Dining

Dining Taverna Banfi

Cornell’s own dining jewel

By Henry Stark

Taverna Banfi is the signature restaurant of the Statler Hotel located in the heart of the Cornell University campus. The word “Taverna” was officially added to its name in February 2007 after an extensive and expensive six-week remodeling that created an interior space that resembles restaurants in the Tuscany area of Italy. That’s where three Castello Banfi vineyards are located, owned by John Mariani Jr., a graduate of Cornell in 1954, and his family. You may be familiar with Banfi wines, many of which are served in the Ithaca restaurant. The Mariani family, consisting of several Cornell alumni, has contributed generously including during the refurbishment.

I attribute much of the success of Taverna Banfi to the stewardship of Swiss born Thomas Gisler. He was appointed Executive Chef in May 2005 and is currently the Director of Food and Beverages.

Lunch buffets are served, along with the regular menu, Mondays through Friday and cost $21. You can also opt for a Soup and Salad Buffet which includes a choice of desserts ($17) or just a dessert buffet ($9). A popular Sunday brunch buffet ($25) includes breakfast and lunch items as well as scrumptious desserts.

The lunch buffet is a better value than ordering from the menu. If we opt to utilize the printed menu we’ll have a choice of four salads ($10-$11, add $4-$10 to include a protein), a half dozen sandwiches, three of which are burgers ($14-$16), or a half dozen entrees ($16-$23).

The buffet which includes appetizers, soup, salads, entrees, vegetables and desserts, offers a creative choice of more than two dozen items which we can see before making a selection, and we’re able to help ourselves as many times as we like.

The food selections at the buffets are outstanding. Don’t expect a serving dish of carrots, that’s too mundane for Banfi’s. Rather, you can anticipate an offering of root vegetables which might combine carrots, parsnips and beets sprinkled with parsley and herbs. The meat at a recent

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Taverna Banfi’s well-known buffet (Photo by Casey Martin

carvery was roast beef with a rich creamy horseradish. If you weren’t excited by the roast beef, you could have chosen crushed pecan chicken with an apple bourbon sauce. On the same table was butternut squash mixed with Brussels sprouts, escarole gratin and pasta with creamy fennel and sundried tomatoes. I returned on a recent Friday to find a beautifully seasoned Cedar Planked Salmon adjacent to a tureen of Whole Grain Mustard Vin Blanc. Other recent carvery offerings include: Cider Brined Pork Loin with Whole Grain Mustard Demi-Glace and Balsamic Marinated Grilled Flank Steak with Rioja Aioli. Since the buffet is not offered at dinner, I recently chose their signature Peking duck breast ($31) served atop a sweet potato hash with a white bean puree and Brussels sprouts. The potatoes were finely diced, the sprouts were halved and tender, and the pepper sauce was rich, but mild. Another evening I ordered a tasty short rib ragout, called on the menu Handkerchief Pasta ($27). I’m used to ordering short ribs on the bone; however, I enjoyed the tender pieces of beef mixed with a rich, tasty sauce for a change of pace. Sides cost an additional $6 and are imaginative and healthy. You’ll always find a chicken dish, steak, pasta, salmon and house made Mozzarella. I don’t normally order desserts, however, I couldn’t resist the generous sundae with sour cherries served with homemade whipped cream in a large bowl ($8).

A very complete wine menu is offered on a tablet which requires some scrolling, however, it’s useful for sorting by grape variety, vintage, country of origin and price. Totally there are 140 wines by the bottle from $34 to $2450. Twenty wines by the glass are served mostly between $10-$12. Here’s an amazing offer I have arranged for the readers of the Ithaca Times: Mention you read this in the Ithaca Times and management will knock off $430 from the $2450 bottle making it $2020 and throw in a free entree as well. This is serious, per a conversation after this review was conducted, and they do have the 2009 Chateau Lafite Rothschild bottles in stock.

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prominence in the last several weeks, as part of his initial set of allegations related to IPD officer Christine Barksdale. Miller accused the department of ignoring malfeasance by Barksdale because she is a black woman, part of a larger pattern of dismissing other misconduct by black officers while holding white male officers to a different standard. In January of this year, the City of Ithaca announced that it would be moving to terminate an IPD detective, later confirmed to be Barksdale, for inadequately investigating dozens of cases over the last 10 years. Barksdale’s attorney, Ed Kopko, has indicated they are fighting the firing on the basis of gender and race discrimination and have filed a report with the EEOC. Barksdale had previously filed a report of discrimination against the department with the Division of Human Rights, but her claim was rejected.

Originally, Miller named a litany of other parties in his suit, including former IPD chiefs Pete Tyler, John Barber and Ed Vallely, the Ithaca Police Benevolent Association, IPD, Tompkins County and the City of Ithaca. Gradually, defendants were dismissed from the suit until only the City of Ithaca remained.

Matt Butler

traditionally associated with unions, like workers collectively bargaining for rights. More specifically, Fox said short-term they want something to require landlords to hand out a tenant's bill of rights as the lease is signed, while long-term he said they'd like to pursue the right to counsel for tenants in eviction court (though Fox acknowledged that was a costly proposition).

Fox said that while the union is young, they have been able to get a "few dozen" tenants to sign on so far, and have started this media push to recruit more people. They also hope to soon open a call center

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A member of:

based out of the Worker's Center.

"The hope is that as the organization grows both in age and membership, its strengths will grow with it," Fox said. "Right now we're looking at an information campaign to extend knowledge of tenants' rights to renters in the city of Ithaca, as well as pushing for certain important legislation at the city or county level. Also, our existence as a message to landlords in the city that we are organizing and aren't going to be pushed around on an individual level."

The release, which serves as a mission statement of sorts, states an overarching theme that all people have a right to housing that is affordable and suitable for them, and that the union's desire is to level the playing field between landlord and tenant. They say the union will "act as a check" on repeated abuses by landlords who neglect local and state standards, while saying that landlords who do follow the rules and tend to tenant needs should not be worried. Kayla Lane, a representative of the Landlords Association of Tompkins County, said their organization disagrees with the formation of a tenants' union, arguing that it will make the relationship between the two sides more adversarial.

"Creating a Tenants Union only adds fuel to the fire and in our opinion, makes the relationship between tenant and landlord less amicable right from the start," Clark wrote. "The laws in place already greatly protect the tenant and a tenant’s union would not be adding any additional protection or voice, frankly. Speaking on behalf of the Tompkins Landlords Association, I can say that we do not wish to have that confrontational, you versus me, type of relationship with our tenants. Everyone wants to feel satisfied with the product they are receiving; whether it be a tenant feeling satisfied with their apartment or the landlord feeling proud of the units they own and the tenant(s) that occupy them."

Lane said she believes the tenants' real target should be lowering the tax rate in Tompkins County, which would reduce the burden on landlords and theoretically reduce rent. She also downplayed concerns about building maintenance being a severe issue for local tenants.

The union's announcement does not contain any information about how many people, if any, have joined so far outside of the organizers listed on the masthead, who are Fox, Liel Sterling and Kataryna Restrepo (all Cornell students), along with Workers Center leader Pete Meyers, who is advising. The union's formation comes at a time when the City of Ithaca has publicly acknowledged that it is trying to step up its enforcement against problematic landlords, while New York State also approved laws last year that strengthened tenants' rights.

The union goes on to say that they want to collaborate with "movements fighting for racial, gender, LGBTQ+, environmental and immigrant liberation," and intends to support those movements via housing rights while the efforts for equality in those areas continue.

Matt Butler