David's 716 Bar & Grill named WNY's Best Place to Watch a Game

Fri, Mar 1st 2024 10:30 am

Article and Photos by Patrick J. Bradley
Senior Contributing Reporter

What you first notice when you walk into David’s 716 Bar & Grill in Niagara Falls are the huge flat-screen televisions that cover the walls. They’re in the bar. They’re in the dining area. It seems like they’re everywhere.

It’s TV heaven for sports fans, and just one of the reasons Niagara Frontier Publications readers voted it one of WNY’s Best Places to Watch a Game.

Such recognition is an impressive accomplishment for a small business that started out eight years ago as David’s Home of the Steak Hoagy, a modest Mil-Pine Plaza sandwich shop.

Renamed and relocated in 2022, David’s 716 Bar & Grill is now the cornerstone of a trio of successful businesses owned by a local family’s food and beverage partnership. The group’s holdings include a venerable family restaurant and a popular ice cream stand.

The partnership has always been a family affair with the businesses owned and operated by Bob Urso, his cousin Ryan Wilcox, Wilcox’s brother-in-law Bill Payne, and Payne’s brother Jonathan.

“It all started with De Dee’s Dairy in 2006,” Urso said during a busy weekday lunch hour.

A classic Niagara Falls Boulevard ice cream shop with a soda fountain vibe, De Dee’s had been a popular summertime stop since the mid-1980s. It continued to thrive under Urso and his partners – and they were just getting started.

Seven years after they bought De Dee’s came another opportunity when Mom’s Family Restaurant in the Mil-Pine Plaza lost its lease. The partners took over Mom’s a year later and, after a short stay on Buffalo Avenue, moved it to its current location at 2410 Military Road, across from KeyBank.

Again they found success. Then it was time to grow again – this time just a few doors away.

Mom’s was located in a plaza that had room to expand. The partners saw potential there if they could add on a large, family-friendly restaurant with a bar and giant televisions on which to watch college and professional sports. It wouldn’t be a bigger version of the original David’s nor would it be just a sports bar. It would be a true bar and grill, the culmination of a 16-year business journey.

In a nod to its beginnings, they opened it 2022 as David’s 716 Bar & Grill. It didn’t take long for David’s 716 to catch on in a big way.

“The customers really like it,” Urso said. “We try to make this a family setting, building relationships and knowing people are enjoying themselves.”

It has proven to be a winning formula.

“It’s the best sports bar in the City of Niagara Falls,” said patron Joshua Haynes. “The food here is phenomenal. Bob and Ryan are stellar people.”

And, Haynes added, it’s locally owned.

“I’d rather give my business to a place like this than a chain,” he said.

Along with a 65-seat dining area, David’s 716 Bar & Grill has a banquet room and a seasonal outdoor patio. It also hosts a bustling pick-up and delivery business.

“We’re still known for our subs, our steak hoagies,” Urso said. “On Friday night, we do our fish fries – breaded and baked. And we do a lot of pizza and wings.”

Given their string of successes, are they on the lookout for new opportunities?

“There are no immediate plans to expand,” Urso said. “Right now, we’re comfortable with where we’re at.”