Small Business Saturday: Food, wine and fun at Dick & Jenny's

By Alice Gerard

Senior Contributing Writer

Jenny Benz, co-owner of Dick & Jenny’s, 1270 Baseline Road, with her husband Dick, described Small Business Saturday as “lots of fun.”

“We are kind of the epitome of a small business,” Benz said. “Small crew, 20 employees, lots of people who have been here for a long time. Lots of families work here, which is nice. We have three brothers from one family working here right now. And lots of local support. We don’t do big advertising campaigns, like Applebee’s. It’s just word of mouth.

“We do a thing starting the day after Thanksgiving. We do a gift card giveback. We have a lot of regulars who wait for this year, and they buy their supply of gift cards because we give you a free $20 for every $100 that you buy.

“People do it for Christmas shopping, but they also do it for themselves. They know they’re going to spend because they come every week or every other week.”

The last day for the gift card giveback sale is Dec. 31.

Dick & Jenny’s is also holding a fundraising event for a friend who “has breast cancer that’s not going well. She’s in a pickle, so we’re doing a fundraiser for her. That’s how you can get a plate on the wall. The plates are people who helped us when we first moved here. No new plates have gone on the wall since 2019. They’re special because my husband paints them all. When he’s cooking, he doesn't paint plates. So, we are auctioning off two plates in relation to this fundraiser.

“We’re having a little wine pong tournament. Whoever wins the tournament wins a plate. (Also), we’re doing raffle tickets. So, you can come in and get your gift cards, and you could buy some raffle tickets for Kelly’s can drive. You could actually give somebody a Dick and Jenny’s plate on the wall if you won.

“Dec. 8 is the day we’re pulling the tickets. So, we’re giving two plates: one for the winner of the tournament, and there are still team spots open, or just a straight-out raffle. All of the proceeds go to Kelly.”

Last week, Dick and Jenny’s celebrated New York Bartenders Week.

“New York bartenders week is all about celebrating our bartenders,” Benz said. “Our bartender, Zach, has been here five years. We have a couple of other people who help, but he’s here every night, and he’s wonderful.

“We promote and create cocktails with New York-made spirits.”

Those cocktails included watermelon gin and tonic, made with Fort Hamilton’s gin, a Brooklyn product; and Fever-Tree Elderflower tonic and a Sazerac, which Benz described as “a traditional New Orleans cocktail with a rye from Fort Hamilton.”

Other drinks included a maple Manhattan, made with maple bourbon from Buffalo Distilling in the Larkinville section of Buffalo; and a Snowbird, which Benz describe as “an amoretto cheesecake martini.”

Dick & Jenny’s also offer wine dinners.

“I love wine, and I think wine is just a bottomless interesting thing,” Benz said.

“We have a night where you pick a theme and you get to try eight different wines, and we pair foods with them. It’s really interesting to me. It’s super rewarding to open people’s minds about what wines are, to expose them to small (local wines) that are really great,” Benz said.

“We like sharing: sharing our food knowledge, our wine knowledge. We love learning about wine. It’s fun stuff. It’s always small producers. That’s what we focus on. It’s like us. People ask, ‘Where can I get that wine?’ Have someone order it for you. This is what it is. They do business with us. You’re going to have to order it. It’s not on the shelf.

“Even with the New York cocktails, these guys are making really great products, and we’re the perfect microphone. Put it in something delicious and pair it up with something delicious. All of a sudden, ‘Oh yeah, that’s what I want to drink.’ We’ve got craft beers, too, that are local. Buffalo Distilling. Things from the Finger Lakes. Donovan Cider from Barker. He’s making ciders. All sorts of good stuff.”

Popular foods at Dick & Jenny’s include the “Island Chicken Forever.”

“ ‘Island Chicken’ is a dish I tried to take off the menu, but people were like, ‘Wait, wait, wait.’ Then, every time I changed the menu, they asked me, ‘Is ‘Island Chicken’ still on?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ Now it’s called ‘Island Chicken Forever.’

“It’s like Mediterranean comfort food. It’s chicken breast that’s pounded out and breaded with parmesan panko. It’s fried. Then, it has basil risotto on the bottom. On the top, there’s a warm salsa make out of artichokes, feta cheese, tomatoes, basil. Then there’s a little lemon chardonnay butter sauce. It’s Mediterranean comfort food with lemon and basil and creamy risotto and fried chicken.”

Dick & Jenny’s also has a menu of gluten-free dishes and gluten-free bread.

“Everything’s homemade,” Benz said. “We don’t do any prepared sauces or bases, so that you can have everything. We do a grilled version of that chicken, so you can have ‘Island Chicken Forever.’ We have ribs. It’s oyster season right now. So, we always have raw oysters and oysters we cook on the grill.

“We had a restaurant in New Orleans a long time ago now. Dick & Jenny’s is 17 years old. It will be 18 in February. We have terrific family meals, which are great during the winter. It started during COVID, and it stayed very popular. You can get ribs, or chicken and ribs, and they come with sides and soup or salad. Lots of families get those to go to make cooking easy, especially during the holidays. It’s popular. We also do our beef burgundy that way. Julia Child’s beef burgundy. We do that in a family meal, too. And then, we have lots of New Orleans favorites. So, we do shrimp and grits, and we always have gumbo.”

Other dishes offered at Dick & Jenny’s include “lots of seafood,” Benz said. “We have scallops, shrimp and grits, crabcakes, crawfish cheesecake, blackened catfish with crawfish dynamite over the top.”

Benz described the blackened catfish with crawfish dynamite as a “very classic New Orleans dish. You caramelize onions and you get that going. We have a homemade spice mix. It has cumin and paprika. It’s not super-hot, but it’s super flavorful, and you do a little butter and olive oil with your caramelized onions, and you toss in your crawfish tails in the spice. You get all that going, and you drape it over the blackened catfish. It’s delicious. We serve that with collard greens and Colby grits. Good things there.

“There’s something for everybody. We have a steak. We have sandwiches. You get a shrimp po’boy. You get a beef brisket po’boy.”

Benz said she appreciates the community of staff members and customers at Dick & Jenny’s.

“Our staff stays with us for a long time,” she said. “We have a lot of people who start as a dishwasher and now they’re a server. Or they start as a dishwasher and now they’re my sous chef. Having this customer base that interacts with these people. I guess it’s the people element that I like. Whatever shape or form that is. You kind of create this community.”

Benz said people finding out about the restaurant is a “big word of mouth thing. People who come here and it’s their cup of tea; they should come and try it. My husband worked at Commander’s Palace. There’s a picture of him with Emeril and Paul Prudhomme over there. Those are the people he worked with down in New Orleans. It’s homemade food. Not a lot of kitchens cook for you anymore. A lot of times, it’s something out of the box and into the fryer. It’s a different thing when someone’s really cooking. When someone’s really making stock and really making soup and really making a demi glaze sauce. With a lot of restaurants, that’s hard to find.

“We love the community. During COVID and everything, it was just amazing support. We went through a lot with Katrina. That was a long time ago now. We landed on our feet. I know you see these disasters going and it’s uhhhhh. Your heart breaks for them. We’re very happy to be here and so grateful to be busy.”