North Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - With the expansion of the Riviera Theatre, the new restaurants and businesses that occupy Sweeney Street and the soon-to-open District 37 Kitchen and Taphouse, the sun appears to be shining bright in the City of North Tonawanda.
"It's just an exciting time to be in North Tonawanda," North Tonawanda Mayor Austin Tylec tells WBEN.
"It's exciting, they all sort of play off of each other, right? We have an historic amount of development in North Tonawanda not just with residential units, but businesses, commercial spaces, restaurants, the theater, and it's really exciting just to see how they all work together in tangent, to really drive the city to increase density here, to increase revenue."
District37 Kitchen and Taphouse is the newest project coming to North Tonawanda, operated by the Berrafato brothers - Tony, Tom and Frank - as well as their partners Dana Wahler and Kevin Lake.
All five gentleman operate and manage Mississippi Mudds and Old Man River in Tonawanda.
Wahler says they are excited to see everything finally coming together.
"It's going great. Construction is moving along nicely, our sign is up outside, they are working on finishing the the walls and floors in the dining room and kitchen. We're hoping to get all the booths and stuff hopefully in a few weeks."
According to Tony Berrafato, the restaurant, located on the intersection of Sweeney and Main Street, will feature a full-service bar with quality gourmet burgers, barbeque-style smoked meats and wood-fired pizza.
Patrons can step outside of the garage-like doors of the establishment out onto the patio to get a nice view of the canal while they eat and drink.
"We're also going to have 37 taps with all different craft beers," Berrafato adds.
Timetable to open? As long as they are no further delays from the construction team, Wahler says is mid-May is likely.
"It's definitely becoming a reality. We're very excited to be part of the North Tonawanda community. That's a growing area. It's exciting to be part of it. And we're really looking forward to getting in there soon," said Lake.
