The owners of a popular Buffalo waterfront restaurant are opening a second eatery next door, this one for year-round service.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and other city officials were at William K's, located next to The Hatch at the Erie Basin Marina, on Wednesday to celebrate Thursday's scheduled grand opening.
The city spent $900,000 to expand the building, which they lease to the company that operates The Hatch, Molly's World Inc. Brown says it's an investment to build upon the success of The Hatch and other nearby development.
"After a lot of study and planning, we thought that this would be very successful on the waterfront because of the numbers of people that already visit here every day during the summertime, this will expand it year-round," Brown said.
Molly Koessler says William K's "creative menu" will include items such as wood-oven pizza, steak and seafood. She says her company has a lease for the next nine years.
"We feel that with the growth of downtown that opening William K's, and we all know there's not a lot of restaurants on our waterfront, with all of the excitement and all of the people that are coming downtown will be hugely successful," Koessler said.
William K's is hosting a soft opening Wednesday with its official grand opening set for New Year's Eve.