Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It was a busy weekend in Downtown Buffalo with the NCAA Tournament taking place at KeyBank Center, plus all the festivities that returned relating to St. Patrick's Day weekend. In addition, the weather in Buffalo started to feel like spring had arrived until it got colder over the weekend.
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With the influx of people that came to Buffalo for the tournament, and the people flocking to celebrate the St. Patrick's Day holiday, it was a nice shot in the arm for many local bars and restaurants in-and-around KeyBank Center.
"It was great, and obviously everybody had a good time. And the weather cooperated, for the most part, especially on Thursday and Friday," said Jay Manno from Soho Buffalo. "You're not going look a gift horse in the mouth, if I can have one of these every week, I'd be really happy."
Manno says they were pretty close to what they had expected the weekend to look like for business. While they didn't break any records for business or sales, he says they certainly can't complain.
With the amount of people back in local establishments this past weekend, it might have been a nice indication of a comeback for many businesses after being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic for the better part of two years. While business has been steadily been picking back up after the lifting of many restrictions, this past weekend saw a nice flow of people coming ready to enjoy an evening out.
"Certainly Thursday afternoon, busy. Thursday night, extremely busy, packed and doing everything we can to handle and keeping everybody at bay and having the guests get the best service experience," said Bob Syracuse, co-owner of the Pizza Plant on Main Street. "Friday, a little less so. I think sometimes the people that are coming in from out of town are going elsewhere. Saturday afternoon, same thing. Then Saturday night, boom. You get that two hours of just, 'I want to eat. I want to eat now.' And I think we were pretty much up to the cause right there, and I think we did a pretty decent job."
Syracuse says the nice thing about busy weekends, with events like the NCAA Tournament coming back to town, is it allows to bring to light all that Buffalo has to offer.
"We've had people return coming back from events, but of course, we're in a hotel too. We're in the bottom floor of the Courtyard Marriott, so we get to know our guests a little more, because they may be staying for a couple days. It works out pretty well," Syracuse said.
With most, if not all COVID-19 restrictions being lifted for local businesses in Buffalo, in addition to the amount of people who did make their way back this weekend in celebration, it has both Manno and Syracuse feeling optimistic that things are trending in the right direction for a return to normalcy in Western New York.
"There's still people out there wearing masks. I still see people walking around, was at the gym this morning and there's still people wearing masks. So I don't think we're fully back, it's not normal, but we're trending in the right direction," Manno said. "I think as, obviously, the weather gets nicer and people are outside more in the summer, hopefully by fall we're back to whatever the old normal is."
"A restaurant's supposed to have people. Right after we closed down for the pandemic - it was at 17th, 18th of March - I walked downstairs into the restaurant and it was dark. We needed to turn the lights on, we had boxes all over the place. Now it's a welcomed change, so we're happy about that," Syracuse said.
"I'm holding my breath a little bit, but I think we're moving forward. I can see we're almost at the end of the tunnel, and the lights right in our face."