Restaurant Brings Local, International Flavors to Fly Creek

By WRILEY NELSON
FLY CREEK

Painters and woodcarvers could be seen adding the finishing touches to Fly Creek’s newest establishment, a luxurious tapas bar called The Buzz, during the week of October 23. It is the brainchild of local businessman Bart Burr, former Fortune 500 Tech Operations Leader Constantine Gavalas and long-serving Philadelphia-area chef Ryan Fulford.

“Our former business partner introduced us to the area, initially to open a bakery,” Gavalas said. “We fell in love with the area and had to buy the space. I’m from near Windham, but just loved this place—the area around the lake and all the surrounding valleys—at first sight.”

Located at the main intersection in Fly Creek, The Buzz is understated but cheerful on the interior. It resembles a clean, old-time saloon and will introduce outdoor seating when the weather is appropriate.

“The ideas for this space came from all around the world, but it’s primarily focused on enjoying a glass of wine or another drink,” Gavalas continued. “If you go to Italy, for instance, they have ‘slow food’ rather than fast food. You’ll have six courses that take you three hours to eat. We want people to come in and enjoy their favorite drink, have a little something to snack on, and just let the time pass. It’s still more of an Italian or European concept.”

“We wanted to add something to the community for the locals,” Burr added. “It’s a different kind of place and we hope to add a social space for Fly Creek especially, which is small.”

“We aim for this space to be something like a British pub; it will be a social space for spending time,” Gavalas said. “We would prefer to keep it a child-free, date night sort of space. It isn’t really a child-friendly menu and we’ve tried to keep everything relaxing.”

All three men repeatedly expressed their hope that a wide variety of local residents will find The Buzz a welcoming place to mingle and socialize. A major part of supporting that goal is the liquor locker service that will allow patrons to rent storage for their own bottles.

“Anyone can leave a bottle of their favorite drink locked up here. If they don’t want to spend money at the bar, they can still come out to socialize, enjoy their favorite drink and relax,” Burr said.

Fulford, who originally hails from Allentown and spent seven years as sous chef at Friday Saturday Sunday, one of Philadelphia’s leading restaurants, discussed the menu in great detail.

“I’ve aimed for the food here to be elegant and luxurious,” he said. “We’re starting off with different charcuterie boards and tapas, and once we get going we may add some entrees and desserts…It’s been a lot of work to get everything pulled together. They had a lot of things to do to get the place ready, and I wrote a full menu for them in two days as my interview process…I didn’t want the tapas to be only Spanish-inspired. We’re bringing things in from around the world.”

“We’ll have high-end whiskeys,” Fulford continued. “It’ll be a bit like a cigar bar, but without the cigars. The aim is to surround yourself in luxury for a while.”

Fulford highlighted locally-sourced ingredients, including cheeses and honeycomb, and was visibly excited to have secured Iberico ham for one of the dishes.

“Up until a few years ago, when I was in Philly, you couldn’t get it in the U.S.,” he said. “It’s produced in one region of Spain, with one type of pig fed on acorns. It’s the Wagyu beef of ham.”

The Buzz had a soft opening on Thursday, October 26 and opened fully over the weekend. It will operate Wednesday through Saturday, with a Sunday brunch option to be considered soon.