing out Buffalo specialties for 10 years. “Chicken wings, beef on weck, and Genny Cream Ale are my babies,” he laughed. “I’d get eaten alive if I ever tried to do this back in Buffalo, because it’s not anything special or unique there.”

It’s curious that these Buffalonians left one of the hardest cities in the world to make it in to go straight to, well, one of the hardest cities in the world to make it in. But therein lies the problem. Buffalo — also known as the Queen City — was once one of the richest cities in the nation, and is now one of the poorest.

“It was an important and pioneering city whose chief export is now its people,” explained Frits Abell, one of the founders of the BEN, which has united thousands of Buffalonians worldwide, a large contingent of whom live in New York City.

“We care about the city from afar,” he added, underscoring another Buffalo nickname, the City of Good Neighbors. “The people of Buffalo are saving Buffalo, not the politicians. It’s what being from Buffalo is all about — there’s an incredible sense of community.”

Erica Silverman, 32, concurred. “I love Buffalo for one plain and simple reason: the people. I know Buffalo is a hard city to love unless you’re from there originally, but there’s an inner spirit and fighting determination of its residents. I’ve lived in New York for 14 years, and that feeling hasn’t dimmed in me.”

For his part, Jason Breen, 30, a more recent Buffalo transplant, explained: “Every time I meet an expatriate or a Buffalonian on vacation, I feel as though I just had an encounter with a long-lost cousin. There is an understanding, an instant bond and a mutual respect between us.”

Elad Ziv, a 26-year-old actor, summed up the Buffalo-boosting by proclaiming (without a hint of irony), “Buffalo is the Monte Carlo of western New York.”

Though he, too, is one of the scores of expats who loves his hometown, Mike Fitzpatrick, 36, had a different viewpoint. There are many reasons, after all, that the Buffalo expats are here and not there.

“Buffalo just doesn’t move forward; it doesn’t make progress,” he said. “And unlike in Buffalo, you can live in New York and not have to follow parameters, like not be married with three kids by a certain age.”

He shrugged, almost helplessly, and added, “This is my home now.”

Of course, having three children by a certain age does not scare everyone. And neither does moving back home.

Though her job as a television executive is keeping her in New York for now, Sarah Crabbe, 32, said, “One day I plan on getting married and starting a family, and I intend to do it in Buffalo, where I can give my children the same gifts my parents gave me.”

She continued thoughtfully: “All I have to do is find a guy I can convince to move to Buffalo with me. I’m going to look for someone from Jersey or Staten Island. I think they might have some idea of how I feel.”