DELISH MAGAZINE JANUARY 2020
SZND’s Ahi Tuna Ceviche with fresh strawberry, cucumber, fennel, fresh greens, and soy and ginger vinaigrette.
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BY MICHELE DELUCA
EDITOR OF DELISH
heryl Gill is the kind of caterer who
never stops.
It’s not unusual for her to prepare
800 meals a day out of her Niagara Falls
catering kitchen.
She lives breathes and, daresay, eats
her business, but it was even busier
during the holidays when she slept about
a hour a night for 20 days in a row.
“Everything I do is all about work. I love
what I do,” said Gill, whose company
called Everyday Gourmet, is located in a
storefront on Cayuga Drive.
But, in her world, it made perfect
sense to take on a new project this year.
In April, she opened a restaurant just
off Hertel Avenue in Buffalo called SZND.
It’s actually pronounced “Seasoned.”
She ditched the vowels and kept the
flavor.
“Every asks me, ‘What does it mean,’
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Chef Ian Macdonell works in the kitchen at SZND.
‘Where does it come from?’ ” Cheryl
said. “I have a young marketing person,
and he comes up with these things. It’s
a take on the word ‘season,’ and reflects
the intention to follow Mother Nature
when creating daily specials.”
“We change the menu seasonally,”
she added. “Whether it’s produce or fish,
whatever is the freshest, those are the
things we are using.”
The restaurant is run by her son An-
drew, who has worked at her side in the
catering business.
Her other son, Matthew, a software
engineer, was part of the family business
for a while, but after college, he took a
job with a computer company. The family
had to laugh when it turned out the com-
pany was Grub Hub, the food delivery
website, which meant he was still in the
restaurant business.
SZND, which has a 1448 Hertel Ave.
address, is located on Norwalk Avenue
around the corner from the North Park
Theatre. The place is getting good reviews