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Tony Tuesdays: Rials is back behind the bar at Proper

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Buffalo has always been a city of communities. Rust belt people are bootstrappers, but we hoist each other’s as often as our own. In other places, a bartender leaving his post would pass without a blip on the larger radar. Maybe there’d be a few fernets and chartreuse shots lifted at the end of the night. A few firm handshakes from friends, maybe an Instagram of a last drink or two.

Not in Buffalo.

When Tony Rials – the quiet man making magic behind the bar at Bourbon & Butter – announced he was leaving, there were shots of fernet aplenty. But there was also a helluva party, and just about every bartender in the area stopped by to wish him well. Because around these parts, that’s what we do.

Sure, there’s plenty of competition among the masters of booze mixing. The annual Industry Night Cocktail Competition pits bartenders from the region’s top watering holes head-to-head with creative concoctions to bring home, well, bragging rights. But overall, the city’s barmen and women are a tight-knit group that work and play together in this big, beautiful sandbox of ours.

Photo courtesy of Buffalo Proper
Photo courtesy of Buffalo Proper

Starting tonight, Rials will be in a new spot at Buffalo Proper for Tony Tuesdays. Since leaving B&B on Feb. 17, Rials has made guest appearances at Ristorante Lombardo, stirring up his signature Negroni. But this is the first publicly announced slot for the man some call the best mixologist (sorry Tony, we couldn’t help ourselves) in the city.

Guest bartender slots are nothing new to the industry. Proper has hosted a handful of high-profile guests since it’s been open, but this is the first time a weekly appearance has come to the table. And we’re excited about that, because it shows a cohesion among the craft that epitomizes the spirit of the Queen City.

Maybe we’re reading too much into it, maybe we’re just feeling warm and fuzzy about the whole scene, but Rials stepping behind the Proper bar is exactly the kind of cooperation this city needs. The bar and restaurant scene has been growing at breakneck speed over the past couple of years, and with that kind of growth can come animosity. In bigger cities, the food industry can be a cutthroat place the likes of which is only seen in high school hallways. And sure, we’ve got our Regina Georges too. But most of the time, our industry folks embrace the rising tide mentality that makes Buffalo the big neighborhood it is.

Welcome back, Rials and hats off to Proper for handing over the mixing glass for the evening. This is likely the start of a beautiful partnership.


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