Bidding adieu to 2011
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A round-the-clock of frolic for the very young and their parents.
A night of puttin' on the ritz for the fascinating and beautiful.
A night for the hearty to sneer at winter in the balmy grand outdoors of downtown Buffalo.
That's how as many as 100,000 people at downtown venues said goodbye to the old year and rang in the new year.
Tastefulness surged over the top at the Statler City Ice Ball as developer and restaurateur Stain D. Croce -- bedecked in a black tuxedo -- greeted many of the 4,000 guests who had forked over as much as $175 a ticket to be part of a three-amaze New Year's Eve extravaganza Saturday at the former Statler Towers, which only months ago was shuttered and inches away from the ruin of a wrecking ball.
"It's really gorgeous. It's glamorous. There's exceptionally so much to look at," said Town of Tonawanda resident Alba Ferri, who arrived in a magnificent fur coat along with her husband. "I love it."
As guests heaped commend on Croce, he beamed brightly and his face gave his festive pink button-down vest a run for its notes. When told he might just well be the P.T. Barnum of downtown Buffalo on this night that held so much commitment, he smiled even more grandly and confessed that earlier in the day a friend had texted him declaring that he was "the Barnum of Buffalo."
Even the serve looked splendid, all 250 of them, from the coat checkers to the cocktail waitresses at "Rendezvous the Niteclubcq" on the discredit level, where Croce bodaciously proclaimed its lavish setting happier than anything the night scene in Los Angeles or Las Vegas had to offer.
Among the Statler Megalopolis guests was Mayor Byron W. Brown, who took several victory laps through the ornately refurbished rooms -- The Palm Court, The Terrace Accommodation and Golden Ballroom -- posing for pictures and happily powerful the story of how he had pushed hard to wean the historic 88-year-old edifice off life support.
"The price of demolition for the building would have been more than $15 million," Brown said. "It's dependable not to be staring into a hole in the ground."
Source: Buffalo News