Small Business Saturday: Salisa's merges home cooking with chef-inspired meals

By Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

Guests eating at Salisa’s Restaurant might be surprised to learn owner/line cook Michael Baase was educated … in the chiropractic arts.

“I'm a retired chiropractor, actually, and I had to retire just because, after 27 years of doing it, my right shoulder needed surgery,” he said. “While I was off convalescing last year, April, this place became available.”

That was the second fortuitous event in Baase’s journey into the kitchen. The first was marrying his wife, Elena.

“My wife is a chef, and she's worked at multiple restaurants in the area here,” Baase said. “She did a three-year stint at Dick & Jenny's on Grand Island, and she learned a lot of the Cajun Creole – and she's already a gifted chef.”

Michael, who is from the area, and Elena, who is from San Ramon, Costa Rica, met about five years ago, and wed about a year later.

She was worked at restaurants in both Costa Rica and in the U.S., with stops at sites including The Globe, Mister's and The Red Zone.

“Throughout these establishments, Elena experienced true growth as a chef, learning in a way that culinary school did not teach her,” Basse said. “She discovered the true American food, so varied, its fusion with so many cultures delicious and incredible. Elena fell in love with the home-cooking of this beautiful country.”

Food images courtesy of Salisa’s Restaurant.

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Living in Bergholz, the couple was familiar with Salisa’s. The previous owners, Sal and Lisa Buscaglia (hence the diner’s name), “They had done a great job here,” Baase said.

One thing that could be improved upon, he said, was what comes after the establishment’s breakfast rush.

“We want to make the dinners become a little bit more of a thing,” Baase said.

Other changes have been incorporated, too.

“With all their sandwiches and Reubens, they'd throw in a bag of Lay's potato chips. So, instead of the bag of Lay's potato chips, we slice them ourselves and fry them up ourselves here,” Baase said. “They're made to order each one. They're not sitting there.

“People like it. And she makes this pink sauce, which is a basically just mayonnaise and ketchup, and it's great dipping sauce for the potato chips – and they’re warm.

“We do our own French fries here. … We cut our russet potatoes in the back, drop them down to order.”

Food images courtesy of Salisa’s Restaurant.

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Baase said the new approach to cooking has been a change for patrons, but “people are starting to realize, ‘Hey, this is a cool restaurant here; they've got some good recipes, and it's home cooking.’

“That is what we specialize in: Home cooking. Everything made to order here, with the exception of a few things.”

Baase said he’s learned a lot in the past year.

“(Elena) does the recipes. She has instructed me. I literally have a growing list of the recipes on my iPhone,” he said. “So, now I go in there, and she always comes back – she just came back to test my stuff. She's this good: I put one extra egg in (the stuffing). I didn't even tell her, because I was like, ‘Damn, she busted me!’ She goes, ‘Too much egg,’ and she was not back there when I made it. And it's a lot of stuffing – and it tastes fine to me – but she knew that little subtle difference.

“She does the recipes. Mainly, I'm a part line cook. We have a full-time line cook here named Karen (Nunnari), and she's been doing it for 45 years. She's great. She loves it here. You can tell she loves it here.”

The Baases recently updated their menu to better reflect Elena’s abilities.

“When the two of us were able to take over Salisa’s All American Diner here in Wheatfield, Elena finally had the opportunity to add what she knew – flavored with her own unique style and her own menu,” he said. “Homemade food has impressed Elena so much. So, she went to work on making subtle changes, little by little, to the point where most all the preparations that comprise our menu are made from scratch right in our kitchen.”

While the menu will benefit from Elena’s talents, Baase said, “There's not a lot of home cooking restaurants around here.”

“That's what the draw is here: our chicken and biscuits, our pot roast, our grandpa's meatloaf,” he said.

Basse noted “We want the flavor of the area. … We obviously are gracious for the people who compliment our food, and we'll keep giving it to them as is. But we're planning on also having an anonymous suggestion box where people can just put things in.”

Salisa’s Restaurant is located at 2214 Niagara Falls Blvd. Its hours of operation are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday; and 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. Sunday.

Server Sarah Baase with the new menu at Salisa’s Restaurant.