Flaming Fish has returned and its re-opening comes against the recent backdrop of downtown Buffalo seeing some restaurant closings - mainly due to less daily workers in the central business district.
But, those conditions haven’t stopped Flaming Fish owner Deanna Johnson. Just the opposite.
Buoyed by new menu items and a shift to a more sit-down service, the Flaming Fish re-opened on February. 27 at 535 Main Street a little more than two years after it scaled back its operations as Johnson focused on opening a Houston restaurant.
Flaming Fish began in 2014 as a food truck and in late 2020 opened at 535 Main just across from the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The physical location closed in June of 2023, while the food truck kept its seasonal run in Buffalo.
For Johnson, why return from Houston?
"It is, but it isn't. I mean, of course, I'm a I'm a little nervous, so getting a little bit of the butterflies in my stomach just to be reopening it on a on a full scale," she told WBFO's Jim Fink.
Even when she was in Houston, Johnson says returning to Buffalo, and specifically downtown, was high on her priority list.
"Oh, always. We always missed Buffalo. We just, you know, we wanted to kind of branch out a little bit see what was out there," said Johnson. "I mean, once again, it's a huge seafood town, so it was just to kind of see if, you know, if we're doing things right, if we're not doing things right, if there's things that we should be doing that we're not doing. Just kind of getting some inspiration, some new ideas. But it was always our intention to be to be here in Buffalo.
New menu items include seafood scampi salmon sliders and crab cake sliders. Johnson said this is like a second homecoming for Flaming Fish.
"I know people are like, 'Oh, nobody's, nobody's really working in their offices anymore.' A lot of people are working from home, so it's not as busy. But, I mean, we've never had a problem," she said. "I mean, people come when they're hungry, and they know what they want, they're going to come to kind of come, regardless of the circumstances."
