Pano's, a popular Elmwood Avenue restaurant, will soon offer patio dining.

And the region's first Iraqi restaurant is planned for Hertel Avenue.

Buffalo's Planning Board approved both projects Tuesday, and the Common Council is expected

to follow suit next week.

The board unanimously approved plans by Pano's on Elmwood near Bird Avenue to create an

outdoor patio that will be partially located on a city right of way. Owner Pangiotis

Georgiadis convinced planners that there will be enough sidewalk space remaining.

He also said the patio would feature attractive flower pots and would be removed in the

winter.

"It will be a good-looking patio," Georgiadis said. "I don't want to do anything ugly.

We've already spent over $1.2 million on this building."

He was referring to the restaurant's expansion.

The patio will accommodate no more than seven tables, the owner told city planners. He said

the real goal is not to increase the restaurant's capacity.

"We like to get the attention of people driving. We want to make it beautiful to get

people's attention," he said.

Georgiadis and his son, Alex, told the board there will be no outdoor music, and the patio

will close each night no later than 11.

City officials also expressed support for a plan by Satar Hussein to open a small Iraqi

eating establishment at 1201 Hertel. He said the region has more than 3,000 Iraqi refugees in

addition to people who once lived in other Middle Eastern countries. He said he knows of no

other local restaurant that specializes in Iraqi cuisine.

"There's a big community here now," Hussein told The Buffalo News.

The Kebab Express plans to serve shish kabobs, chicken recipes, salads and other items.

While dining would be limited to several tables, Hussein said the restaurant will also offer

takeout meals. The commercial space is currently vacant, but it has been home to several

restaurants over the decades.

Assuming the Council follows the Planning Board's recommendation, Hussein said his

restaurant should be open by late spring or early summer.

Meanwhile, planners raised concerns about "sign clutter" along Delaware Avenue in North

Buffalo. They urged a jeweler that moved to North Buffalo when the Statler Towers closed to

design a less-conspicuous electronic LED sign.

Board members didn't like a plan by King of Diamonds Jewelers to install an 18-foot-high

pole sign outside its new location at 2303 Delaware Ave., south of Hertel. The electronic LED

sign would change every eight seconds.

"We've worked hard along Delaware and Hertel to get pole signs eliminated or significantly

reduced in size," said longtime board member Cynthia A. Schwartz.

Paul D. Fadale of N.A.S. Quick Sign asked the board to delay a vote so he could design a

different "monument" sign that would not be elevated.

The jeweler recently moved out of the shuttered Statler and relocated in a former M&T Bank

on Hertel at Dakota Street.

The board gave its conditional recommendation to another LED sign proposed at 1225 Hertel.

The Council must still act on the plan, and some have raised concerns that the 14-foot by

eight-foot sign that would be installed on the side of a building would be a billboard that

could detract from the neighborhood.