The business of Buffalo’s favorites

By Kevin Manne

Founded in 1967 by Barb and Bill (hence the name) Korzelius in East Aurora, the tavern’s signature item at the time was the beef on weck sandwich — they didn’t even serve wings. 

But when former Bell Aerospace engineer Joe Giafaglione purchased the establishment in 1977, he had bigger plans. He created the bar’s now-iconic wing sauces and built a loyal following, transforming it into a destination.

Thirty-five years later, Giafaglione was ready to retire, and his niece, Katie Crook, MBA ’91, and her husband, Clark, were looking to do something new and decided to purchase the business, despite having no experience in the hospitality industry.

“My husband was president of a computer company, and I was in banking and had owned a retail business for a few years,” she says. “It was scary, but we thought, ‘We’ll just babysit the business for a while’ since it was already a success. If anyone had told me when I was a kid that I’d be running Bar-Bill one day, I would’ve been shocked.”

But the couple did far more than babysit. Along with her sons, John and Harry, they revamped the company’s systems, created new recipes and grew the family business from one location with 30 staff to four locations with 250 employees.

And they’re not stopping there. Crook and team recently partnered with Holiday Valley Ski Resort to reopen The Ellicottville Depot bar/restaurant, now simply known as The Depot. In East Aurora, they also operate 189 Burger in the village.

“Restaurants are all about production and process,” says Crook. “People think of the industry as having more relaxed systems, but it can’t survive without efficiency. Those lessons from my MBA: finance, operations and production, are what make our business work.”

In Washington D.C., Bob Daly, BS ’84, delivers another Buffalo favorite to the people at the heart of the nation’s capital: pizza.

As the owner and operator of DC Pizza, Daly leads a restaurant that doesn’t sling traditional Buffalo pies, however. His restaurant is a fast-casual “Chipotle-style” pizzeria located about five blocks from the White House where guests choose toppings along a line and get their pizzas baked in under 3 minutes — perfect for working professionals on the go.

After graduating from the School of Management with a bachelor’s in accounting, Daly began his professional career at investment firms in Manhattan, but it didn’t take him long to discover that wasn’t the career he wanted.

Instead, he turned to entrepreneurship, which included running franchise operations of cleaning services in Atlanta, Northern Virginia and Maryland, as well as two California Tortilla locations in D.C. before founding his own original concept with DC Pizza.

“Life throws curves at you, but education gives you a foundation,” he says. “And then if you work hard and smart, you end up figuring out how to do something better than your competitors, and things work out.”

Daly says one of the biggest challenges for DC Pizza over the past 11 years was the COVID-19 pandemic. Because most people commute into the city, sales plummeted when things shut down.

“I'm in a business district and nobody was showing up for work, so it was a ghost town,” he says. “But my competitors ended up going out of business, so we started getting busier, eventually passing our pre-COVID sales and now we’re up 50-60%.”

He credits his business’ owner-operator model for allowing him to navigate his company though crises like the pandemic, government shutdowns and swings in tourism levels.

“It's really just a matter of taking care of people — customers and employees,” says Daly. “If you can do that, then you're going to do great.”

Meghan Moynihan, BS ’06, developed a passion for the food industry from her father, who managed and operated his own restaurants. She landed her first restaurant gig at a Friendly’s when she was 16 and was instantly hooked.

“I really enjoyed the rush of things, the energy that’s in the kitchen and being around all these different people,” says Moynihan.

Post-college, she built a foundation in hospitality and business management in Oahu before returning to Western New York, where she rose through the ranks to assistant executive chef at UB’s own Campus Dining and Shops.

In 2023, Moynihan joined the ownership team of One Pie Pizza Co. in West Seneca, where she has created inventive pizzas of the month (like an apple bacon/hot honey pizza last fall), and a signature sweet sauce customers love.

“I was ready for a new challenge, so taking over the business was a good opportunity,” says Moynihan. “I wanted to focus on using really good, fresh ingredients, along with high-quality preparation and consistent execution.”

And Moynihan’s entrepreneurial drive continues. She and her One Pie Pizza co-owners also launched Elevated Catering, where she uses her culinary background to develop creative menus and manage the operation, from sales and cooking to deliveries and customer communication.

For Moynihan — and for Western New Yorkers all over — pizza, wings and the region go hand-in-hand.

 “When it’s winter in Buffalo you want that warm coziness of comfort food,” she says. “We’re the birthplace of wings, and the combo of football with the cold weather just makes it all work.”