restaurants

Xaio, who lived and worked in New York City, tried to find out all he could about Batavia and the local restaurant market, Xaio said.

"It's six hours," Xaio said, "I drive here more than 10 times. I check out everything. Other businesses, Applebee's, dine-in restaurants, how are they doing, and how is traffic, how is the casino. I check all and the past history and see that the people here are nice and I think with the traffic here we're going to have a nice business."

A little more than a week ago, Xaio, and his partner, Chris Huang, opened Yume Asian Bistro at 4140 Veterans Memorial Drive.

An article in The Batavian helped alert local sushi aficionados to Xaio's and Huang's plans and the business is off to a good start.

"It's amazing," said Xaio with a broad smile.

He smiles often when talking about his new business. And he's most pleased that many customers have already been back three times within a week, trying something different on the menu with each visit.

There are a few facts to correct from that original article, which was based on a conversation at a public meeting that neither Xaio nor Huang attended.

Xaio doesn't own any restaurants in NYC. Neither he nor Huang are planning to return to NYC (Huang moved here from New Jersey, not NYC). They've both taken up residence in Batavia and both work at the restaurant full-time with no plans to leave.

Xaio grew up in a small town in Missouri, near St. Louis, which is part of the reason he liked Batavia as a possible location for his dream restaurant. 

"The location is good and the people are nice," Xaio said. "That is the most important. It is country-sized. I'm from country-sized."

Xaio's father has been a chef for 30 years and Xaio started working in the kitchen at 16 years old and has been a chef now for 10 years.

When he talked with a cousin, who lives in Batavia, about his ambition to open his own restaurant, his cousin told him Batavia had only three Chinese restaurants, no other Asian cuisine and no sushi.

"At first, I didn't think sushi would be good for people here, but I hang around and I ask people, do you like sushi and they say yeah, I do, but I need to drive 30 or 35 minutes to Rochester or Buffalo to get it," Xaio said. "Then I think, I need a sushi bar here, and alcohol, that's what I think."

Yume doesn't have its liquor license yet, but the blue-lit bar in back has three wide, empty shelves, and it's looking thirsty for clear glass and amber and green bottles of whiskey, scotch, gin, vodka and other spirits.

Huang is the sushi chef. He's been preparing sushi for 10 years. He became a popular sushi chef in New Jersey, Xaio said.

"When Chris started in a restaurant there, it is low business, right, but after Chris there, it is high," Xaio said. "The business is growing because of Chris."

Huang's English is not as good as Xaio's, so he answers questions in just a few words.

He said people should eat sushi because it's healthy.

"It's good for the body," he said.

Huang's sushi speaks for itself. 

Batavia resident Michael Robbins is one of those customers who has already returned at least three times since the restaurant opened. 

Part of the appeal is that the menu contains rolls he's never tried before, such as the marble roll and the Godzilla roll.

He has primarily come back, though, because of the flavor and freshness of the fish. He's also impressed by the presentation, he said.

"It's really all about taste, but it's nice that they put such detail in it, because to me, if they're putting out a great presentation, it shows a lot of care," Robbins said. "It shows they care a lot about what they're doing. That's the thing that impresses me is they care a lot about what they're doing. That's what the presentation means to me. 'We worked hard on this for you.' "

Robbins and his wife have regularly driven to Buffalo for sushi and they were excited that Yume was opening across from Walmart.

"We kept checking and checking and it opened, and my wife and I said 'Ok it's open. Let's go.' And it was really enjoyable experience."

The sushi hits another sweet spot for Robbins. It's affordable and Huang serves up hearty rolls with plenty of fish. Robbins is saving the expense of a trip to Buffalo, he said, and he's not paying as much for the same quality.

"It's a big lump of fish mixed with a lot of good ingredients and there's plenty of it," Robbins said. "When you buy a roll you want to be filled up after you pay for the roll. A lot of times when you buy a roll somewhere else and it's not packed with sushi, it's not going to fill you up."

Jeff McIntire brought his family into the bistro for the first time Friday night and his three children seemed as to be excited to be there as he was. There was Derek 12, Kayla 11, and Randy, 8.

Soon after the children were seated at a table, they headed over to the sushi bar and clambered up on three chairs where they could watch Huang and his assistants work their magic on gorgeous creations of fish, rice and vegetables. 

Derek and Randy are more the California Roll-type sushi diners, but Kayla has already expanded her options, McIntire said.

Asked if she loved sushi, Kayla's eyes got big, she grinned and we learned that sometimes the word "yes" contains more than three letters. 

A former Marine, McIntire was deployed in Japan a few times, but never tried sushi in its country of origin. It wasn't until he was stationed in California that he ate sushi for the first time.

He started, as many neophytes do, with the California Roll.

Sushi was first introduced in the United States in Los Angeles in the 1960s. Chef Ichiro Mashita, at the Tokyo Kaikan restaurant, is credited with developing the California Roll by trying to incorporate avocado into a roll. A California Roll is comprised of cucumber, crab meat and avocado (though there are variations).

It's become a popular dish in the United States, though scorned in Japan.

When you know sushi, you know what good sushi is, Robbins said. He compared it to the kind of hamburger you get at a place like Fudrucker's to what you might expect from a drive-thru joint. One is a meal made from fresh, quality ingredients, and the other is just thrown together for quick consumption.

An ironic comparison since sushi is kind of the original fast food.

Sushi as we know it today was invented, most likely, by Hanaya Yohei near the end of Japan's Edo period (roughly the 1860s). He created a meal that could be made quickly with inexpensive ingredients and eaten by hand (no chopsticks required) by people on the go.

When the government outlawed sushi street vendors, the cooks moved indoors into restaurants and became chefs and sushi evolved into an art form.

Though sushi has become popular in this country -- seemingly passing the trend stage many years ago and skirting the edge of mainstream -- Americans often eat sushi all wrong according to some.

To understand how to eat sushi, it helps to understand what it is and how it's made.

The key ingredient is vinegared rice. It is Japanese rice mixed with a dressing of rice vinegar, sugar and salt. Sometimes a wrapper is used. The wrapper is usually a kind of seaweed that has been dried, compressed and rolled paper thin. 

We generally think of sushi as raw fish, and while that might be the heart of the sushi experience, main ingredients can also be a variety of cooked meats -- octopus, squid and shellfish are always cooked -- or vegetables. 

When you get your plate of sushi, it will likely contain a dab of wasabi (a green paste similar in taste to horseradish). There will also be an empty dish where you might pour a little soy sauce.

You may also receive a dish of pickled sliced ginger, which acts as a palate cleanser between bites, the way a wine connoisseur might use crackers between tastings.

For a visitor to Yume Asian Bistro on Thursday, one of the sushi chefs, Jerry Zhao, explained the dishes and how to eat them.

It's traditional to use your fingers to pick up nigirizushi, but chopsticks are acceptable.

Americans, typically, will place some soy sauce in a dish and mix in a dash of wasabi, Zhao explained. Some might put a dab or three of wasabi on top of the fish.

What's more important than how you use wasabi, or whether you grab the serving with your fingers or chopsticks, is what you do next.

What you don't want to do is try to cut the fish or let the rice touch the soy sauce (the rice will soak up too much soy sauce, destroying the flavor of both the rice and the fish, and cause the packed rice to fall apart).

Rather, you turn the nigirizushi-fish-side first into the soy sauce. Just a dab will do it.

You then put the whole piece into your mouth, fish side on your tongue.

For a roll, you would likely not dip it in your wasabi-soy-sauce mix.

For traditionalists, they eat sushi as served, and it's chef's choice, not the diner's. In Japanese, "trust the chef" translates into "omakase." In some sushi bars, diners have no other choice.

At Yume Asian Bistro, of course, the choices are much more expansive. There is a menu loaded with an array of sushi choices, such as chirashi, sashimi, spicy maki, eel dragon roll, thunder roll, Mexican roll and naruto maki. Sushi can also be ordered a la carte.

While Huang runs the sushi bar, Xaio is in charge in the kitchen, which provides both additional Asian flavors to experience, but also gives the person not ready to try sushi meal options while the rest of their party may be in the mood for some raw yellowfin tuna or striped bass. 

Yume's kitchen menu includes teriyaki, hibachi, and tempura dishes. Entrees include pad thai, curries, salt and pepper shrimp, duck, and pineapple chicken. 

Xaio admits to being a little unsure yet what Batavia's diners would prefer on the kitchen menu, so he will run regular specials to find out what people like.

"I know how to cook a lot of stuff, but I don't know if people like it or lot," he said.

He's also brimming with ideas.

"I have so many things on my mind to put on the menu, but I can't do it all at once, so I try maybe (to) switch menus, a summer menu, maybe," Xaio said.

Everything that is served out of the kitchen is prepared with the same eye toward presentation as the sushi. Great care is taken to ensure dishes are as artful as they are flavorful.

A customer favorite already is Xaio's pineapple fried rice, which is rice, shrimp, chicken and bits of pineapple served in half a pineapple husk.

Xaio and Huang put a great deal of thought into designing the interior of their restaurant, as well. A spare, contemporary theme of cut rocks along the walls sets the tone, with touches of Asian art. The predominant feature is water flowing through two panes of thick glass near the entry.

The chairs and booths are covered in leather and Xaio said he picked seating with extra padding to ensure customers are comfortable.

The lighting is kept low so those who want a romantic atmosphere will find it at Yume. The light across the room is actually gradiated. More light near the bar, where people can socialize, less light along the far wall; seating in the back is arranged for couples.

"I feel when people are eating, they need a comfortable place," Xaio said. "Music, good food and a comfortable place."

It took a lot of work to get his dream restaurant open, but now that he's serving food to happy customers, Xaio is glad to see the effort paying off.

"We try (the) best we can do," Xaio said. "Seven months. That is long story. I was just trying to do things perfect."

So far, it seems the customers like Batavia's new Asian bistro and Robbins thinks more local residents need to try Yume, and they should try sushi.

"Life is about trying different things," Robbins said. "You have to try different things, right?  Why have the same old thing all the time. Like traveling around the world and going to different places, and it should be the same thing when you eat. You should try different things to see if you like it. You might surprise yourself."

Chris Huang

Kevin Xaio

Town planners approved a sign tonight for a new sushi restaurant that will reportedly open soon at 4140 Veterans Memorial Drive, Batavia.

The restaurant, YUME Asian Bistro, will be the third location for the owner, according to Dan Lang, the town's code enforcement officer. The other two are in New York City.

Everything about the new restaurant, Lang said, is first-class.

"The interior looks wonderful, actually," Lang said. "He did a beautiful job on the inside of it."

Lang said the owner is just about ready, and eager to open.

The location is next to Pawn King, two doors down from Jagged Edges Salon, across from Walmart.

His top chef from New York will open the restaurant and train the cooks and staff before returning to NYC.

"He wants to make sure he has somebody who takes care of the sushi the right way," Lang said.

The restaurant will also serve Thai food as well as other Asian dishes.

Lang described the new restaurant as "high end."

UPDATE: So, apparently, Batavia will have two sushi restaurants going by similar names. Josh Gaylord says that he filed for a DBA for Yume Sushi in June and then Yumi Asian Bistro filed in July. Gaylord is planning to open his restaurant at the former Delavan's location on Evans Street in the city.  He's previously held a Sushi night at Sweet Ecstasy Bakery and his sushi has gained a passionate local following.

We have more menus online ready to receive your meal orders from great local restaurants.

Here are the menus available now:

• Big Pauly's
• Clor's
• Larry's Steakhouse
• Settler's Family Restaurant
• T.F. Brown's
• Sammy Hill's
• City Slickers
• Smokin' Eagle
• Sweet Ecstacy

The developers have also added a new feature -- you can order your meals in advance. Let's say you're in Rochester at 4 p.m. and know you won't be back in Batavia until 6:15 p.m., you can specify 6:15 as your pick-up time.

Be sure to bookmark BataviaEats.com to keep up with new restaurants as we add them and for future online ordering from local restaurants.

Press release:

Why do you leave Genesee County to eat? That’s exactly what the Restaurant Creativity Advocates want to find out. In response to sales leakage reports provided by W-ZHA and The Community Land Use & Economics Group, a brief survey was developed for area residents to explain their dining and travel habits. The survey is available now through July 12th online at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N6SCRMV.

The Restaurant Creativity Advocates is a local group formed by representatives of the Genesee County Chamber of Commerce, Genesee Community College’s The BEST Center, Batavia Development Corporation, downtown's Business Improvement District and Senior Corp of Retired Executives. This group voluntarily organized to research and improve the local dining options throughout the county.

“We gathered in response to two recent reports that suggest area residents spend more than $12.4 million annually to eat and drink at restaurants beyond our County borders,” stated Julie Pacatte, Batavia Development Corporation. “We want to understand why people leave the County to dine-out. Ultimately, we want to do what we can to try to ensure more dining dollars stay local.”

The Restaurant Creativity Advocates began discussion early February 2013. Since then, they conducted their own local restaurant assessment facilitated by Lina LaMattina, director of The BEST Center.

“We began by asking team members to finish the open-ended question, wouldn’t it be great if...,” LaMattina said. “Allowing this cross-functional team to begin to consider the possibilities open to the County helped the group to generate some big picture thinking, think creatively, and develop the foundation for some real conversation with stakeholders without giving way to the  traditional stumbling blocks typically encountered when dealing with significant challenges,” LaMattina added.

The group categorized more than 100 committee responses and found that six areas of focus could potentially improve the local restaurant scene. Upon completion of the customer survey, the group will share all results with the local restaurateurs in hopes of devising an action plan to reduce the sales leakage.

The restaurant customer survey is brief, but it does end with the same valuable question “Wouldn’t it be great if…?”

The Chamber of Commerce has mailed a separate restaurant owner survey directly to their listing of 126 existing restaurants in Genesee County. That survey will also be complete at the end of next week.

The menu of great local restaurant choices in Batavia grew a bit today with the opening of Salsa and Curry on Jackson Street (former location of Margarita's Mexican Restaurant).

Owners Deena Rathod (right) and daughters Anvpa Hirani (left) and Priya Rathod have opened with just a Mexican food menu for now, but starting Friday will offer daily Indian food specials.

If the Indian food goes over well -- and several of the first customers in the restaurant today asked for Indian food -- then the menu will be expanded.

"If there is demand for it, we'll bring in more Indian food," Deena said. "We'll add it to the menu, but for now we're trying it on a limited basis."

With no previous Indian food restaurant in Batavia to judge the curry-and-spice offerings of the cuisine, the Rathods want to see how much demand there is for Indian menu items.

The Rathods have made a significant investment in remodeling the interior of the former Margarita's, reconfiguring the space, putting in new flooring, booths, tables and chairs.

"I've always wanted to open a restaurant," Deena said. "I have a passion for food and I like to make different dishes. In the past, when I've made different dishes for family and friends, they all enjoyed it."

Deena said many customers who have come into Mr. Wine and Liquor -- which her family also owns -- since Margarita's closed have urged her and her family to open a restaurant, especially an Indian restaurant (the building on Jackson is owned by Deena and her husband, Kevin).

The opportunity seemed ripe to go ahead and give it a try, Deena said.

Rancho Viejo, Batavia's new Mexican restaurant, opened at 11 o'clock today.

Owner Leon Ramirez, right, said he decided to open a restaurant in Batavia because it seemed like a good market and there was no Mexican restaurant in Batavia.

Ramirez completely remodeled the former Ponderosa location on Ellicott Street.

This is Ramirez's fifth location. He also owns Mexican restaurants in Mt. Morris (his home), Cornell, Waterloo and Fairport.

"I invite everybody down to give us a try," Ramirez said. "I promise them very real Mexican food."

Pictured with Ramirez is Jonathan Martinez.

Walk into Kati’s Place on Main Street in Le Roy and chances are, you’ll see Kati Mancuso ready to seat you or take your order or maybe just shoot the breeze for a while.

The 27-year-old leased the building and fixed up what was formerly Tyler’s Restaurant (closed in 2006) without having to take out any loans or rely on anyone else.

“Nothing worked when I got here,” she shrugged. “The lights didn’t even work when I agreed to take it, but I said yes anyway.”

Mancuso said that although her broker told her the former restaurant was “turnkey ready,” it ended up needing a lot of elbow grease but she was determined.

“Let me tell you about ‘turnkey’ anything,” she joked. “If one more pipe exploded in my face or gas line blew up or anything else had gone wrong, I don’t know what I would have done.”

Odds are, even if she had encountered another disaster, she would have managed to get the restaurant open for business on the designated date – March 14.

“I don’t know why but I set that date...I said, ‘You have one month. Now go.’”

Remarkably, Mancuso and all her supporters did just that. Once she leased the building, she and her family and friends managed to get everything ready so the doors could open for business in four weeks.

“Everybody rallied behind me,” she said. “They got together and, I don’t know, it all fell into place. It was just like people were coming in all the time asking what I needed. I went so long without sleeping and eating to clean this place and get it ready by March 14.”

But at one point, Mancuso had some health issues which put her in the hospital for awhile. When she recovered, she “began making phone calls,” calling up vacant places in Le Roy with her vision in mind. She wanted a place of her own where her regular customers could come to eat and enjoy themselves.

“Truthfully, I did it for them,” she said, gesturing toward a few tables of diners. “These people are family and it’s like I’ve been waiting on them all forever.”

Kati’s Place is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

“Every day we’re open, things just get better and better around here,” Mancuso said. “We’re doing just fine.”

(This story originally contained information referring to another individual of a personal nature that upon reflection should have been removed prior to publication. The information and comments referring to it have been removed.)

Linda Tyczka never expected Minty Wellness to receive the kind of praise it has from meat eaters in Genesee County and beyond.

Among locals, "they're probably our biggest client base," Tyczka said.

Why wouldn't meat eaters embrace the gourmet restaurant inside the upscale hotel and spa in Darien Center?

Well, there's no meat served at Minty Wellness. It's an entirely vegan and raw food establishment.

Since opening last May, more and more local residents have been discovering Minty Wellness and telling their friends about the food.

"There are so many local people coming," Tyczka said. "We have a group reservation from a local bank. None of them are vegan. They just heard it’s a nice place and the food is good. We’ve taken the vegan menu past granola and beans. We try to do a little gourmet and it’s working well.”

The story of Minty Wellness begins more than three years ago at a raw food seminar in Maine. There, Tyczka met Mary Minihane, who makes her home in Ireland. The two women struck up a friendship and Mary suggested opening a vegan and raw food resort.

Her initial idea was to open it in Costa Rica, but after the women travelled there they couldn't find a suitable location, so Minihane started looking in California and Arizona.  Then she sent Tyczka information on property in the Poconos.

At that point, Tyczka said, "Hey, what about my place."

Tyczka and her husband David own 100 wooded acres in Darien. Minihane researched the market, liked its proximity to Buffalo, Rochester and Toronto, and agreed to back the construction of the facility.

The entire hotel, spa and restaurant are brand-new from the ground up. The eight hotel rooms are each unique, though the entire decor of the hotel is sleek contemporary with a touch of retro modern. The spare, uncluttered environment inside is immediately relaxing, which Tyczka said was the goal all along.

"I'm all about environment," Tyczka said. "It doesn't matter where I go, I want to be in a nice environment. We didn't just want to have a vegan hotel and just plain rooms. We wanted that experience to carry up into the rooms so people would be like, 'I can't wait to get to my room.'"

Some of what the spa offers includes Swedish massage, hot stone massage, soothing soak, Vichy massage and colon hydrotherapy. Laura Koepp is also on staff to offer Naturopathic therapy.

For those looking for an overnight or longer retreat, besides relaxing in the hotel, there are four golf courses within 15 minutes, plus nearby Darien Lake, as well as the wood areas for hikes or snowshoeing.

Overnight stays include a vegan breakfast.

As for the lunch and dinner menu, it features such delectable-sounding dishes Cajun Mayo Avocado, Linguini Alfredo, Tomato Dill Nori Roll and a vegan taco dubbed the "best taco ever."

"It's awesome to be acknowledged by the locals," Tyczka said. "It's one thing to pull people from Rochester, Buffalo and Toronto, but to be recognized by local people is just a really gratifying thing."

When I stopped into South Beach, 59 E. Main St., Batavia, this afternoon to see what was up with the re-opening plans, the first thing Ken Mistler did was give me a cup of ice water.

Man, was it good. And not just because it was 96 degrees outside.

Mistler has a whole new filtration system that all the water -- for cooking, ice and table service -- goes through. It's as pure and clear as a pristine mountain stream.

And it's also evidence of the first-rate job Mistler has done in putting together the new South Beach. He's not calling it "Ken Mistler's South Beach," but that's how we might start thinking about it. It's both that different and yet still South Beach.

Inside are the same bamboo and beachy themes, but Mistler has also made a lot of changes, from adding a side-door entrance and doing away with the Main Street entrance, to enclosing the kitchen. The latter change helps keep heat in the kitchen instead of the dining room. He's also added new, larger, more private booths.

There's also more seating overall and a bigger bar.

And Mistler isn't done. He's got expansion plans for downstairs once the main restaurant is running smoothly.

The new South Beach officially opens Tuesday.

As for the food, Mistler said it will be "South Beach with a flair." There will be steaks and seafood and pineapple dishes, but one unique feature is that diners will have the option of ordering -- and paying less -- for smaller portions.

"We thought, when we go out to eat the plates are just too big, too much food on the plate, and you feel obligated to eat it," Mistler said. "We’ll do away with that by offering the same dish, but a smaller portion at a lower price."

Local business leaders during a tour of the Genesee ARC Community Center.  Pictured from left to right are: Rick Mancuso, Eva Bohn, Skip Charvella, Colleen Odessa and Steve Mullen. The group is part of a larger contingent helping to raise funds to support a new Culinary Arts Training Program for people with disabilities. 

Batavia – Members of the local restaurant industry have joined in the fundraising efforts to help renovate the Genesee ARC Community Center. Eleven area businesses are participating in a promotion that will give a percentage of proceeds to the Genesee ARC Capital Campaign underway to complete work at the agency’s Woodrow Road site, the former St. Mary’s Elementary School.

The promotion runs Sundays through Wednesdays from April 11 - June 9.  Genesee ARC will receive a donation equal to 10% of each purchase when the customer presents a promo card or ad at the following participating businesses: Alabama Hotel, Alex’s Place, Batavia Restaurant Supply, Bohn’s, Clor’s, D & R Depot, Delavan’s, Larry’s Steakhouse, Sport of Kings, TF Browns and Terry Hills.

The promotion excludes Mother’s Day or any other promotions or discounts.  Anyone with questions may contact Genesee ARC Director of Development Shelley Falitico at 343-1123, ext. 231 or sfalitico@rochester.rr.com.

So, as Peter and I have time, we've slowly started to explore Batavia. We're both from the Hilton/Spencerport area, and do not really know the good places to go and who to call when we need stuff.

One of our first discoveries was Main Street Pizza last summer, and we love getting pizza from there. We order a large and bring it home to eat it for days. The coupons in the penny saver are great, too.

We've been shopping at Neptune Gardens for a while now, for all of our fish. While some supplies are limited, the fish we buy from there generally last and are quite healthy.

This past Wednesday, I got out of work early, and we decided to go out for a bite to eat. We hit up T.F. Brown's. It was terrific. Peter got corned beef and cabbage, and I got a personal pizza, and we got wings for a starter. We'll definitely be going back.

This morning we wanted something quick and easy for breakfast, and so we debated between Settler's and Miss Batavia, and chose Miss Batavia. We were in an out in less than an hour and the food was great! We both got great meals, with good portions and prices. We'll be back, and even will recommend it when we have people in town.

I think as we explore more, I'll post about our experiences. Many of our ideas about where to go comes from local advertising, such as The Batavian. We also got a few ideas from the place mat ads at Miss Batavia. While we may not know a lot of people, I'm hoping the more the explore, the more we find places to go where we might be able to meet more people.

Does anyone remember a pizza shop in the East Town Plaza?  Not Domino's but a real pizza shop?  Where was it located?  Where was Your Host located? 

Many of us been have wondering about the fate of the Pontillo's restaurant in Batavia ever since the doors closed in November, followed soon after by the news that the business owes more than $112,000 in back state taxes. Few could argue that they had one of the best lunch buffets around.

Owner Sam Pontillo has been assuring people all along that the restaurant would open up again... soon... even if he had to find some other location in the city to do it. Initially, Sam told the Daily News that the restaurant was closing down for renovations and would re-open in a couple weeks. Of course, that didn't come to pass, and in the latest article in the Daily, he's quoted as saying: "people will be able to get a Pontillo's pizza in Batavia by April 1."

Sam's brother John Pontillo spoke with us by phone this afternoon. John is currently living and working at a country club in Minnesota, where he has been since his unceremonious dismissal from the family business by his two brothers, Sam and Paul, around this time last year.

Most of you will recognize the name John from what you have read in the Daily's coverage. Most recently, for example, Sam spoke of John when he told Joanne Beck that he "had to pay the tab of his brothers' neglect."

"They left an unpaid tab. Once again, I'm footing the bill," he said Thursday.

Those taxes were the responsibility of siblings John and Paul, who ran the Batavia Pontillo's Pizza & Pasta until Sam Pontillo closed it in early November, Sam said. He bought his current Le Roy Pontillo's site in 2007.

In every article in the Daily News, John has been accused by his brother Sam of being responsible for "neglecting" the finances and failing to pay the taxes for the business in Batavia. Sam also told the newspaper that he had no foreknowledge of the unpaid taxes.

That's just not true, John told us today. Sam knew about the tax problems all along, and this wasn't the first time that it happened, he said.

Back in 2006, both restaurants, in LeRoy and Batavia, were cited by the state for owing back taxes in excess of $350,000. At that time, Sam was in charge of all the operations, says John. "He was president of both locations."

Later on in 2006, it was decided that the Batavia and LeRoy locations would be incorporated seperately as Sam's Tomato Pies and LeRoy Dough Boys, respectively. On the articles of incorporation for the LeRoy restaurant, Sam is listed as owner and as president. His brother Paul is listed as secretary. As for the Batavia restaurant, Sam's mother, Elizabeth, is listed as owner, Sam as secretary and Paul as president.

John is nowhere named as an officer of either company. He insists that he was only ever a paid employee like everyone else who worked there. That he was fired so precipitously last February only attests to that.

"They say that it happened on my watch," said John. "I was never an officer of the company. I was just an hourly employee. That's all I ever was."

John could not comment in detail due to the pending litigation between the brothers to determine who will take over the Batavia restaurant. They are also waiting to execute the will of their mother, Elizabeth, which could help decide some of the details of who owns the rights to the name: Pontillo's.

John did say, however, that the brothers need to move fast to come to an agreement, because the mortgage company, which has not been paid since Novemeber, could foreclose on the property by the end of the month.