Enjoying Milton's, the Statler Lobby bar

Rare public ping pong table, grand architecture, and intriguing cooking from Adrian Bylewski are draws

If you didn’t know Adrian Bylewski was running the kitchen solo, you couldn’t tell from the dishes that land on the Milton’s table.

Walking up to Hotel Statler last night, across Niagara Square from City Hall, I realized it’d been more than a decade since I was inside the century-old edifice.

While its grand ballroom and 18 floors are renovated under ownership of Douglas Jemal’s Douglas Development, the lobby bar, now dubbed Milton’s, opens Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. 

The lobby and fountain are worth a goggle before heading up the stairs to the bar. Dark, clubby, equipped with a full-service bar and leather sofas, Milton’s is old-school swanky.

Adrian Bylewski, who once commanded the Buffalo Chophouse brigade as executive chef, is working on his own restaurant. His Cast & Coal Wood Fire Kitchen menu was such a hit that the usual one-week Milton’s stint has been extended through January.

Bylewski has the Milton’s kitchen to himself through Jan. 26.

Now folks have eight more days to check out his work - in a building that you probably want to check out anyways. Go for Bylewski’s cooking, and the grand architecture, echoes of a time when Buffalo was a big deal on the forefront of national commerce.