Review: At Winfield's Pub, masterful performer brings heavy metal back in Lackawanna

Freed to cook his heart out, Tab Daulton made his family tavern destination dining

Kiki’s warm potato salad, with Velveeta, bacon, green olives, and scallions, is from Daulton’s mother’s repertoire.

Tab Daulton made his restaurant bones serving thousands a day for decades in Delaware North venues across America. In 2007, he arrived in Buffalo, to feed fans in seats and suites at then-HSBC Arena. 

Along the way, he met a server forenamed Cherryl, with two Rs, working at Cleveland’s Northfield Park harness track. They bet on each other, and got married. Now Cherryl and Tab Daulton run Winfield’s Pub. He’s in the kitchen, she’s out front wrangling customers, while son and metal guitarist Thomas Daulton serves as bar manager and cocktail whisperer.

Once Tab Daulton got to steer his own ship in 2014, his menu of down-home Americana and creative specials, drawing on local producers, raised the bar on what a family tavern could offer. 

Pork cutlet Francaise, eggy batter in lemon butter, over greens.

Feeding venue crowds once made Daulton aim for the middle. Reading his Winfield Pub menus has made me wonder: What’s it like to have the detail-obsessed heart of a portrait painter, when your only brushes have the precision of crop duster?