Review: At The Dapper Goose, OG core quietly delivers sure-bet fine dining

After 8 years, Black Rock gem's consistency is its own draw

Pork, potatoes, chimichurri, blueberry mostarda at The Dapper Goose

All the finest dining restaurants I have known share a vital feature: “ownership on the floor.”

That means someone with a stake in the business is in the dining room where it happens, leading its battalion of cooks and servers into the daily dinner din. They solicit and cure imperfections in customers’ experiences face-to-face, in real time. They wield far-ranging powers, not granted to all employees, to make on-the-fly adjustments about how the business should be run.

Restaurant years are like dog years, but even more concentrated. The average dog survives longer than the average restaurant, after all. With eight years in service, an extraordinary run for a restaurant offering seasonally-adjusted dishes drawn from local ingredients, The Dapper Goose remains one of the least-recognized stars in Buffalo fine dining’s celestial map. 

Yet those who have discovered it are drawn back to Black Rock repeatedly, for rare food and drink, plus an even scarcer commodity: stability. The Dapper Goose’s four core humans are originals. 

Keith Raimondi grew up in Olean, and made his bones in the Philadelphia restaurant market. He returned to Buffalo and opened The Dapper Goose in 2016. He manages the place with Peggy Wong, his wife, while they manage raising their 4-year-old son Noah. 

Chef Jesse Ross is OG, offering up charred green beans and olive oil cake since Day One. So is bar manager Tim Leary, whose Broken Garden Tools cocktail redefined healthy brunch tippling. Now their customers benefit from lessons hard-won through two presidential administrations and a pandemic.