WASHINGTON — Buffalo took over Washington’s football stadium on Sunday. And tonight our fair city annexes Capitol Hill.
The Buffalo Bills beat the Washington Commanders, 37-3, as Bills fans filled some 40% of the seats at FedEx Field. Across town, at the same time, the Buffalo Sabres beat the Washington Capitals in a preseason shootout, 4-3.
And tonight will complete the week’s harmonic convergence: It is Buffalo Nite in Washington, the annual party in the nation’s capital that celebrates all things Buffalo. It returns to the Dirksen Senate Office Building after three years lost to Covid-19. (The only other year there was no Buffalo Nite, since its start in the 1970s, was in 2001, just after the Sept. 11 attacks.)
“We believe it is the biggest social event held at that Senate building every year,” says Kevin Kelleher, a member of the Buffalo Nite Committee of the New York State Society. “And all of it is centered on the warm, friendly city of Buffalo.”
Kelleher is a family physician who lives in Washington’s Virginia suburbs and is a graduate of St. Francis High School, Canisius University, and the med school at the University at Buffalo. He paid his way through school working at Jacobi’s pizzeria in Orchard Park, where frequent customers included Bills such as Jim Haslett and Fred Smerlas.
“Haslett only knew me as this geeky kid behind the counter,” Kelleher says. “One time I was in line for a beer at a Sabres game at the Aud, and he recognized me and bought me a beer. And that gesture has always stuck with me. He probably doesn’t remember it at all, and I never forget.”
That’s the kind of story that will be retold at tonight’s party, as revelers enjoy beef on weck from Jimmy’s Old Town Tavern, a boisterous Bills bar in Herndon, Va.
“I’m very honored to do it,” says Arcade’s own Jimmy Cirrito, the owner. “I hope my roast beef will be almost as good as Charlie the Butcher’s.”
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