It’s 6 p.m. Friday night, June 1st, 1960. You park your Chevy Bel-Air, and go around the side to open the door for your wife. You put your arm around her and lead her into the door. You are greeted with nods and hellos as you walk your way past the long crowded bar, shouting hello to Mick the bartender over the rumble of patrons drinking the first beers of the weekend. . As you arrive in the back dining room, the smell of a fish fry in Buffalo hits your nose. It is a smell as familiar as the smokestacks along Rt. 5, the steel plant. This smell however is more pleasant, and as you walk to your table, you glance at the plates of the diners as they laugh, and talk and eat. You order an Iroquois draft and a fish fry; smile to your wife, and think to yourself, this is what Buffalo is all about.
That is the image I had in mind when I entered the Nortel Grille for the latest Greasy Fork sampling.
I arrived to find the Commish sitting at a stool at the bar, we informed the waitress/owner that we were there for lunch, and she walked us back to a surprisingly large dining room. As we passed the special board we took the time to review the specials, and quite honestly they all looked great. We were assured that all items were homemade, and that the potatoes were real. We ordered our Cokes and waited for Brother Rice to arrive. Even our hostess got in a few jabs at him as we waited. We were home.
Finally our Sergeant at Arms arrived, and after assuring the owner/hostess that he did not in fact get lost coming here, he was jumped by the Commish. Corky demanded a speech from our Brother and seemed to be jealous of a Mr. Archibald. Archibald had given a speech, as our guest last week, to make our Commish look like a junior leaguer. Brother Rice, valiantly tried to give his best by was unprepared. Luckily I keep copies of toasts and speeches rolled up in my socks. I rolled a speech out to the crowd, us three, and saved the day. Mr. Smug didn’t look so big now.
The Nortel serves lunches daily from around 11 to 2 pm, and Fish Fry’s on Friday from Afternoon to about 9 at night.
The food offered on the menu was like a travel back in time, burgers, subs, homemade soups and salads, and homemade dessert. They even serve chicken in the basket, which is getting rare as hens teeth to find.
After viewing the menu, and the specials we all decided to try the roast beef plate, with mashed taters, and veggies.
We made small talk for awhile as Corky bragged about how he invented the internet or something. Quite frankly we just tune him out.
Our food arrived, and it looked fantastic. The beef was smothered in gravy, and was tasty and very lean. The potatoes were as advertised, real and swathed in gravy as well, and were as excellent as Grandmas on Thanksgiving. The plate was served with a portion of green beans and bread and butter.
We didn’t make much talk as we ate, a sure sign the food was top notch.
All told we spent about $8 a person, and had one of the best if not the best lunch we have ever had.
Great food, atmosphere and company (even the Corkmaster wasn’t so bad here) made this stop a five Forker.
We even voted to come back for our third ever Christmas party.
Until the mashed taters make you later, OK they can’t all be winners.
Good Eats.    [15 Mar 2006 14:47:54]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: Roast Beef Plate

     ­The Greasy Fork   Thegreasyfork at gmail dot com

Old fashioned Quality, Prices
   [16 Apr 2006 15:10:40]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: Fish Fry, crab cakes,real mashed potatoes

     ­Anonymous