SYRACUSE EATS

Epicuse By Alyssa Dearborn N icole Samolis has a core philosophy about food. “you always have to take the ‘no-good-bite,’” said Samolis, owner of the newly opened Epicuse. “If you don’t like it, then you don’t have to eat any more of it. That is the rule in our house with me and my kids. You have to try it. If you don’t like it, that’s okay. You tried. We all have our taste buds and we enjoy different things.”

Samolis, who also owns and operates The Events Company and The SKY Armory, is motivated by her passion for hospitality and her deep love of food. She believes that all food should be good, that all favors should be creative, and that every eater should a good bite and try something new.

“I love food,” said Samolis. “I like all types of food. There’s few things that I don’t care for. But the way that I enjoy eating

Photos by Steven J. Pallone

Nicole Samolis

is in small bites. I’m a tapas kind of eater. But it doesn’t necessarily need to be super fancy, it just needs to be good.”

Samolis’ personal food philosophies can be found in every corner of Epicuse, from the welcoming atmos-phere to the delicious food itself. She calls Epicuse a “synergy of hospitality, food, and beverage,” and there certainly is an option for every taste, palate, and dietary restriction at Epicuse. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner items are available for eat-in or take-out and each meal is made from locally sourced ingredients. Customers have a selection of curated meats and seafood, sandwiches and salads, and sides ranging from vegetables to more carb-based delights. Their fresh bakery section also allows guests to enjoy fine desserts on site or on the go. Out of those freshly made foods, Samolis claims that their most popular items include their roasted brussels sprouts and their sea salt chocolate chip cookies.

As you move away from the counter serving all of the delicious, freshly prepared food and into the retail section of Epicuse, you can find anything from snacks to wholesome ingredients to bring home. Samolis ensured that the retail space was highlighting local farmers and manufacturers that — like her own businesses — value fair-trade and sustainability. Everything in Epicuse is curated with ethical practices in mind. The idea of combining a restaurant with a market was imagined due to a need that Samolis saw in the Downtown Syracuse community.

“I’ve been living downtown for close to nine years now.” Samolis said. “And being

downtown, we just don’t have access to food. So you tend to eat at a restaurant or take out from a restaurant. So this is really being able to create a space where people can go to get the food they want.”

Samolis said she and her husband came up with the concept two years ago when they were working on opening up SKY Armory. “When you’re preparing food for a banquet, you’re preparing food for a finite number of people, but you still have to order based off case sizes,” she said. So if we’re preparing and we need a case and a half of duck breast for a wedding, now I’m going to sell the rest down here. Now it’s a scalability of producing that food and making it and then giving it an outlet.”

The original thought was to have a restaurant, but that concept evolved over time.

“We really thought about what the need was,” Samolis said. “It fits the need of how a lot of people live and work downtown. On your way home you can now pick up dinner and can be home without having to Grubhub it or stop at Wegman’s and fight the parking lot and lines.”

Aside from offering a bountiful assortment of dine-in, take-out, and grocery options, Epicuse also features a bar area with a curated selection of craft beer, liquors, and fine wines.

“The bar is the piece that sort of creates that community,” Samolis said. “So now I might meet friends up and meet for a cocktail, enjoy some cheese and charcuterie, and then grab dinner and go home. So it’s kind of that meeting ground.”

Epicuse, which opened in November of 2019, is new to the downtown scene, but Samolis and her other two businesses are not. As Downtown Syracuse continues to revitalize, the Epicuse owner feels the need to serve downtown just as she serves her many guests. She wants not only for Epicuse to be a meeting ground in Syracuse, but a major force of change in the community as well.

“Downtown will continue to affect our businesses,” she said, “but the flipside is that it’s really more about our commitment to downtown. We’re open seven days a week and a lot of places aren’t committed to being open seven days. So there’s a cost for us, but we know that there’s nothing worse on a Sunday than, ‘Oh, I want to go get this!’ and then you can’t get it. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

She said the shop helps contribute to the growth and prosperty of the neighborhood.

“I love Central New York.

I love Syracuse,”she said. “It’s a great community to live in and I find that one of the biggest challenges is that the people who grew up here and never left can be the least positive about our community. [But] you have transplants like us who really see the beauty and the value and all the amenities that the area has to offer — and it doesn’t mean that we don’t have struggles — and part of our social mission is to help end poverty because we can do that through employment.”

Aside from providing the Syracuse area with delicious and convenient food, Epicuse is also dedicated to social change within the community it calls home.

“We are dedicated to hiring individuals from disadvantaged communities or backgrounds.” Samolis said on this, “But we make a huge commitment to that because we’re in downtown, we’re on bus routes, it’s easier for people to get to work. Again, we’re in the business of hospitality and you don’t need a four-year degree to work here. We look for people who are friendly, helpful, and have a passion to be a part of a team. And so those folks thrive on our team and we pay fair living wages so that we can impact that and hopefully be a role model for that.”

Though Epicuse is still young in the Downtown Syracuse scene, Samolis is proud of the company’s progress so far and has high hopes for its future.

“When people walk in sometimes and I get the comments of ‘Wow! This could be in New York!’, ‘This could be in Boston!’, or ‘This could be in Chicago!’, we’re proud of that,” Samolis said. “Sometimes we just have to introduce people to something a little more unique. Now people get to see what Syracuse has to offer. We’re the heart of New York State and I think that Syracuse has a lot of heart and I want everybody to know that.” SWM