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Stand-up comedian Sebastian Maniscalco is making a stop in Buffalo in 2019. Mansicalco will bring his Stay Hungry tour to Shea's Performing Arts Center for a show on Friday, February 1st. He'll also be in Erie the night before, and Cleveland the weekend before. Maniscalco is known for his hyper-physical comedy, thick Chicago/Italian accent, and his...

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The New York City Premiere of the documentary Sicily: Land of Love and Strife was held on September 12, 2018, for a full house at Goddard Riverside. Because of unexpected building maintenance, the screening was moved from The Bernie Wohl Center to Goddard Riverside. The change, though, did not prevent the crowd from attending this Upper West Side e...

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Italian Sons and Daughters of America (ISDA) is making history with its dramatic growth. Hundreds of delegates gathered in Buffalo, N.Y. at ISDA’s Biennial Convention last week, and were the first to hear the news: National President Basil Russo unveiled plans for three lodges — one in New York City and two in New Jersey — that will become new corn...

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Fans are ready and the date has been circled on calendars across the region. After months of preparation, the competition gets real on Sunday, Sept. 9. That's the day area restaurants will take to the streets for Meatball Street Brawl III, the third annual rendition of Buffalo's tastiest food competition. Hosted and organized by Osteria 166, the It...

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As a ten-year old boy growing up in Buffalo, he made up operas using his action figures. Now a Juilliard School of Music grad, Jay Louis Dref will appear with musician/playwright Joey Giambra and noted Buffalo actors and musicians one night only Saturday August 25 at the Kavinoky Theatre in a performance of  Giambra's BREAD AND ONIONS, a poetic nar...

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Franklin J. Spina spent his long career in the grocery business, mostly at Sorrento Cheese Co., where he worked for some 35 years. But he was best known for his dynamic, gregarious personality and dedication to organizations that helped children, especially the Muscular Dystrophy Association and Women and Children's Hospital. Mr. Spina, of Hamburg,...

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If you’re in the mood for top notch Italian food, the new Vaticano Restaurant in Fort Erie will most definitely scratch that itch. But be warned: this Italian restaurant is extremely Italian, like, to an almost comical degree. While having dinner with my wife there recently, we heard Dean Martin’s ode to pizza pies, That’s Amore, not once, not twic...

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In a few weeks, the Galbani Italian Heritage Festival will return to Buffalo's Outer Harbor. This will be the second year the festival will be in its new location after several decades on Hertel Avenue. Organizers took some lessons from last year and are implementing changes to the festival. Parking was one area of concern for some visitors to the...

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In search of Italian-American cuisine worth celebrating, I have encountered miles of pallid pasta and oceans of weak tomato sauce. There have been bright spots, certainly, places with plenty of dishes to recommend. But of the 20-something red sauce purveyors whose Southern Italian dishes I've had the privilege to evaluate, none ran the table. Then...

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The first time Ciro Rocco came to the U.S., he was a prisoner of war. A truck driver in the Italian Army in North Africa during World War II, he was captured by the British during the Siege of Tobruk, Libya, in 1941. He was among the Italian soldiers who were turned over to American forces and brought to the U.S. for the duration of the war. “He sa...

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