Article and Photos by Patrick J. Bradley

Senior Contributing Reporter

You can often tell how popular a restaurant is by the number of cars in its parking lot. A recent mid-afternoon weekday visit to Mr. Ventry’s Pizza on the Boulevard was a testament to its reputation.

The lot was full. So was its spacious dining room. The secret? Ask Betty Gravino, who was enjoying a glass of wine while she and a friend waited for their late lunch to be served.

“Love it here,” she said. “We come here once, maybe twice a week. I love the help and I love the food.”

Or ask Jeff Paonessa. “I love their greens and beans. It reminds me of how my grandmother made it,” he said.

Niagara Frontier Publications readers love it, too, voting Ventry’s chicken wings the Best in WNY.

The name Ventry’s has been long been associated with pizza in Niagara Falls. Traci Ventry-Burns, the manager of Mr. Ventry’s Pizza on the Boulevard, said operating successful pizza shops has been a family tradition for generations.

“My father, Michael Ventry Sr., started (Mr. Ventry's) over 40 years ago on Pierce Avenue in Niagara Falls,” she said. “Then we were on Niagara Street, then Oliver Street in North Tonawanda, then (again) on Pierce Avenue.”

Now the family business is in LaSalle.

The eatery’s golden opportunity to move and expand came when a dine-in Dairy Queen on Niagara Falls Boulevard at 100^th Street closed its doors. Traci’s brother, Michael Ventry Jr., bought the property, including the vacant Dairy Queen building. It was a promising first step, but the family knew the building needed to be bigger to accommodate the restaurant they envisioned. So, they went to work.

“We put in a dining room addition and a back kitchen area, added 25 feet to the back and 25 feet to the front,” Ventry-Burns said. Once all the pieces were in place, they opened in 2017 as Mr. Ventry’s Pizza on the Boulevard.

In addition to indoor dining, Ventry’s offers takeout and delivery, including DoorDash. Their menu includes traditional and specialty pizzas, submarine sandwiches, salads, pasta dishes, seafood offerings and homemade soups. It has proven to be a winning combination.

Oh, about those chicken wings. Mr. Ventry’s Pizza on the Boulevard offers 14 flavors and kitchen manager Shawn Chafin will tell you they serve a lot of them – 30 to 40 cases a week.

“There are 240 wings in a case, so that’s about 9,600 wings,” Chafin said. “We sold 17 cases on Super Bowl Sunday.”

Betty Gravino cheers to Mr. Ventry’s Pizza on the Boulevard.

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Mr. Ventry's Pizza on the Boulevard

10051 Niagara Falls Blvd., Niagara Falls

Eat in, takeout and delivery

Open 7 days a week

Phone 716-297-1111