Blue Cave Restaurant to offer authentic Italian at new Lewiston location

Bianca family seeks to educate, welcome River Region guests with menu, accommodations at former Clarkson House site

Left of Center with Joshua Maloni

Having worked a quarter-century in the restaurant business, chef Mario Bianca has come up with two tenets for Blue Cave Italian Restaurant – his new Lewiston eatery.

Most importantly, he said Monday, “I don't work for me. I work for everybody.”

So, while the menu will reflect his Sicilian upbringing, Bianca will use feedback from guests to add or subtract dishes.

“I want to see when I open here, what do people ask? Because it's very important for me (what) people want,” he said. “It's easy for change. If I can make happy people, my goal is making people happy, coming back again.”

That said, Bianca’s second rule is “I don't want to do another American/Italian” restaurant. “I want to show people … the real Italian food.”

Mario and his wife, Pamela, are relocating Blue Cave from Genesee Street in Buffalo to 810 Center St. – what was once the Clarkson House. When they open (ideally in mid-March), their menu will have “street food” – appetizers like arancini, panelle and caponata – and several seafood-based mains.

“I want to educate for the real Italian cuisine,” chef Bianca said.

“Meatball, fettucine Alfredo – it’s not Italian; or chicken parmigiana or chicken piccata. It’s not this kind of restaurant,” he stressed.

“Sometimes (guests) are asking me for fettucine Alfredo. I don't know what is that. Honest. I don't know where it's come from, this fettuccine Alfredo; or mozzarella stick. Chicken parm – we don’t have any of that. Chicken piccata – we don’t have that.

“Doesn't mean it's not good. I'm sure it's very good (at other restaurants). I try sometime; I like. We don't need to confuse the authentic Italian food with the American ties. Two things are different.”

At Blue Cave, chef Bianca will lean into his roots – “one part from grandma. You know, I remember on Sunday we do lasagna sugo (red sauce). Braciole is very traditional from Sicily. My grandma, I was a kid, she would cook it for us. Arancini, panelle – this is something very traditional.” And then, “from the north, we have the short ribs. We have salmone in crosta – like a Wellington with a puff pastry. We have the chicken Milanese, risotto.”

His wife noted, “Each region in Italy has a different specialty, but Sicily, the traditional foods – like the pasta alla Norma (Cavatelli egg pasta, eggplant, tomato basil sauce, topped with ricotta salata) and street foods that are the appetizers – are big for Sicily. Those are traditional Sicilian foods.”

In Buffalo, Blue Cave dishes include homemade ricotta gnocchi and beef Bolognese ragu; breaded chicken cutlet served with arugula, cherry tomatoes, shaved parmigiano and lemon dressing; Mediterranean bass sautéed with cherry tomatoes, black olives, white wine and lemon sauce served over truffle puréed potatoes and topped with asparagus; and saffron risotto with bay scallops and asparagus.

When these types of dishes debut in Lewiston, chef said he wants to serve them in a relaxed, fine-dining environment.

“The people that come here, they enjoy the dinner, the bottle of wine, the cocktail, the food. … I want to do it different. Same menu with more detail,” he said. This is in contrast to Buffalo, where, “It’s fast over there. People, they go to Shea’s. They eat fast. Everything is fast.”

810 Center St., Lewiston, once known as the Clarkson House.

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Blue Cave will more resemble the Clarkson House when it debuts. Wood tones and rustic will be the aesthetic, with different-size tables and comfortable seating in each of the rooms.

In addition, “The bar is bigger, so we can do a different cocktail menu,” chef said.

“We're keeping it warm,” Pamela noted. “More of the historical take on it. We're not getting modern and crazy here. We like it cozier and warmer.”

She said the upper floor will eventually have a private, 12- to 14-top table for small events – but that’s “last on my list as far as painting and preparing.”

Chef was excited as he showed off a new stove and spoke of larger prep areas in the kitchen – a room his wife said is as large as their whole Buffalo dining area.

“That's another reason for the move, because he needed a bigger operating space,” she said.

Prior to opening Blue Cave, the Biancas ran a food truck in Virginia that served homemade pastas. Chef has “worked in different places in Europe. He’s worked a little bit in California. He’s done everything from washing dishes all the way up to management. He’s been a server,” Pamela said. “He decided, ‘You know what? In the kitchen, having my own restaurant, being the chef – that’s where I’m most comfortable.’ And so, here we are!”

The Niagara Falls residents heard of 810 Center’s availability and realized they were “ready to just move to a different location, different customer base. This is a better building; one-story versus the two-story that we were in, running up and down the stairs,” she said.

“We thought this would be a perfect opportunity. … We know Lewiston, and it's just a beautiful area; friendly people. …

“I want to work with (the Upward Niagara Chamber of Commerce), see how we can get involved, definitely having some kind of footprint in that festival season. I do know Lewiston is a tightknit community. We want to just be a part of that community. We want to be a welcoming, friendly addition to Lewiston.”

As Mario and Pamela learn more about Lewiston, he noted a half-dozen Lewistonians visited Blue Cave last week to get a sneak peek of the food.

“We’re hoping to please people,” she said. “We’re hoping to be a place where they want to come, make friends.”

“I want to do the best for the area, for Lewiston,” chef said. “My goal is to make people happy.”

Amendola Property Management owns 810 Center St., and noted the building was originally a residence built by Jacob Townsend in 1818 – one of the first structures erected after the burning of Lewiston by the British during the War of 1812. It has been the home of various restaurants, the longest of which was The Clarkson House.

The Historical Association of Lewiston, in a 2022 article for NFP, noted Townsend was a businessman born in Connecticut. “He found Lewiston after taking a frontier exploration for shipping routes that the British wouldn’t likely disrupt. Lewiston was a perfect place to set up a shipping company, because it allowed him to control business on the Great Lakes. With his partner in Oswego and in concert with Porter Barton forwarding company, he was able to control virtually all trade on the Great Lakes until the Erie Canal was built in 1825 and Lewiston’s shipping importance declined. …

“Townsends would continue to own the house at 810 Center until 1865, when various business owners would take over the building.”

The Clarkson House, a steak and lobster restaurant run by the Clarkson family, operated from 1958-95.

More recently, Taquito Lindo rented and operated 810 Center for much of 2023.