When one of Buffalo’s prominent restaurant families opens a new spot across the street from the original fine-dining destination, it’s reasonable to wonder how far the apple has fallen from the tree.

The Little Club, brought to life in 2018 by the Ristorante Lombardo clan, is literally a next-generation Italian restaurant. Its sensibilities are shaped by Mary Lombardo and her husband Thomas D. Lombardo, whose grandfather founded the Hertel Avenue hotspot during the Gerald Ford administration.