A Welcoming "Atmosphere!"

    A new restaurant has opened on Allen St. here in Buffalo, NY and tonight Nicole and I decided to give it a try.  The place is called "Atmosphere @ 62" and at first we had no idea what to expect.  We couldn't find a menu online anywhere and we had a hard time finding out anything about it in general.  We walked into the restaurant and were immediately greeted by a nice gentlemen, presumably the owner, and a woman behind the bar informing us that they were still waiting to get their alcohol license.  I immediately threw a fit yelling and screaming about how preposterous is was to even have the nerve to call themselves "open".  I stormed out of the building furious.  Actually no, I didn't really do that.  We were fine with that and they sat us down and handed us the menu.  I was excited to try something new tonight.  The place had a mildly artsy, classy, urban feel to it.  They sat us at the window which was pleasantly distracting.  The Allen St. area has gotten a lot better but there is still the occasional freak show, schizo character that will walk by staring into the restaurant.  I enjoyed the feel of the place and was comfortable inside.  Not knowing anything about the place, I was worried about attire and dress code, but the place was dress casual.   The one peculiar thing to note is that the tables seem a bit on the small side, small enough that our menus overlapped when we had them open on the table at the same time.

    We started off with an appetizer and decided to go with the Peach Pizza Pita.  This seemed so different, that I had to try it, and I'm not even all that crazy about peaches.  It consisted of marinated peaches, mascarpone cheese, sage, and honey on pita dough.  It was incredible.  The cheese was delicious and not overpowering with the peaches to add a subtle sweetness that really balanced everything out nicely.  It was really tasty.  Each entree came with soup or salad.  The soup of the day was a pepper gouda soup.  I love gouda cheese so this was perfect.  While we were waiting for the soup, they brought us out some fresh bread with oil.  The oil had fresh garlic, herbs, and balsamic vinegar.

The soup came out next and it smelled great.  The service was excellent and everything was brought out in a timely manner and our water was constantly refreshed.  Our soup was very tasty, something that I thought would be great in the winter.  The flavor was fantastic and the only thing we found to be a bit overpowering was the spice.  This soup was really spicy.  Nicole likes hot food, and she said that this was even almost too hot for her.  Minus the intense heat, this soup was delicious.

Pepper Gouda Soup

Shortly after we finished our soup, the main course came out.  Nicole ordered the penne alfredo with sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms, in a white wine alfredo sauce.  I ordered the baked pork chop stuffed with apple walnut and apple brandy cream sauce, served with roasted potato and vegetable.  Her alfredo pasta was creamy and delicious.  With low expectations of this normally boring dish, it was surprisingly delicious.  My pork chop was great too.  It was so great that I got too excited and while I was cutting into the pork, I slipped and sprayed pork remnants all over Nicole's face.   I'm not very graceful.  The apple stuffing was a great companion to the perfectly cooked pork chop.  It was a great piece of meat, not under cooked and not dry.  It was really great.

Stuffed Pork Chop

     Everything was genuinely fresh and delicious here and we were happy to have such a great, creative addition to the restaurant scene here in Buffalo.  Once the alcohol license comes in, it will complete the puzzle for this place and become a really great dining experience.  Welcome Atmosphere@62!

Atmosphere @ 62

62 ALLEN
Buffalo, NY 14202

(716) 881-0062