Visit Local Restaurants, Give Economy a Boost

March 24, 2009
Ross Runfola, Jr.
The Buffalo News

Excuse me for “talking proud,” but I was born and bred in Buffalo. My email, madeinbuffalo2003@yahoo.com, speaks to how much I love this community.

I have such deep feelings for Western New York that I decided to take a chance and invest in a restaurant, La Dolce Vita, on Hertel Avenue in Buffalo, rather than the already developed Little Italy in San Francisco’s North Beach section, where some of my family reside.

I also joined the nonprofit Buffalo First!, comprised of locally owned businesses, dedicated to supporting other local, independently owned businesses to sustain the economy and promote a healthy environment.

As a small business owner, my mantra is, if you are local you should buy local and eat local! Eating local is not only better for your health and pocketbook, but will ensure that local restaurant owners help sustain the local economy.

When you patronize community-owned restaurants like mine or the wonderful Amy’s Place, the food is better than chain restaurants and you are helping your friends and neighbors live — or, given the recession, really survive.

As in the Great Depression, only jewelry stores have been hit harder than restaurants during the current economic malaise. So please come into locally owned and operated restaurants to eat so your neighbors who own restaurants also can eat.

Not only will it feel good and help the local economy when you support community-owned restaurants but you can, as News food editor Janice Okun writes, be part of the “locavore movement.” This new phrase means you choose to eat food at home or at locally owned restaurants that is grown and/or produced in Western New York.

As described by Okun, locally raised food usually tastes better because the shorter the distance food is shipped, the fresher it tastes and the safer it is to consume. (The average food consumed in the United States travels 1,500 miles.)

Moreover, you are helping with the environmental crisis and U. S. dependence on foreign oil given the shorter distance needed to transport food from local farms, markets or groceries. (See http://buffalolocavore.blogspot.com).

I always attempt to buy fresh local produce for my restaurant, even during the cold winter months. I also only use local businesses to do such things as clean the linen or make signage. Most importantly, all of my employees are Buffalo born and raised.

I am not sure whether I have the best waitresses in Buffalo, but I know they must be among the smartest. I am conscious of the brain-drain of young people leaving Buffalo, so I try to hire staff enrolled at one of the area’s many fine undergraduate or graduate institutions so they are more likely to stay here after graduation.

The effect of patronizing local restaurants is multiplied because, as members of Buffalo First!, we take the money earned and whenever possible spend it at other locally owned businesses. I know I always try to buy local products and services first. For example, my family supports fellow Buffalo First! member Jonathon Welch by buying from his locally based Talking Leaves bookstore.

So please buy from local entrepreneurs and eat at local restaurants. If you do, up to three times your money is respent here, perhaps ensuring that your job or that of a family member, friend or neighbor is not lost.