Gorino, Henry C.
Jan. 16, 1952 - Oct. 30, 2024
Passed away peacefully at the age of 72. Beloved husband of Judith (nee Holleran) Gorino; devoted father of Christian (fiancée Natalie Fisk) Gorino and Joseph Gorino; dear brother of Charles (Marta "Tica") Gorino; cherished uncle of Charles Gorino; former spouse of Cynthia (nee Chiavaroli) Gorino; he will be sadly missed by many cherished family and friends. The family will be present Sunday, November 3, 2024 from 2-8 PM at the (Delaware Chapel) AMIGONE FUNERAL HOME, INC., 1132 Delaware Ave. (near W. Ferry St.). Family and friends are invited Monday, November 4, 2024 at 10 AM to attend a Mass of Christian Burial celebrated at St. Margaret Church, 1395 Hertel Ave., Buffalo, NY 14216. Please assemble at church. Interment to be held privately. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Kevin Guest House, Gorino Room #9 or Hospice Buffalo Inc. Share condolences at www.AMIGONE.com

Jan. 16, 1952 – Oct. 30, 2024Henry Gorino’s touch can be seen on upscale menus throughout the Buffalo area.

Trained as a chef and longtime owner of Oliver’s on Delaware Avenue, which set the standard for fine dining locally, he fostered the talents of an army of local kitchen masters.

The list includes Mike Andrzejewski of the former Seabar, Mark Hutchinson of Hutch’s, Paul Jenkins from the Buffalo Club, Tempo and Remington Tavern, Mark Weatherbee from Root 5 and the Left Bank, Brian Mietus of Bacchus and Eric Nessa of Ristorante Lombardo and the Park Country Club.

“A lot of people came through Oliver’s, which was, really, probably the biggest incubator in the city,” said Chuck Mauro, co-owner in Mr. Gorino’s subsequent restaurants, Siena in Snyder, Rocco’s Wood Fired Pizza in Clarence, 800 Maple in Amherst and JT’s on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo.

“Henry was the first and the best at many things,” said Jenkins, who began working at Oliver’s in 1993. “Henry made chefs important. … He helped many, many chefs really come up to a higher level of performance. He just had so much knowledge.”

Speaking to Julia Burke for an article in Buffalo Spree in 2012, Andrzejewski, who worked with Mr. Gorino in the 1990s, said, “He really encouraged us to try different things and go out to different cities and come back and use what we’d learned, use what we saw to make not only Oliver’s but Buffalo a better place – and a better place to eat. It was the best chef’s job in the city.”

Mr. Gorino died Oct. 30 after a brief stay at Hospice and Palliative Care Buffalo in Cheektowaga. He was 72.

Born in Buffalo, the son of Henry C. Gorino Sr. and Marie Bolognese Gorino, he was the older of two boys. A month before he graduated from eighth grade at St. Margaret’s School in North Buffalo, his father, who owned a gas station at the corner of Hertel and Colvin avenues, was struck by a car and died.

He developed his early love for cooking from making breakfast for his younger brother. He worked in a neighborhood pizzeria as a teen and was a member of the Class of 1969 at St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Syracuse University, but instead of going to law school, as his mother hoped, he enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America.

Mr. Gorino returned to become dinner cook at Cole’s on Elmwood Avenue. By January 1976, he was executive manager at Fanny’s Seafood, a restaurant on Sheridan Drive in Amherst, and quickly expanded its offerings. Within months, it was simply Fanny’s, and, in addition to fresh seafood from around the world, it was advertising 10 different veal dishes and Monday night gourmet dinners for parties of eight to 16.

Next, he partnered with Joseph Sheehan and operated Valentine’s on Niagara Street in the shadow of Buffalo City Hall. They proposed pouring $1 million into creating a gourmet restaurant in the Delaware Park Casino, but the plan fell apart after years of delays over legal issues.

Mr. Gorino sold his share in Valentine’s at the end of 1982 and acquired Oliver’s, a neighborhood hangout at 2095 Delaware Ave. in North Buffalo known for its 85-cent hamburger plates. He installed a new kitchen, updated the bar and the decor and reopened in March 1983.

It quickly became a fine dining favorite. Director Barry Levinson and actor Robert Redford visited frequently during the filming of “The Natural.” Redford’s co-star Kim Basinger reportedly stopped in five nights a week.

Responding to an economic downturn in the late 1980s, Mr. Gorino started opening for lunch. He also went into catering for special occasions, such as the cocktail party and dinner for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s Philharmonic Ball in 1991.

Oliver’s was the only restaurant in the city to get a four-star rating from Buffalo News food critic Janice Okun. Wine Spectator magazine gave it a “Best of” award for many years in a row.

With Mauro and John Tronolone, his longtime general manager at Oliver’s, in 1992 he opened Siena, a modern Italian-style trattoria in Snyder, following a lengthy effort to change Amherst town ordinances to install a wood fired pizza oven, one of the first in the area.

The three partners would go on to open 800 Maple in 2005, followed by Rocco’s Wood Fired Pizza on Transit Road in 2011. After Tronolone’s death, Mr. Gorino and Mauro named JT’s in his honor when they opened it in 2017 on Elmwood Avenue.

“He was always, always, always food first,” Chris Daigler, a chef at Oliver’s in the early 2000s, told Julia Burke for Buffalo Spree in 2012. “He was adamant about getting the freshest ingredients we possibly could, and price never mattered.”

“We wanted Oliver’s to be high-end when we opened in 1983, but we also wanted to get away from being just a special occasion place, too,” Mr. Gorino told Emeri Krawczyk for an article in Buffalo magazine in 2013 shortly before he sold the restaurant. “That took us a long time. It’s been a matter of reinventing different aspects of the restaurant.”

He remodeled Oliver’s four times. He caused a stir among regulars when a flat-screen TV was installed at the bar for the first time in 2007.

Mr. Gorino also started a line of retail products and was a limited partner in Domaine Lachaal, which imports gourmet extra virgin olive oil produced at an ancient family farm in Tunisia.

Quietly philanthropic, he gave generously to charities. He maintained a lakefront home in Bertie Bay, Ont.

He had a sophisticated palate and explored wine and food of all kinds. He also had broad tastes in music, although he favored the Beatles.

Outside of his restaurant work, Mayor Anthony M. Masiello appointed Mr. Gorino in 2005 as chairman of the Buffalo Board of Parking, which oversees the city’s municipally owned parking garages.

Survivors include his wife of 18 years, the former Judith Holleran; two sons, Christian and Joseph; his brother, Charles; and his former wife, Cynthia Chiavaroli Gorino.

A Mass of Christian Burial was offered Nov. 4 in St. Margaret Catholic Church, 1395 Hertel Ave.