Good Morning, Buffalo: Bills unveil parking changes for 2024 season (2024)

June 10, 2024

Bills unveil parking changes for 2024 season

The Buffalo Bills have a specific message for fans attending home games during the 2024 NFL season: Carpool.

Please.

“Our hope this year is fans will continue to use ride-share and carpool and make an advanced plan of their travel arrangements,” said Andy Major, the Bills’ vice president of operations and guest experience. “A lot of fans already do that and it’s great and helps the situation.”

The Bills’ situation is a shrinking of available parking spaces because of new stadium construction.

In an email expected to be delivered to season ticket holders this morning, the Bills will announce parking lot changes.

–Ryan O'Halloran

WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT

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Anger and sadness at Sunday Mass as news of church mergers and closings sinks in:At Blessed Sacrament Church in the Town of Tonawanda, the Rev. Martin Gallaghermade official the news many parishioners had already heard. The church is among 25 churches in the Buffalo Diocese in Buffalo and the Northtowns slated for closure by 2025, according toan announcement made by the diocese last week. More closing recommendations are scheduled this week. Blessed Sacrament will merge with St. Paul's in Kenmore. "I know there is hurt and I am sorry for that, I wish I could take that away," Gallaghersaid during his homily. "And I know there is anger and I wish I could take that away."Read more

Elizabeth Licata: East Side, West Side, all around town: Garden walks lift urban neighborhoods:Buffalo has a garden tour culture that’s unlike any other. Such tours in other cities are generally selective. They are organized by gardeners for other gardeners. There’s an upscale feel to them that’s comes along with an entrance fee− though high tea might be thrown in. Buffalo was never that way.Read more

Angola man arrested after crash that killed 8-year-old boy in Hamburg:Markus Genovese, 52, was arraigned Sunday by Hamburg Town Justice Gerald Gorman in Erie County Medical Center, where he is being treated for injuries from the crash.Genovese is charged with first-degree and second-degree vehicular manslaughter, driving while intoxicated by alcohol and narcotics, leaving the scene of a fatal accident and numerous vehicle and traffic law violations.Read more

West Seneca workers performed flood-control work without permits:The DEC issued a notice of violation to the town last month for manhole work reinforcing a bank on North Covington Drive that was eroding.Read more

Striking Tops distribution center workers to vote on third contract offer: Employees at the Tops Markets distribution center in Lancaster will get a chance today to vote on a third contract offer, Teamsters Local 264 president Brian Dickman announced Sunday afternoon. Read more

WEATHER

Cloudy and cool:Cloudy with a slight chance of a shower. High around 60.Read more

FOOD & DRINK

Ryan Fernandez: James Beard-nominated chef draws crowds to Southern Junction with unique 'Tex-ish' barbecue

Anyone who dialed the phone number listed on Southern Junction’s Yelp page up until late March was actually calling owner Ryan Fernandez’s cellphone. Fernandez didn’t know his cell was listed on Yelp, but it hadn’t mattered. His West Side barbecue restaurant was an if-you-know-you-know kind of place – flourishing, but not at an overwhelming pace.

Then, "CBS Saturday Morning" profiled Fernandez in a nationally televised segment. People across the country learned of his one-of-a-kind barbecue that could only be found in Buffalo. He calls it "Tex-ish," a blend of Texas barbecue and South Indian flavors, reflecting Fernandez’s multicultural life as an immigrant whose childhood played out on the coast of the Arabian Sea.

At least 1,000 phone calls and messages – mostly from out of town – asked if he ships his food. (He doesn’t – yet.)

A few days later, Fernandez was named a finalist for a James Beard award, the culinary equivalent of an Oscar.

Now, everyone knew about Southern Junction.As Buffalo swarmed with visitors for the total solar eclipse, the line at his 365 Connecticut St. restaurant reached 100 people. Fernandez began consistently selling more than twice the amount of food as usual, a momentum that has yet to slow.

“Going from zero to 1,000 is not anything any of us have ever experienced,” Fernandez said. “You don’t have a playbook for waking up one day and going, ‘You’re going to be on CBS and you’re going to be a James Beard finalist the same week. You just go, ‘OK. I need to order more food, throw more food in there. Let’s just put your head down.’”

Though hectic, it was a “good problem to have.” Fernandez built and financed his restaurant from scratch, often working multiple jobs and sacrificing sleep. Owning a barbecue restaurant had been his dream for more than a decade.

“It’s barbecue,” Fernandez said. “You don’t want that to stress out your life.”

Fernandez is the first chef in Buffalo to progress to the final stage for a James Beard award. A few chefs have been nominated as semifinalists but never made it to the finals. Waxlight Bar a Vin also made history as a finalist for a James Beard award honoring its beverage and wine program. The city's only winner has been the Anchor Bar in 2003, for being an American classic.

He will learn whether he won the James Beard award for Emerging Chef during the awards ceremony today. He’s traveling to Chicago for the ceremony with his head baker and girlfriend, Lydia Herr, and the team from Waxlight Bar a Vin.

BILLS

New Bills aide Jahmile Addae finds chance to lead young men even better in NFL than college:Addae has built a strong reputation as a teacher of defensive backs. The Bills hired him in January from the Miami Hurricanes, where he had coached the past two seasons.Read more

PHOTOS

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