Happy Anniversaries!
Happy Anniversaries!
Both Villaggio and Ellicottville Distillery Celebrate Huge Milestones this Week
In this day and age, seeing a business survive over a year is impressive and making it past five years is an award-worthy feat. This week, two of Ellicottville’s finest businesses are celebrating their anniversaries. That’s something that deserves celebration, so let’s take a deeper look into each one.
VILLAGGIO CELEBRATES 8 YEARS:
Starting with Villaggio, Ellicottville’s finest Italian restaurant, they celebrated being open 8 years this past Wednesday. Owner Nick Pitillo had a lot to say about what it took for them to get this far. “It has been a tremendous ride these past 8 years. This all started when Cheryl and Randy Kane approached me about returning to Ellicottville 8 ½ years ago. We had opened Osteria 166 approximately 2 years earlier, and Cheryl approached me to say ‘Would you ever think about coming home to Ellicottville?’ and my immediate reaction was NO!!! I had my hands full with my first restaurant and was scared to death! As I thought about it more, I realized that I had a young daughter, (Olivia) and my wife Kendra was a "county girl”, and I should put more thought into it. So on Father's Day in 2015, I brought my wife, daughter and puppy to Ellicottville to visit, as we always did, and I walked my family into The Barn. I asked Kendra, ‘What do you think about this place?’, she said…'For what?’ and I said ‘For an Osteria’. She burst into tears… I was concerned and honestly wasn't sure if they were good tears or bad tears until she said ‘Why didn't we move to Ellicottville when we moved back to Western New York?’ - so GOOD TEARS! I called Cheryl and Hummer the next day and started the process. This would have never been a reality without their help.”
He went on to say, “Reflecting back on the past eight years, I felt like it was one of the best decisions I have ever made for, not only my business, but for my family! We were able to raise our daughter here, reset our roots, and have a thriving business in a thriving community… one which I have been blessed to call "home" for my entire life. We love Ellicottville and feel like this is where we will be forever. So much so that, during the pandemic, our business partners Ed and Tina Gurbacki sold their home down state and became permanent members of our local community too.”
Villaggio celebrated their 8 year mark Wednesday, October 4th with their annual Anniversary party that has become the “unofficial” kick-off to Fall Fest weekend. There were complimentary snacks, liquor samplings, and live music from Chris Maloney. It’s a tradition that goes back to their first year of being open.
Nick stated, “So the story of our annual anniversary party goes a little deeper than just throwing a party. We had taken possession of the building with only 29 days remaining until the start of the Fall Festival. As anyone who has ever opened a business knows money gets TIGHT! So we set our target with opening for Fall Festival! With the hard work of many, and the leadership of 2 hard working locals, Jason Grover and Russ Dunklemen, we worked tirelessly 7 days a week to get ready. As we got close to the "finish line" we realized that we had not allotted any training time, so we decided to invite the whole town in for dinner! We figured we could use the training, and no one could complain too much when we screwed up, because we were buying! As it turned out, it was the greatest training event we could have asked for. We learned SO MUCH, and made many new friends. So every year we host our "Anniversary" party, but it is really a THANK YOU to our amazing village for always supporting us! It TRULY TAKES A VILLAGE - and that’s actually why we named it Villaggio.”
We know we are looking forward to continuing to enjoy their amazing risotto sticks and All You Can Eat Pasta Bar Sundays!
ELLICOTTVILLE DISTILLERY CELEBRATES 7 YEARS:
If you’ve ever gone out to Robbins Road to visit Ellicottville Distillery, you can see how much work owners Bryan and Renee Scharf have put into their business. Always working on new projects, like expanding their distilling area, adding their outdoor patio, hosting a variety of festivals year round… the list of their activities goes on. And their efforts have paid off - they are celebrating 7 years in business this upcoming Fall Fest weekend, showing off their strong distilling skills and building unique flavorful cocktails to serve at their beautiful bar.
What did it take to get them here? Bryan explained, “It has taken a lot of dedication and patience. We strive to be as innovative as possible with events and working out any way to draw people to our off the beaten track location. We have pushed along and overcome a lot of adversity over the years and now we're celebrating 7 official years of being open.
The project actually started 10 years ago and after all the purchasing of equipment and licensing, it took three years to get their products on the shelf and ready for customers. Bryan wanted to make sure we knew, “We have had a lot of help along our way and we can’t express how appreciative we are. A wild vision has gotten us this far and we plan to keep going and doing the best we can.”
The Distillery is having a family-friendly celebration on October 7th, starting when the doors open at 12:00pm. The event is FREE to attend. Food platters will be offered, Ashford Junction Ice Cream Truck will be on-site and the live entertainment will be provided by the popular folk duo Ralph and Tamala, known as Porcelain Train from 3:00-6:00pm.
After the anniversary, the next event they will be hosting is their Annual Punkin’ Chunkin on November 4th. It’s exciting watching the trebuchet fling the weighty vegetables in the air and watching them explode on impact on their return to earth. Super fun time. (This writer highly recommends it.) December 16th is the release of their 6yr old Bourbon. Dec 31st is their Liquor Mile/5K with fireworks after dark and Jan. 20th is the Christmas Tree Funeral Bonfire.
For more information on either of these fantastic places, their menus and upcoming events, you can visit villaggioevl.com or ellicottvilledistillery.com and ellicottvilleNOW would like to extend our congratulations and wish our local businesses many more anniversary milestones!
