Buffalo/South Buffalo

[[file:SouthBuffaloPagebanner.jpg|1280px|Halal Travel to South Buffalo}} Buffalo is movin' on up these days: Buffalo/Downtown|downtown has luxury hotels and condos aplenty and the Buffalo/Elmwood Village|Elmwood Village has high-end specialty shops, even the Buffalo/West Side|West Side sports a vibrant multiethnic pastiche with exotic food markets, restaurants and artists. But let the other parts of town compete to see who's trendiest. South Buffalo doesn't need to be "cool" or to put on airs. What it offers visitors is not the future but the past; a throwback to a hardworking, blue-collar, rough-around-the-edges Buffalo that's steadily disappearing.

Combine the formidable barrier that is the Buffalo River with the notorious clannishness of its residents and it's easy to see why South Buffalo seems like a city all to its own, immunized both from Buffalo's post-WWII downward spiral and its 21st-century gentrification. You won't find much here that's pretentious, just quiet streets lined with old houses and shade trees, greasy spoons turning out some of the cheapest but tastiest food in the area, old-school watering holes and friendly, downhome neighborhood people who'll give you a warm welcome the whole time.

Sound boring? Far from it. South Buffalo lays a hard-to-challenge claim on the title of best-kept secret in the city, with plenty to interest visitors. You can try your luck at the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino, peruse the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens, learn about the area's industrial history at the Heritage Discovery Center or Waterfront Memories & More, or take a boat tour through Elevator Alley the cavernous stretch of the Buffalo River lined with the grain elevators that earned Buffalo over 100 years of prosperity. And if you're the outdoor type, South Buffalo is the place for you: it's got a pair of Olmsted parks that are among the best-preserved in the city, nature preserves built on old industrial brownfields, golf courses and — best of all — nearly four miles (6 kilometers) of Lake Erie shore lined with beaches, marinas and still more parkland.

Fans of the Emerald Isle are in luck too: South Buffalo is the city's Irish enclave, with pubs lining the streets, traditional music and other cultural pursuits at the Buffalo Irish Center and an official Irish Heritage District along Abbott Road with a handful of specialty boutiques selling imported wares. And if you're in town at the right time, South Buffalo's neighborhood St. Patrick's Day Parade is an unmissable spectacle, with the streets of the Old First Ward and The Valley turned green each year on the Saturday before March 17.

Buffalo/South Buffalo Halal Travel Guide

42.854|-78.844|height=475|width=600 Broadly speaking, South Buffalo is bisected by the Buffalo River, which itself is the site of Elevator Alley the world's largest extant collection of grain elevators that extend some two meandering miles (3km) inland from the harbor and were the nucleus of Buffalo's most important industry for nearly a century and a half. The neighborhoods north of the river are older than the ones to the south — in fact and the Old First Ward GPS 42.868290,-78.861630, which extends from downtown east as far as the old New York Central Railroad tracks just past Katherine Street, is the cradle of South Buffalo, out of which all the outer neighborhoods grew. Though it remains Irish in constitution and the Old First Ward today bears little resemblance to the crowded, crime-ridden and desperately poor slum that it was in the 1800s: today it's mostly a quiet working-class residential area in the shadow of the grain elevators. However, its innermost blocks, known as the Cobblestone District GPS 42.874148,-78.873340, have been given a new lease on life lately as a cluster of trendy restaurants and even a casino. East of the Old First Ward, sandwiched between the New York Central and Buffalo Creek Railroad tracks (hence its name), is The Valley GPS 42.867441,-78.848626, a largely Polish neighborhood that's almost as old.

Outward from these areas lie Larkinville GPS 42.875259,-78.849467 and Seneca-Babcock GPS 42.869988,-78.829578, a pair of neighborhoods on South Buffalo's northern boundary that are often considered to be part of the Buffalo/East Side|East Side. They're included here because of their history as industrial centers and their adjacency to Seneca Street (an important South Buffalo thoroughfare), and, in the case of Seneca-Babcock, its majority-Irish ethnic demographics. Seneca-Babcock is a somewhat nondescript neighborhood of working-class homes whose interest to visitors is largely due to the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal at its northern edge; for its part, Larkinville has emerged as a sort of satellite business neighborhood, with corporate offices, small businesses, bars and restaurants occupying the former warehouses of the Larkin Soap Company and its central focal point, Larkin Plaza, hosting frequent events.

South of the river, things are a little more spread-out. Lying just at the foot of the main bridge across the river and the first neighborhood you'll come to is The Triangle GPS 42.851082,-78.827555, a charming middle-class area of turn-of-the-century flats whose main thoroughfare is South Park Avenue. Northeast of there is Seneca Street, an imposing commercial neighborhood that dubs itself "downtown South Buffalo" even though it long ago lost the title of the neighborhood's main shopping street. Outward from there, neighborhood boundaries get murkier. Toward the city's southern borders and the thoroughfares of South Park Avenue and Abbott Road take on an almost suburban character, with strip malls and ample parking lots abundant; interspersed between them is a network of pleasant, leafy side streets lined with charming middle-class houses from the 1920s. Finally, in the southwest, separated from the rest of south-of-the-river South Buffalo by a wide swath of railroad tracks, is found the Outer Harbor GPS 42.864229,-78.878799, a vast expanse of lakeshore that boasts the pleasant greenery of Buffalo Harbor State Park, Tifft and Times Beach Nature Preserves, Wilkeson Pointe and other parkland.

History

South Buffalo's history begins with the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, at that time the most ambitious engineering project ever undertaken in the United States: a 363-mile (584 kilometers) inland waterway from Albany to the sleepy frontier village of Buffalo. Though the bulk of what is now South Buffalo was then part of the Buffalo Creek Reservation, which had been set aside for the Seneca Indians at the time of the Holland Purchase in 1793 and the lots instantly east of the harbor (today's Cobblestone District and Old First Ward) were not — and when the unskilled, destitute immigrant laborers from Ireland they hired to dig the canal were finished and they settled there.

The first years of the Erie Canal were a time of explosive growth for Buffalo and the First Ward was no exception. This was among the city's lowest-lying land and Buffalo's founding fathers had not even bothered to divide it into lots, assuming that no one would want to live on this swampy riverbank. But the digging of the canal was such a huge undertaking that there were hundreds if not thousands of Irishmen who needed housing and the First Ward, dirt-affordable and close to the canal, was a natural place for them to make their homes. The poorest of the poor lived in the blocks south of the main drag of Elk Street (now South Park Avenue) in what was called "The Flats", which, in springtime and after heavy rains, would almost always be inundated by floodwaters from the Buffalo River. In the 1840s, during the Irish Potato Famine, another wave of immigrants crossed the Atlantic — and the First Ward became even more crowded.

In those days, when freighters filled with grain and flour arrived at port in Buffalo and the cargo had to be unloaded, divided and sent east in canal boats by hand — a slow, inefficient process that required more workers than the First Ward had to offer. Buffalo's growth was stunted by the bottleneck of too many ships, too much grain and too few workers. Enter Joseph Dart, a local merchant who, in 1842, invented a machine that unloaded grain by steam power, stored it in a huge silo and loaded it later onto canal barges: the first grain elevator. In the space of less than ten years the Buffalo River was lined with grain elevators and the reinvigorated harbor had become so congested that many freighters could not find any place to berth. The city responded by constructing a network of feeder canals and basins, such as the City Ship Canal the Main and Hamburg Canal the Ohio Basin, that crisscrossed the First Ward — and whose polluted, stagnant waters helped spread cholera and other communicable plagues among the residents. The First Ward earned the reputation as one of the nastiest slums in the nation, plagued by crime and disease, where the desperately poor lived in shanties and tenements sandwiched among the shipyards and factories, working as canal boaters, grain scoopers, longshoremen and miscellaneous unskilled laborers and shunned by their Anglo-Saxon Protestant social betters.

GrainElevatorHistoricMarker - The world's first grain elevator was built at Buffalo Harbor in 1842.

Meanwhile, north of the First Ward was the Hydraulic Canal, which flowed westward from the Buffalo River over a large cascade to the Main and Hamburg Canal, in an area that came to be called The Hydraulics. Reuben Heacock, a wealthy merchant who was one of Buffalo's founding fathers, built the canal in 1828 to furnish water power for the Hydraulic Business Association, a league of manufacturing concerns he founded. Though the canal eventually proved too small to bring to full fruition Heacock's vision of The Hydraulics as one of the foremost industrial centers in the United States, it was still a buzzing milling neighborhood — and together with the harbor, it cemented South Buffalo's enduring status as the city's industrial epicenter.

Even before the federal government dissolved the Buffalo Creek Reservation and the overcrowding of the Irish neighborhoods forced some residents to seek out new spaces to live near the harbor — in fact, living conditions in the shantytowns along the lake shore near present-day Times Beach and on Ganson Street between the grain elevators were somewhat better than in the First Ward proper. However, when the Compromise Treaty of 1842 sent the Seneca south to the Cattaraugus Reservation, huge new tracts of land opened to development. One of the first new neighborhoods was The Valley, just east of the First Ward on the other side of the railroad tracks. South Buffalo's lot began to improve soon after, with Bishop John Timon working tirelessly to establish Catholic schools, hospitals and charities for the Irish, who were often victims of the anti-Catholic discrimination that ran rampant in city-owned institutions. The leaders of the Irish community also proved to be expert political organizers, playing on popular suspicions of tacit anti-Catholicism in the Republican Party to turn the First Ward loyally Democratic, with droves of voters turning out each Election Day. Soon, Irishmen began to enter political office, appointing their neighbors to lucrative patronage jobs and creating a middle class among their community — they came to be known as "lace-curtain Irish", as opposed to the "shantytown Irish" of the grain mills. (It should be emphasized that political activity in the First Ward was not limited to the ballot box: the most successful of the five Fenian Raids, where battle-hardened Irish-American Civil War veterans sought to invade the British colony of Canada and hold it for ransom until Ireland was granted its independence, was launched from Buffalo in 1866; Buffalo's Fenians successfully ambushed a Canadian militia company at the Battle of Ridgeway and briefly took Fort Erie before British reinforcements drove them back across the border crossing.)

The new Irish political class soon turned their efforts to finding a better place to live than the crowded, crime-ridden First Ward and starting about 1875 and the Germans who farmed the lands of the former Seneca reservation south of the river gradually gave way to nouveau riche Irish city dwellers. Real-estate speculators such as William Fitzpatrick (the so-called "Builder of South Buffalo") were happy to oblige them, laying out side streets off Seneca Street, Abbott Road and other former farm lanes and filling them with houses as fast as he could build them. Frederick Law Olmsted got into the act, too — he was called back to Buffalo to design a southern extension of the park system that had grown so popular in the city's northern precincts and when South Buffalo's parks and parkways were finally completed in 1894 and they helped stimulate even more growth in the new neighborhoods.

In the midst of all this expansion and there were fundamental changes afoot at the harbor. Throughout the 19th Century and the state government continuously enlarged and deepened the Erie Canal and transformed it into a full-fledged transportation network, with feeder canals such as the Genesee Valley Canal the Cayuga-Seneca Canal the Chenango Canal extending into all parts of the state. Nonetheless and they canals found it harder and harder to compete with the railroads, which could transport passengers and goods much more quickly: in the years after the New York Central Railroad reached Buffalo in 1841, passenger traffic on the canal dropped to a small fraction of its former numbers and freight traffic declined steeply as well. As public outcry forced the city to fill in many of South Buffalo's small canals as public health hazards and the First Ward and Elevator Alley became crisscrossed by railroads instead: the lines extended right up to the elevators themselves, enabling grain to be unloaded directly onto boxcars. The railroads also engendered a local steel industry which would go on to become a major player in Buffalo's economy: iron ore arrived daily by freighter from Michigan and Minnesota and coal was shipped by railroad from Pennsylvania to be processed into steel at what was then the world's largest steel mill, set up by the Lackawanna Steel Company in 1899 on the lake shore just south of the city line. The railroad network extended into The Hydraulics as well, enabling it to continue on as an industrial center after the Hydraulic Canal, too, was decommissioned in 1883. The Hydraulics soon came to be dominated by the Larkin Company, which was founded in 1875 as a producer of soap sourced from the nearby stockyards and helmed by a group including namesake John Larkin and top executive Darwin Martin. By the turn of the century, Larkin expanded into a conglomerate that occupied about a half-dozen huge warehouse buildings clustered around the junction of Seneca and Swan Streets, where a wide gamut of products sold by mail order were manufactured.

The early 20th Century was South Buffalo's heyday, with the Irish coming to dominate the police and fire departments just as they did local politics. As its middle class continued to grow and leave the First Ward for the more spacious neighborhoods south of the river and the demographics of the older neighborhoods began to change. Italians from the Buffalo/East Side|Ellicott District, who were seen by the Irish as competition for unskilled positions at the seaport and on the railroads, began to trickle south of the railroad tracks and formed a sizable minority in the First Ward by the 1920s; at about the same time, The Valley became a majority-Polish neighborhood centered around St. Valentine Church on Elk Street. Thanks to its residents' relatively stable civil service jobs and the charitable tradition of the Catholic church, South Buffalo rode out the Great Depression better than most parts of the city, but further changes came to the First Ward in 1940 when about 300 houses on Perry Street (derided by city officials as "slums") were razed to make way for the Commodore Perry Projects, a government-subsidized housing development for low-income individuals. For the first time and there was a sizable African-American presence in the First Ward, igniting ethnic tensions that simmer to this day.

"Six-Pack Jimmy"|The legacy of Buffalo's first Irish Catholic mayor casts a long shadow in South Buffalo. Devoutly Catholic, rough around the edges and loyal to his neighborhood above all else, James D. Griffin (1929-2008) was the living embodiment of every First Ward stereotype. And his plainspoken wit was as quick as his temper: he earned the nickname "Six-Pack Jimmy" when he advised local residents on how to handle the Blizzard of '85: "stay inside, grab a six-pack and watch a good football game."

Jimmy Griffin was in City Hall from 1977 to 1993, making him the longest-serving mayor in the city's history — and, in the words of the Buffalo News, "the most dominant political figure of modern Buffalo". Though he was a Democrat, Griffin was an old-schooler with little use for the liberal wing of his party, wearing his independence and iconoclast status on his sleeve. This made for a stormy tenure as mayor; he had a chilly relationship with the black community and the press and earned his share of political enemies. In true First Ward style, Griffin occasionally settled political disputes with his fists, with Councilman David Franczyk and former adviser Joseph Martin among those on the receiving end. But he kept the loyalty of the majority of city voters, especially South Buffalonians: scores of Griffin's friends and neighbors got cushy jobs on the city payroll and the First Ward's streets were the first to be plowed after every snowstorm. Also, even when Buffalo's economy was at rock bottom, he was one of the few people who could talk developers into investing in downtown: Griffin cut the ribbon on the Metro Rail in 1985 and was also responsible for the Adam's Mark Hotel, Sahlen Field (which almost earned Buffalo a Major League Baseball team in 1988) and in the closing days of his administration and the KeyBank Center.

And at the end, his announcement that he wouldn't run for a fifth term was classic Griffin. Citing the old-age memory lapses that were beginning to hinder his work, he quipped "I was... forgetting to pull my zipper up [at the urinal. And now, I'm forgetting to pull my zipper down."}}

After World War II, though and the bottom fell out. Traffic at the harbor still had not reached pre-Depression levels by the time the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959, rendering Buffalo permanently irrelevant as an inland port. While previously the presence of Niagara Falls meant that boat traffic on the Great Lakes couldn't go much further east than Buffalo and the enlargement of the Welland Canal in Canada made for direct access to the sea, so freighters could bypass Buffalo entirely. Within ten years, most of the grain elevators along the Buffalo River had shut down and the harbor was nearly empty and the local economy was reeling. Furthermore, at about the same time and the railroad industry declined steeply thanks to the new Interstate Highway System, which moved passengers and freight much more quickly and affordablely. The steel industry wasn't spared either: a market flooded with affordable imported steel meant that the American-made version couldn't compete, so after shedding jobs for a few decades and the Lackawanna plant finally went belly-up in 1982.

But, even though these events were happening right in its backyard, South Buffalo rode out the downturn much better than most other areas of the city. The reason, once again, was the cushy civil-service jobs that a disproportionate number of its residents held (especially during the four mayoral terms of Jimmy Griffin, who took special care of his native First Ward and the rest of South Buffalo during the rock-bottom '80s and early '90s). As well, its residents' clannish nature and dogged loyalty to their neighborhood meant that South Buffalo did not lose nearly as many of its residents to the suburbs as other neighborhoods. And the urban renewal that wrought such havoc in places like the West Side and the Ellicott District barely touched South Buffalo, with the notable exceptions of Frank Lloyd Wright'sLarkin Administration Building in The Hydraulics, which was demolished in 1950 and the construction of the Buffalo Skyway in 1953 and the first controlled-access highway in Erie County, an elevated eyesore that serves as a giant wall between South Buffalo and the waterfront. Eventually, Buffalo bottomed out and slowly began pulling itself together and today there are some parts of South Buffalo that are undergoing revitalization: the Cobblestone District is home to a handful of hip bars and a glitzy new casino and the Outer Harbor is now a state park, The Hydraulics has been reborn as a business neighborhood-cum-festival venue dubbed Larkinville the Old First Ward became a nucleus for Buffalo's growing craft organic juice industry and the grain elevators are finally getting their due as engineering marvels of the Industrial Age and most recently, Tesla's Gigafactory 2 GPS 42.859005,-78.841242 and the largest solar panel manufacturing facility in North America, opened on a former industrial brownfield along the river. But by and large, despite these changes, everyday life in South Buffalo continues on the same as ever.

How is the Climate in Buffalo/South Buffalo

Thanks to Lake Erie, South Buffalo's climate is a little bit different than other parts of the city.

Much as in downtown, in the warmer months areas near the waterfront are noticeably cooler and windier than other parts of the city. This can be a double-edged sword: the fresh lake breezes are a godsend on a hot summer day, but if you're birdwatching at Times Beach or biking the Shoreline Trail in the spring or autumn, you might want to wear a jacket and long pants.

These same winds over the lake also mean that, even more than other parts of the city, South Buffalo really gets pummeled in the winter with lake-effect snow. After the winds pass onto dry land, it takes some time for the snow to condense out of the moisture-rich air — so, curiously enough, it's not unusual for Cazenovia Park to get walloped while the Outer Harbor only sees a dusting.

Read

SouthBuffaloIrishHeritageDistrictBilingualSign - Don't be fooled by these signs!

• Against the Grain: The History of Buffalo's First Ward by Timothy Bohen ([[Special:BookSources/9780615620527). An engaging chronicle of the Old First Ward from its initial settlement in the 1820s and '30s to the present day, as well as the larger-than-life characters who have called it home over the years — including champion prizefighter Jimmy Slattery, newspaper magnate and political bigwig William "Fingy" Conners, World War I hero and intelligence agent William "Wild Bill" Donovan, and, of course, Buffalo mayor Jimmy Griffin.
• The World According to Griffin: The End of an Era by Brian Meyer ([[Special:BookSources/Kaisertown and turning right on Mineral Springs Road will lead you to Cazenovia Park the heart of the Seneca Street business neighborhood.
• Exit 2 (Clinton Street/Bailey Avenue) and Exit 3 (Seneca Street) are the main points of highway access to South Buffalo. Get off at Exit 2 and follow Bailey Avenue north to Seneca-Babcock or south to Heacock Park in The Triangle. Southbound travellers can also turn off at Seneca Street into Larkinville, continue along Abbott Road toward Cazenovia Park, or follow the US 62 Southbound signs down South Park Avenue to access the Botanical Gardens and South Park. Exit 3, accessible from the southbound lanes only, lets you off on Elk Street a block before Bailey Avenue, where you can follow the same directions to the same destinations as Exit 2.
• Exit 4 (Smith Street) leads northward to Larkinville or southward to The Valley.
• Exit 5 (Hamburg Street via northbound lanes; Louisiana Street via southbound lanes) provides access to the Old First Ward.
• Exit 7 (NY 5 westbound), accessible via the southbound lanes only, is the northern terminus of the Skyway, described below. To get to the Skyway via the northbound lanes, get off at Church Street downtown and follow the signs for the Outer Harbor.

The Buffalo Skyway (NY 5) begins downtown at I-190 and extends southward parallel to the lake shore, providing access to the Outer Harbor and various other parts of South Buffalo:

• Take the Outer Harbor Drive exit and head north on Fuhrmann Boulevard to get to Wilkeson Pointe and Times Beach Nature Preserve.
• The Ohio Street exit lets you off just north of Gallagher Beach. As well, you can take Ohio Street northbound to get to Elevator Alley and the Old First Ward.
• The Tifft Street exit also provides access to Gallagher Beach. Otherwise, you can take Tifft Street east to Tifft Nature Preserve, Ship Canal Commons, and, further afield, The Triangle and the Olmsted parkways.
• The Skyway ends at the Ridge Road exit, which technically is beyond the city line in Lackawanna. Nonetheless, following Ridge Road east will take you to Ship Canal Commons (via Commerce Drive), South Park the Botanical Gardens.

If you're visiting in the winter, keep in mind that the Skyway is often closed when there is inclement weather.

South Park Avenue is the main surface route between downtown and South Buffalo, running from the foot of Main Street somewhat south of due east through the Cobblestone District and the Old First Ward and The Valley and then turning sharply southward at a complicated intersection with Bailey Avenue and Abbott Road where it picks up the designation of US 62. Thenceforward, it runs along the eastern edge of The Triangle, past South Park and on beyond the city line. This somewhat confusing trajectory results from the fact that the portion of its route north of Southside Parkway was cobbled together in the 1930s from what was once Triangle Street and parts of Abbott Road and Elk Street. A GPS system or map will come in handy when navigating South Park, as there are a lot of opportunities for wrong turns. At the aforementioned confusing intersection, South Park meets Bailey Avenue (US 62), which runs north through Seneca-Babcock and into the East Side and Abbott Road, which continues southeastward past Cazenovia Park and into the residential heart of South Buffalo.

Seneca Street (NY 16) straddles the murky, poorly-defined northern border of South Buffalo, running roughly southeastward from downtown through the Ellicott District, Larkinville and Seneca-Babcock, through the South Buffalo business neighborhood, past Cazenovia Park and into suburbia. Further north still, Clinton Street (NY 354) clips the northern boundary of Seneca-Babcock.

File:McKinleyParkwayBuffalo - Designed by famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and the tree-lined McKinley Parkway cuts a lovely, verdant 2.3-mile (3.7 kilometers) swath through South Buffalo.

Like many other neighborhoods of the city, Frederick Law Olmsted'sparkway system extends into South Buffalo. The backbone of South Buffalo's parkway system is McKinley Parkway, which begins at the Olmsted-designed Heacock Park and runs southeastward to McClellan Circle GPS 42.844387,-78.814843, where it intersects with the short Red Jacket Parkway heading toward Cazenovia Park. It then proceeds due south to Dorrance Avenue, where McKinley Circle GPS 42.832013,-78.815211 sits directly on the city line. McKinley then proceeds for a short distance southwestward through Lackawanna, ending in front of the Botanical Gardens at South Park. Those who've seen Olmsted's work in other parts of the city will notice that South Buffalo's parkways are somewhat less impressive than the more northerly ones: though lined with shade trees and they are much narrower and lack a center median, bearing more resemblance to Richmond Avenue than Lincoln or Chapin Parkways. Olmsted had originally planned to link the northern and southern sections of his park system via Fillmore Avenue, Smith Street and South Park Avenue, which were to be redesigned as a grand parkway that would have connected with McKinley Parkway at Heacock Park. However, with the exception of a few blocks of Fillmore south of Humboldt Park on the East Side where rows of stately elms were put in, his plans never came to fruition. The long-term plans of the Buffalo Olmsted Park Conservancy include improvements to those streets to better integrate the two halves of the system, but in the meantime and the Conservancy has also been hard at work elsewhere on South Buffalo's parkways: they were responsible for the construction of McKinley Circle in 2002 — a never-built feature of Olmsted's original plan — as well as installing charming period street lamps and thoroughly landscaping the parkways and circles with delightful flowers and new trees.

Though it didn't appear in his original plans, Olmsted's influence is also evident in the Outer Harbor Parkway, a three-and-a-half mile (5.6km) stretch of Fuhrmann Boulevard that runs along the Outer Harbor between Times Beach the Union Ship Canal, which was redesigned in 2010. The Outer Harbor Parkway's design pays tribute to the grand avenues Olmsted built elsewhere in the city with all the classic features of his work: elegant roundabouts, charming antique lampposts and a wide central median lush with trees and greenery.

Other major streets in South Buffalo include Ohio Street, which runs from South Park Avenue southward through the Old First Ward and across Elevator Alley, ending at Fuhrmann Boulevard; Tifft Street, an east-west route that links the Outer Harbor with South Buffalo proper; and Hopkins Street, which runs west of and parallel to South Park Avenue between The Triangle and South Park.

Parking in the Cobblestone District can be especially tight during Sabres games and other events at the KeyBank Center. The surface lots between Mississippi and Columbia Streets charge $2 per day and at the KeyBank Center parking ramp on Illinois Street it's $2 per hour up to a maximum of $5 per day; naturally, both of these numbers increase sharply when there's an event at the arena. As for on-street parking, it's prohibited on Perry Street and South Park Avenue, but permitted on the side streets with some restrictions: parking meters are in effect on the southern half of Illinois Street on weekdays from 8AM to 5PM, charging $1 per hour to a maximum of 2 hours and parking is not allowed on Columbia Street after 5PM. Larkinville is another place where parking can be a pain — there are plenty of surface lots, but most of them are restricted to workers in the various office buildings except during special events. For visitors and the best option for parking is the Larkin Exchange visitors' lot on the junction of Exchange and Van Rensselaer Streets — parking is free and nominally limited to two hours, though it's not too well-enforced. There's also metered parking on Exchange Street between Van Rensselaer and Smith Streets, in effect on weekdays from 7AM to 5PM at a flat rate of $2 per day. Parking is free and unrestricted on Seneca Street, Swan Street and the side streets and is generally easier to find the further you get from Larkin Plaza.

Elsewhere in South Buffalo, parking on Abbott Road is free of charge and only subject to time limits in the vicinity of Mercy Hospital, with parking between Columbus and Alsace Avenues limited to two hours at a time between 7AM and 7PM, Monday through Saturday. Beware, though, because empty spaces on Abbott and its side streets can be hard to find, especially between Heacock and Cazenovia Parks. Two-hour parking is also in effect for the same days and times on Seneca Street between Pomona and Hayden Streets and between Zittel Street and the city line; on South Park Avenue between Abbott Road and the city line and the hours are 7AM to 7PM, Monday through Friday. However, on-street parking on Seneca and South Park is much easier to find than on Abbott. In the Old First Ward, The Valley and Seneca-Babcock, on-street parking is free, unrestricted and virtually always easily available.

By public transportation

Public transit in Buffalo and the surrounding area is provided by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA). The NFTA Metro system encompasses a single-line light-rail rapid transit (LRRT) system and an extensive network of buses. The fare for a single trip on a bus or train is $2.00 regardless of length. No transfers are provided between buses or trains; travelers who will need to make multiple trips per day on public transit should consider purchasing an all-day pass for $5.00.

Travel on a Bus in Buffalo/South Buffalo

South Buffalo is traversed by a number of NFTA Metro bus routes:

To and from downtown

NFTA Metro Bus #2 — Clinton. Beginning at the Bank of America Operations Center in West Seneca, Bus #2 proceeds down Clinton Street through the far northern part of Seneca-Babcock, with service to the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal. It ends on the Buffalo/West Side|ISBN Kaisertown and turning right on Mineral Springs Road will lead you to Cazenovia Park the heart of the Seneca Street business neighborhood.

• Exit 2 (Clinton Street/Bailey Avenue) and Exit 3 (Seneca Street) are the main points of highway access to South Buffalo. Get off at Exit 2 and follow Bailey Avenue north to Seneca-Babcock or south to Heacock Park in The Triangle. Southbound travellers can also turn off at Seneca Street into Larkinville, continue along Abbott Road toward Cazenovia Park, or follow the US 62 Southbound signs down South Park Avenue to access the Botanical Gardens and South Park. Exit 3, accessible from the southbound lanes only, lets you off on Elk Street a block before Bailey Avenue, where you can follow the same directions to the same destinations as Exit 2.
• Exit 4 (Smith Street) leads northward to Larkinville or southward to The Valley.
• Exit 5 (Hamburg Street via northbound lanes; Louisiana Street via southbound lanes) provides access to the Old First Ward.
• Exit 7 (NY 5 westbound), accessible via the southbound lanes only, is the northern terminus of the Skyway, described below. To get to the Skyway via the northbound lanes, get off at Church Street downtown and follow the signs for the Outer Harbor.

The Buffalo Skyway (NY 5) begins downtown at I-190 and extends southward parallel to the lake shore, providing access to the Outer Harbor and various other parts of South Buffalo:

• Take the Outer Harbor Drive exit and head north on Fuhrmann Boulevard to get to Wilkeson Pointe and Times Beach Nature Preserve.
• The Ohio Street exit lets you off just north of Gallagher Beach. As well, you can take Ohio Street northbound to get to Elevator Alley and the Old First Ward.
• The Tifft Street exit also provides access to Gallagher Beach. Otherwise, you can take Tifft Street east to Tifft Nature Preserve, Ship Canal Commons, and, further afield, The Triangle and the Olmsted parkways.
• The Skyway ends at the Ridge Road exit, which technically is beyond the city line in Lackawanna. Nonetheless, following Ridge Road east will take you to Ship Canal Commons (via Commerce Drive), South Park the Botanical Gardens.

If you're visiting in the winter, keep in mind that the Skyway is often closed when there is inclement weather.

South Park Avenue is the main surface route between downtown and South Buffalo, running from the foot of Main Street somewhat south of due east through the Cobblestone District and the Old First Ward and The Valley and then turning sharply southward at a complicated intersection with Bailey Avenue and Abbott Road where it picks up the designation of US 62. Thenceforward, it runs along the eastern edge of The Triangle, past South Park and on beyond the city line. This somewhat confusing trajectory results from the fact that the portion of its route north of Southside Parkway was cobbled together in the 1930s from what was once Triangle Street and parts of Abbott Road and Elk Street. A GPS system or map will come in handy when navigating South Park, as there are a lot of opportunities for wrong turns. At the aforementioned confusing intersection, South Park meets Bailey Avenue (US 62), which runs north through Seneca-Babcock and into the East Side and Abbott Road, which continues southeastward past Cazenovia Park and into the residential heart of South Buffalo.

Seneca Street (NY 16) straddles the murky, poorly-defined northern border of South Buffalo, running roughly southeastward from downtown through the Ellicott District, Larkinville and Seneca-Babcock, through the South Buffalo business neighborhood, past Cazenovia Park and into suburbia. Further north still, Clinton Street (NY 354) clips the northern boundary of Seneca-Babcock.

File:McKinleyParkwayBuffalo - Designed by famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and the tree-lined McKinley Parkway cuts a lovely, verdant 2.3-mile (3.7 kilometers) swath through South Buffalo.

Like many other neighborhoods of the city, Frederick Law Olmsted'sparkway system extends into South Buffalo. The backbone of South Buffalo's parkway system is McKinley Parkway, which begins at the Olmsted-designed Heacock Park and runs southeastward to McClellan Circle GPS 42.844387,-78.814843, where it intersects with the short Red Jacket Parkway heading toward Cazenovia Park. It then proceeds due south to Dorrance Avenue, where McKinley Circle GPS 42.832013,-78.815211 sits directly on the city line. McKinley then proceeds for a short distance southwestward through Lackawanna, ending in front of the Botanical Gardens at South Park. Those who've seen Olmsted's work in other parts of the city will notice that South Buffalo's parkways are somewhat less impressive than the more northerly ones: though lined with shade trees and they are much narrower and lack a center median, bearing more resemblance to Richmond Avenue than Lincoln or Chapin Parkways. Olmsted had originally planned to link the northern and southern sections of his park system via Fillmore Avenue, Smith Street and South Park Avenue, which were to be redesigned as a grand parkway that would have connected with McKinley Parkway at Heacock Park. However, with the exception of a few blocks of Fillmore south of Humboldt Park on the East Side where rows of stately elms were put in, his plans never came to fruition. The long-term plans of the Buffalo Olmsted Park Conservancy include improvements to those streets to better integrate the two halves of the system, but in the meantime and the Conservancy has also been hard at work elsewhere on South Buffalo's parkways: they were responsible for the construction of McKinley Circle in 2002 — a never-built feature of Olmsted's original plan — as well as installing charming period street lamps and thoroughly landscaping the parkways and circles with delightful flowers and new trees.

Though it didn't appear in his original plans, Olmsted's influence is also evident in the Outer Harbor Parkway, a three-and-a-half mile (5.6km) stretch of Fuhrmann Boulevard that runs along the Outer Harbor between Times Beach the Union Ship Canal, which was redesigned in 2010. The Outer Harbor Parkway's design pays tribute to the grand avenues Olmsted built elsewhere in the city with all the classic features of his work: elegant roundabouts, charming antique lampposts and a wide central median lush with trees and greenery.

Other major streets in South Buffalo include Ohio Street, which runs from South Park Avenue southward through the Old First Ward and across Elevator Alley, ending at Fuhrmann Boulevard; Tifft Street, an east-west route that links the Outer Harbor with South Buffalo proper; and Hopkins Street, which runs west of and parallel to South Park Avenue between The Triangle and South Park.

Parking in the Cobblestone District can be especially tight during Sabres games and other events at the KeyBank Center. The surface lots between Mississippi and Columbia Streets charge $2 per day and at the KeyBank Center parking ramp on Illinois Street it's $2 per hour up to a maximum of $5 per day; naturally, both of these numbers increase sharply when there's an event at the arena. As for on-street parking, it's prohibited on Perry Street and South Park Avenue, but permitted on the side streets with some restrictions: parking meters are in effect on the southern half of Illinois Street on weekdays from 8AM to 5PM, charging $1 per hour to a maximum of 2 hours and parking is not allowed on Columbia Street after 5PM. Larkinville is another place where parking can be a pain — there are plenty of surface lots, but most of them are restricted to workers in the various office buildings except during special events. For visitors and the best option for parking is the Larkin Exchange visitors' lot on the junction of Exchange and Van Rensselaer Streets — parking is free and nominally limited to two hours, though it's not too well-enforced. There's also metered parking on Exchange Street between Van Rensselaer and Smith Streets, in effect on weekdays from 7AM to 5PM at a flat rate of $2 per day. Parking is free and unrestricted on Seneca Street, Swan Street and the side streets and is generally easier to find the further you get from Larkin Plaza.

Elsewhere in South Buffalo, parking on Abbott Road is free of charge and only subject to time limits in the vicinity of Mercy Hospital, with parking between Columbus and Alsace Avenues limited to two hours at a time between 7AM and 7PM, Monday through Saturday. Beware, though, because empty spaces on Abbott and its side streets can be hard to find, especially between Heacock and Cazenovia Parks. Two-hour parking is also in effect for the same days and times on Seneca Street between Pomona and Hayden Streets and between Zittel Street and the city line; on South Park Avenue between Abbott Road and the city line and the hours are 7AM to 7PM, Monday through Friday. However, on-street parking on Seneca and South Park is much easier to find than on Abbott. In the Old First Ward, The Valley and Seneca-Babcock, on-street parking is free, unrestricted and virtually always easily available.

By public transportation

Public transit in Buffalo and the surrounding area is provided by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA). The NFTA Metro system encompasses a single-line light-rail rapid transit (LRRT) system and an extensive network of buses. The fare for a single trip on a bus or train is $2.00 regardless of length. No transfers are provided between buses or trains; travelers who will need to make multiple trips per day on public transit should consider purchasing an all-day pass for $5.00.

Travel on a Bus in Buffalo/South Buffalo

South Buffalo is traversed by a number of NFTA Metro bus routes:

To and from downtown

NFTA Metro Bus #2 — Clinton. Beginning at the Bank of America Operations Center in West Seneca, Bus #2 proceeds down Clinton Street through the far northern part of Seneca-Babcock, with service to the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal. It ends on the Buffalo/West Side]] xx File:(716) GAL-LERY - (716) GAL-LERY, Buffalo's smallest art gallery and is located at Hydraulic Hearth.

• (716) GAL-LERY 716 Swan St. Metro Bus 15, 18 or 23 - Opening Hours: Tuesday - Thursday 4:30PM Monday - 10PM, F-Sa 4:30PM Monday - 11PM Located at the Hearth|ISBN 9780615620527). An engaging chronicle of the Old First Ward from its initial settlement in the 1820s and '30s to the present day, as well as the larger-than-life characters who have called it home over the years — including champion prizefighter Jimmy Slattery, newspaper magnate and political bigwig William "Fingy" Conners, World War I hero and intelligence agent William "Wild Bill" Donovan, and, of course, Buffalo mayor Jimmy Griffin.
• The World According to Griffin: The End of an Era by Brian Meyer ([[Special:BookSources/Kaisertown and turning right on Mineral Springs Road will lead you to Cazenovia Park the heart of the Seneca Street business neighborhood.
• Exit 2 (Clinton Street/Bailey Avenue) and Exit 3 (Seneca Street) are the main points of highway access to South Buffalo. Get off at Exit 2 and follow Bailey Avenue north to Seneca-Babcock or south to Heacock Park in The Triangle. Southbound travellers can also turn off at Seneca Street into Larkinville, continue along Abbott Road toward Cazenovia Park, or follow the US 62 Southbound signs down South Park Avenue to access the Botanical Gardens and South Park. Exit 3, accessible from the southbound lanes only, lets you off on Elk Street a block before Bailey Avenue, where you can follow the same directions to the same destinations as Exit 2.
• Exit 4 (Smith Street) leads northward to Larkinville or southward to The Valley.
• Exit 5 (Hamburg Street via northbound lanes; Louisiana Street via southbound lanes) provides access to the Old First Ward.
• Exit 7 (NY 5 westbound), accessible via the southbound lanes only, is the northern terminus of the Skyway, described below. To get to the Skyway via the northbound lanes, get off at Church Street downtown and follow the signs for the Outer Harbor.

The Buffalo Skyway (NY 5) begins downtown at I-190 and extends southward parallel to the lake shore, providing access to the Outer Harbor and various other parts of South Buffalo:

• Take the Outer Harbor Drive exit and head north on Fuhrmann Boulevard to get to Wilkeson Pointe and Times Beach Nature Preserve.
• The Ohio Street exit lets you off just north of Gallagher Beach. As well, you can take Ohio Street northbound to get to Elevator Alley and the Old First Ward.
• The Tifft Street exit also provides access to Gallagher Beach. Otherwise, you can take Tifft Street east to Tifft Nature Preserve, Ship Canal Commons, and, further afield, The Triangle and the Olmsted parkways.
• The Skyway ends at the Ridge Road exit, which technically is beyond the city line in Lackawanna. Nonetheless, following Ridge Road east will take you to Ship Canal Commons (via Commerce Drive), South Park the Botanical Gardens.

If you're visiting in the winter, keep in mind that the Skyway is often closed when there is inclement weather.

South Park Avenue is the main surface route between downtown and South Buffalo, running from the foot of Main Street somewhat south of due east through the Cobblestone District and the Old First Ward and The Valley and then turning sharply southward at a complicated intersection with Bailey Avenue and Abbott Road where it picks up the designation of US 62. Thenceforward, it runs along the eastern edge of The Triangle, past South Park and on beyond the city line. This somewhat confusing trajectory results from the fact that the portion of its route north of Southside Parkway was cobbled together in the 1930s from what was once Triangle Street and parts of Abbott Road and Elk Street. A GPS system or map will come in handy when navigating South Park, as there are a lot of opportunities for wrong turns. At the aforementioned confusing intersection, South Park meets Bailey Avenue (US 62), which runs north through Seneca-Babcock and into the East Side and Abbott Road, which continues southeastward past Cazenovia Park and into the residential heart of South Buffalo.

Seneca Street (NY 16) straddles the murky, poorly-defined northern border of South Buffalo, running roughly southeastward from downtown through the Ellicott District, Larkinville and Seneca-Babcock, through the South Buffalo business neighborhood, past Cazenovia Park and into suburbia. Further north still, Clinton Street (NY 354) clips the northern boundary of Seneca-Babcock.

File:McKinleyParkwayBuffalo - Designed by famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and the tree-lined McKinley Parkway cuts a lovely, verdant 2.3-mile (3.7 kilometers) swath through South Buffalo.

Like many other neighborhoods of the city, Frederick Law Olmsted'sparkway system extends into South Buffalo. The backbone of South Buffalo's parkway system is McKinley Parkway, which begins at the Olmsted-designed Heacock Park and runs southeastward to McClellan Circle GPS 42.844387,-78.814843, where it intersects with the short Red Jacket Parkway heading toward Cazenovia Park. It then proceeds due south to Dorrance Avenue, where McKinley Circle GPS 42.832013,-78.815211 sits directly on the city line. McKinley then proceeds for a short distance southwestward through Lackawanna, ending in front of the Botanical Gardens at South Park. Those who've seen Olmsted's work in other parts of the city will notice that South Buffalo's parkways are somewhat less impressive than the more northerly ones: though lined with shade trees and they are much narrower and lack a center median, bearing more resemblance to Richmond Avenue than Lincoln or Chapin Parkways. Olmsted had originally planned to link the northern and southern sections of his park system via Fillmore Avenue, Smith Street and South Park Avenue, which were to be redesigned as a grand parkway that would have connected with McKinley Parkway at Heacock Park. However, with the exception of a few blocks of Fillmore south of Humboldt Park on the East Side where rows of stately elms were put in, his plans never came to fruition. The long-term plans of the Buffalo Olmsted Park Conservancy include improvements to those streets to better integrate the two halves of the system, but in the meantime and the Conservancy has also been hard at work elsewhere on South Buffalo's parkways: they were responsible for the construction of McKinley Circle in 2002 — a never-built feature of Olmsted's original plan — as well as installing charming period street lamps and thoroughly landscaping the parkways and circles with delightful flowers and new trees.

Though it didn't appear in his original plans, Olmsted's influence is also evident in the Outer Harbor Parkway, a three-and-a-half mile (5.6km) stretch of Fuhrmann Boulevard that runs along the Outer Harbor between Times Beach the Union Ship Canal, which was redesigned in 2010. The Outer Harbor Parkway's design pays tribute to the grand avenues Olmsted built elsewhere in the city with all the classic features of his work: elegant roundabouts, charming antique lampposts and a wide central median lush with trees and greenery.

Other major streets in South Buffalo include Ohio Street, which runs from South Park Avenue southward through the Old First Ward and across Elevator Alley, ending at Fuhrmann Boulevard; Tifft Street, an east-west route that links the Outer Harbor with South Buffalo proper; and Hopkins Street, which runs west of and parallel to South Park Avenue between The Triangle and South Park.

Parking in the Cobblestone District can be especially tight during Sabres games and other events at the KeyBank Center. The surface lots between Mississippi and Columbia Streets charge $2 per day and at the KeyBank Center parking ramp on Illinois Street it's $2 per hour up to a maximum of $5 per day; naturally, both of these numbers increase sharply when there's an event at the arena. As for on-street parking, it's prohibited on Perry Street and South Park Avenue, but permitted on the side streets with some restrictions: parking meters are in effect on the southern half of Illinois Street on weekdays from 8AM to 5PM, charging $1 per hour to a maximum of 2 hours and parking is not allowed on Columbia Street after 5PM. Larkinville is another place where parking can be a pain — there are plenty of surface lots, but most of them are restricted to workers in the various office buildings except during special events. For visitors and the best option for parking is the Larkin Exchange visitors' lot on the junction of Exchange and Van Rensselaer Streets — parking is free and nominally limited to two hours, though it's not too well-enforced. There's also metered parking on Exchange Street between Van Rensselaer and Smith Streets, in effect on weekdays from 7AM to 5PM at a flat rate of $2 per day. Parking is free and unrestricted on Seneca Street, Swan Street and the side streets and is generally easier to find the further you get from Larkin Plaza.

Elsewhere in South Buffalo, parking on Abbott Road is free of charge and only subject to time limits in the vicinity of Mercy Hospital, with parking between Columbus and Alsace Avenues limited to two hours at a time between 7AM and 7PM, Monday through Saturday. Beware, though, because empty spaces on Abbott and its side streets can be hard to find, especially between Heacock and Cazenovia Parks. Two-hour parking is also in effect for the same days and times on Seneca Street between Pomona and Hayden Streets and between Zittel Street and the city line; on South Park Avenue between Abbott Road and the city line and the hours are 7AM to 7PM, Monday through Friday. However, on-street parking on Seneca and South Park is much easier to find than on Abbott. In the Old First Ward, The Valley and Seneca-Babcock, on-street parking is free, unrestricted and virtually always easily available.

By public transportation

Public transit in Buffalo and the surrounding area is provided by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA). The NFTA Metro system encompasses a single-line light-rail rapid transit (LRRT) system and an extensive network of buses. The fare for a single trip on a bus or train is $2.00 regardless of length. No transfers are provided between buses or trains; travelers who will need to make multiple trips per day on public transit should consider purchasing an all-day pass for $5.00.

Travel on a Bus in Buffalo/South Buffalo

South Buffalo is traversed by a number of NFTA Metro bus routes:

To and from downtown

NFTA Metro Bus #2 — Clinton. Beginning at the Bank of America Operations Center in West Seneca, Bus #2 proceeds down Clinton Street through the far northern part of Seneca-Babcock, with service to the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal. It ends on the Buffalo/West Side|ISBN Kaisertown and turning right on Mineral Springs Road will lead you to Cazenovia Park the heart of the Seneca Street business neighborhood.

• Exit 2 (Clinton Street/Bailey Avenue) and Exit 3 (Seneca Street) are the main points of highway access to South Buffalo. Get off at Exit 2 and follow Bailey Avenue north to Seneca-Babcock or south to Heacock Park in The Triangle. Southbound travellers can also turn off at Seneca Street into Larkinville, continue along Abbott Road toward Cazenovia Park, or follow the US 62 Southbound signs down South Park Avenue to access the Botanical Gardens and South Park. Exit 3, accessible from the southbound lanes only, lets you off on Elk Street a block before Bailey Avenue, where you can follow the same directions to the same destinations as Exit 2.
• Exit 4 (Smith Street) leads northward to Larkinville or southward to The Valley.
• Exit 5 (Hamburg Street via northbound lanes; Louisiana Street via southbound lanes) provides access to the Old First Ward.
• Exit 7 (NY 5 westbound), accessible via the southbound lanes only, is the northern terminus of the Skyway, described below. To get to the Skyway via the northbound lanes, get off at Church Street downtown and follow the signs for the Outer Harbor.

The Buffalo Skyway (NY 5) begins downtown at I-190 and extends southward parallel to the lake shore, providing access to the Outer Harbor and various other parts of South Buffalo:

• Take the Outer Harbor Drive exit and head north on Fuhrmann Boulevard to get to Wilkeson Pointe and Times Beach Nature Preserve.
• The Ohio Street exit lets you off just north of Gallagher Beach. As well, you can take Ohio Street northbound to get to Elevator Alley and the Old First Ward.
• The Tifft Street exit also provides access to Gallagher Beach. Otherwise, you can take Tifft Street east to Tifft Nature Preserve, Ship Canal Commons, and, further afield, The Triangle and the Olmsted parkways.
• The Skyway ends at the Ridge Road exit, which technically is beyond the city line in Lackawanna. Nonetheless, following Ridge Road east will take you to Ship Canal Commons (via Commerce Drive), South Park the Botanical Gardens.

If you're visiting in the winter, keep in mind that the Skyway is often closed when there is inclement weather.

South Park Avenue is the main surface route between downtown and South Buffalo, running from the foot of Main Street somewhat south of due east through the Cobblestone District and the Old First Ward and The Valley and then turning sharply southward at a complicated intersection with Bailey Avenue and Abbott Road where it picks up the designation of US 62. Thenceforward, it runs along the eastern edge of The Triangle, past South Park and on beyond the city line. This somewhat confusing trajectory results from the fact that the portion of its route north of Southside Parkway was cobbled together in the 1930s from what was once Triangle Street and parts of Abbott Road and Elk Street. A GPS system or map will come in handy when navigating South Park, as there are a lot of opportunities for wrong turns. At the aforementioned confusing intersection, South Park meets Bailey Avenue (US 62), which runs north through Seneca-Babcock and into the East Side and Abbott Road, which continues southeastward past Cazenovia Park and into the residential heart of South Buffalo.

Seneca Street (NY 16) straddles the murky, poorly-defined northern border of South Buffalo, running roughly southeastward from downtown through the Ellicott District, Larkinville and Seneca-Babcock, through the South Buffalo business neighborhood, past Cazenovia Park and into suburbia. Further north still, Clinton Street (NY 354) clips the northern boundary of Seneca-Babcock.

File:McKinleyParkwayBuffalo - Designed by famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and the tree-lined McKinley Parkway cuts a lovely, verdant 2.3-mile (3.7 kilometers) swath through South Buffalo.

Like many other neighborhoods of the city, Frederick Law Olmsted'sparkway system extends into South Buffalo. The backbone of South Buffalo's parkway system is McKinley Parkway, which begins at the Olmsted-designed Heacock Park and runs southeastward to McClellan Circle GPS 42.844387,-78.814843, where it intersects with the short Red Jacket Parkway heading toward Cazenovia Park. It then proceeds due south to Dorrance Avenue, where McKinley Circle GPS 42.832013,-78.815211 sits directly on the city line. McKinley then proceeds for a short distance southwestward through Lackawanna, ending in front of the Botanical Gardens at South Park. Those who've seen Olmsted's work in other parts of the city will notice that South Buffalo's parkways are somewhat less impressive than the more northerly ones: though lined with shade trees and they are much narrower and lack a center median, bearing more resemblance to Richmond Avenue than Lincoln or Chapin Parkways. Olmsted had originally planned to link the northern and southern sections of his park system via Fillmore Avenue, Smith Street and South Park Avenue, which were to be redesigned as a grand parkway that would have connected with McKinley Parkway at Heacock Park. However, with the exception of a few blocks of Fillmore south of Humboldt Park on the East Side where rows of stately elms were put in, his plans never came to fruition. The long-term plans of the Buffalo Olmsted Park Conservancy include improvements to those streets to better integrate the two halves of the system, but in the meantime and the Conservancy has also been hard at work elsewhere on South Buffalo's parkways: they were responsible for the construction of McKinley Circle in 2002 — a never-built feature of Olmsted's original plan — as well as installing charming period street lamps and thoroughly landscaping the parkways and circles with delightful flowers and new trees.

Though it didn't appear in his original plans, Olmsted's influence is also evident in the Outer Harbor Parkway, a three-and-a-half mile (5.6km) stretch of Fuhrmann Boulevard that runs along the Outer Harbor between Times Beach the Union Ship Canal, which was redesigned in 2010. The Outer Harbor Parkway's design pays tribute to the grand avenues Olmsted built elsewhere in the city with all the classic features of his work: elegant roundabouts, charming antique lampposts and a wide central median lush with trees and greenery.

Other major streets in South Buffalo include Ohio Street, which runs from South Park Avenue southward through the Old First Ward and across Elevator Alley, ending at Fuhrmann Boulevard; Tifft Street, an east-west route that links the Outer Harbor with South Buffalo proper; and Hopkins Street, which runs west of and parallel to South Park Avenue between The Triangle and South Park.

Parking in the Cobblestone District can be especially tight during Sabres games and other events at the KeyBank Center. The surface lots between Mississippi and Columbia Streets charge $2 per day and at the KeyBank Center parking ramp on Illinois Street it's $2 per hour up to a maximum of $5 per day; naturally, both of these numbers increase sharply when there's an event at the arena. As for on-street parking, it's prohibited on Perry Street and South Park Avenue, but permitted on the side streets with some restrictions: parking meters are in effect on the southern half of Illinois Street on weekdays from 8AM to 5PM, charging $1 per hour to a maximum of 2 hours and parking is not allowed on Columbia Street after 5PM. Larkinville is another place where parking can be a pain — there are plenty of surface lots, but most of them are restricted to workers in the various office buildings except during special events. For visitors and the best option for parking is the Larkin Exchange visitors' lot on the junction of Exchange and Van Rensselaer Streets — parking is free and nominally limited to two hours, though it's not too well-enforced. There's also metered parking on Exchange Street between Van Rensselaer and Smith Streets, in effect on weekdays from 7AM to 5PM at a flat rate of $2 per day. Parking is free and unrestricted on Seneca Street, Swan Street and the side streets and is generally easier to find the further you get from Larkin Plaza.

Elsewhere in South Buffalo, parking on Abbott Road is free of charge and only subject to time limits in the vicinity of Mercy Hospital, with parking between Columbus and Alsace Avenues limited to two hours at a time between 7AM and 7PM, Monday through Saturday. Beware, though, because empty spaces on Abbott and its side streets can be hard to find, especially between Heacock and Cazenovia Parks. Two-hour parking is also in effect for the same days and times on Seneca Street between Pomona and Hayden Streets and between Zittel Street and the city line; on South Park Avenue between Abbott Road and the city line and the hours are 7AM to 7PM, Monday through Friday. However, on-street parking on Seneca and South Park is much easier to find than on Abbott. In the Old First Ward, The Valley and Seneca-Babcock, on-street parking is free, unrestricted and virtually always easily available.

By public transportation

Public transit in Buffalo and the surrounding area is provided by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA). The NFTA Metro system encompasses a single-line light-rail rapid transit (LRRT) system and an extensive network of buses. The fare for a single trip on a bus or train is $2.00 regardless of length. No transfers are provided between buses or trains; travelers who will need to make multiple trips per day on public transit should consider purchasing an all-day pass for $5.00.

Travel on a Bus in Buffalo/South Buffalo

South Buffalo is traversed by a number of NFTA Metro bus routes:

To and from downtown

NFTA Metro Bus #2 — Clinton. Beginning at the Bank of America Operations Center in West Seneca, Bus #2 proceeds down Clinton Street through the far northern part of Seneca-Babcock, with service to the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal. It ends on the Buffalo/West Side]] xx File:(716) GAL-LERY - (716) GAL-LERY, Buffalo's smallest art gallery and is located at Hydraulic Hearth.

• (716) GAL-LERY 716 Swan St. Metro Bus 15, 18 or 23 - Opening Hours: Tuesday - Thursday 4:30PM Monday - 10PM, F-Sa 4:30PM Monday - 11PM Located at the Hearth]] {{anchor|BECBG
• Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens 2655 South Park Ave. 42.828103, -78.825746 Metro Bus 16 or 42 ☎ +1 716 827-1584 Opening Hours: Daily 10AM Monday - 5PM $7, seniors and students $6, 12 and under $4, members and children under 3 free Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens Located at South Park and the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens were founded in 1898 and today consist of several collections of plants — the Panama Cloud Forest & Epiphyte Pavilion and the Palm Dome and the Florida Everglades pavilion and the Victorian Ivy & Herb House and the Orchid House and the Rose Garden are only a few — arranged carefully in Victorian style. All in all, 1,500 varieties of plants are displayed here to more than 100,000 visitors annually. The lovely Victorian conservatory building of the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens was designed by Frederick A. Lord and William A. Burnham, who went on to design the conservatory at the National Botanical Gardens in Washington, D.C. some years later.

SaskatchewanCooperativeElevator-GallagherBeach - The Saskatchewan Cooperative Elevator as seen from Gallagher Beach.

Waterfront parks

• Buffalo Harbor State Park Along Fuhrmann Blvd. between Ohio and Tifft Sts. 42.844554, -78.863149 Metro Bus 42 ☎ +1 716 878-0027 Free Buffalo Harbor State Park In May 2014 and the Outer Harbor became the site of the 180th State Park in New York and the first one to be located within Buffalo's city limits. These 190 acres (77 ha) of waterfront land incorporate the already-existing Gallagher Beach (see below) and Safe Harbor Marina as well as the new Tifft Street Pier. In addition to those amenities which are described in more detail below and there's also a free carousel and playground for the kids, facilities for picnickers, a slate of special events and a bike and walking path that extends about a third of a mile (600 m) from the parking lot and boat launch (under construction as of autumn 2022) along the L-shaped breakwall on the perimeter of the Small Boat Harbor, with great views over the lake and several access points for fishing.

• Gallagher Beach 1515 Fuhrmann Blvd. 42.843043, -78.859759 Metro Bus 42 ☎ +1 716 852-2356 Free For many decades an "unofficial" swimming hole and summer recreation area for South Buffalo residents (including inimitable former mayor Jimmy Griffin), Gallagher Beach is one of Buffalo Harbor State Park's marquee attractions. Buffalonians flock to Gallagher Beach in the summer months to walk and bike along the new boardwalk and to enjoy sunbathing, fishing, kayaking and windsurfing. (Swimming is nominally prohibited, but enforcement is lax and if you visit you'll likely see folks in the water. However, it's probably not a good idea to follow suit.) Gallagher Beach is easily accessed via the Shoreline Trail and is also adjacent to Tifft Nature Preserve.

• Tifft Street Pier 1699 Fuhrmann Blvd. 42.838984, -78.857914 Metro Bus 42 - Inaugurated in 2014 and the Tifft Street Pier begins as a pleasant bow-shaped boardwalk, beautifully landscaped with greenery and space for public art installations, that leads joggers and walkers along the Shoreline Trail directly onto the shore. But the main attraction is a floating pontoon that extends 130 feet (40 m) into the water, ending in a sleekly-designed, covered observation deck with unbeatable views over Lake Erie — a perfect spot for fishing, birdwatching or just relaxing on the waterfront. There's docking space for boats at the end, too.

• Red Jacket Riverfront Park foot of Smith St. 42.863745, -78.851133 Metro Bus 14, 16 or 23 - The crown jewel of the Buffalo River Greenway, a partially completed chain of parks and green spaces along the shores of the Buffalo River, Red Jacket Riverfront Park was established in 1997 on four acres (1.6 ha) of reclaimed industrial land in The Valley. A hundred years ago and the scene at the foot of Smith Street was dominated by railroad tracks, trains, industrial facilities and freighters plying their way up and down the river, but the only legacy of that period left today are a couple of railroad bridges and the foundation of a traffic control tower that was demolished in the 1980s. What Red Jacket Riverfront Park does have is plenty of shady spots for fishing and picnicking, great views of the inland end of Elevator Alley (including the quarter-mile-long 400m long Concrete-Central Elevator, Buffalo's largest), walking trails and a boggy wetland area that's reminiscent of what was here before the encroachment of industry. Also present in the park is a monument to its namesake, a Seneca Indian chief and orator who eloquently plead his people's case before the US Senate and received a medal from President Washington in return.

• Ship Canal Commons Fuhrmann Blvd at Ship Canal Pkwy. 42.834833, -78.849495 Metro Bus 42 - Years ago and the Union Ship Canal was a pretty crowded place: it was the centerpiece of the 70-acre (28 ha) campus of the Hanna Furnace Company, founded in 1899 by the same group of local industrialists who brought the Lackawanna Steel Company to the area. Here, freighters docked and unloaded their cargo of iron ore from the Midwest to be milled into pig iron by, at the company's peak, a workforce of 800 at a rate of 3,100 tons (2,800 metric tons) per day. Like the rest of the Western New York steel industry, Hanna Furnace went belly-up in the 1980s, but the peaceful, pleasant park that's on the site today pays homage to its predecessor in a number of ways: dense groves of trees mimic the towering buildings that once lined the canal, artificial hills recall heaps of limestone and ore, its east side is anchored by a massive ladle once used to pour molten iron into molds to harden, even the pavement design of the walking paths along the canal's edge echoes the pattern of the railroads that used to be there. Ship Canal Commons also boasts over two miles (3 kilometers) of nature trails and a lovely footbridge over the canal and its waters are fully ecologically restored and boast aquatic plants, waterfowl and fish such as smallmouth bass and perch. Ship Canal Commons is easy to reach by bike via the Shoreline Trail and on foot via the footbridge at the south end of Fuhrmann Boulevard, but automobile access is trickier: you have to take either Tifft Street or Ridge Road and wind your way through the industrial park.

• Wilkeson Pointe 225 Fuhrmann Blvd. 42.871664, -78.881867 ☎ +1 716 852-2356 Free Opened in May 2013, Wilkeson Pointe is 22 acres (9 ha) of waterfront green space named for Samuel Wilkeson and the former War of 1812 hero, State Senator and Buffalo mayor who vigorously oversaw the dredging and improvement of Buffalo Harbor, which was the deciding factor in the location of the end of the Erie Canal there rather than in Black Rock. Today, Wilkeson Pointe's location between two slips at the former site of Seaway Piers makes for excellent water access: public docking is available and the park packs in a ton of amenities befitting its status as a focal point of the Outer Harbor: more than just the great views over Lake Erie, Elevator Alley and downtown that you can get anywhere on the lake shore, Wilkeson Pointe has a large playground for kids, volleyball courts, rain gardens, a beach, a concession stand run by Consumers' Beverages selling organic juice and light Snacks and its signature feature — a pair of lovely, pinwheel-like rotating wind sculptures. The Shoreline Trail also passes directly through the park: the chunks of marble you see alongside it near the wind sculptures were once part of St. Joseph's New Gothic Church on Delaware Avenue, dumped here after its demolition in the 1970s when this was still a derelict industrial site. You can still see architectural details in the stone, such as Ionic volutes, fluting and dentils.

Other parks

In addition to those listed above, South Buffalo is also home to a number of smaller parks. Many of them are part of the Buffalo River Greenway, an "emerald necklace" of small parks and green spaces along the shores of the Buffalo River. Aside from Thomas Higgins Riverfront Park and Seneca Bluffs, both listed below and the aforementioned Red Jacket Riverfront Park the Buffalo River Greenway includes Mutual Park GPS 42.864020,-78.860605, located at the foot of Hamburg Street in the Old First Ward and boasting a neighborhood historical museum, a riverfront promenade and small amphitheater and the best views of Elevator Alley you can get outside of a boat, as well as Buffalo RiverFest Park GPS 42.870665,-78.870574, which, as its name implies, is the setting for a three-day celebration of Buffalo's waterfront history each June.

Other parks in South Buffalo include Conway Park GPS 42.868007,-78.866840, a pleasant expanse of ball fields, playgrounds and open lawns on the former site of the Ohio Basin, a vital link in the Old First Ward's 19th-century labyrinth of ship berths and canals, Seneca Indian Park, covered #SIP|above and Heacock Park GPS 42.855314,-78.822713, a tiny Olmsted park whose significance lies not in its amenities but in its importance to Olmsted's design, as the northern hub of South Buffalo's parkway network and planned nexus with the northern parkways.

Nature preserves

• Thomas F. Higgins Riverfront Park 154 Bailey Ave. 42.861226, -78.825633 Metro Bus 14, 15, 16, 19 or 23 - Named for a former county sheriff native to South Buffalo, this 3½-acre (1.4 ha) park is located on the Bailey Peninsula, at the junction of Cazenovia Creek and the Buffalo River on the west side of Bailey Avenue. Along with the Seneca Bluffs to its northeast, Higgins Riverfront Park is different from the other elements of the Buffalo River Greenway in that the site was never used for heavy industry, being located too far upstream for freighters to go and away from any railroad tracks. Today, it's a wetland habitat for the type of wildlife that frequented the area prior to urbanization, such as fox, snapping turtle, beaver, white-tailed deer and birds such as kingfisher and great blue heron. At the bank of the river there's a kayak launch and some nice places for fishermen to cast their lines, or you can take it all in while strolling along one of the manicured walking trails.

• Seneca Bluffs Natural Habitat Park Seneca St at Pomeroy St. 42.864869, -78.818119 Metro Bus 15 or 19 An expanse of meadows, wetlands and forests on a natural floodplain of the Buffalo River just a few hundred feet (meters) from Thomas Higgins Riverfront Park the land on which the Seneca Bluffs sit was originally a truck farm before going fallow in the middle 20th Century. Today it's been redeveloped as a park and nature preserve very similar to its downstream counterpart. The Seneca Bluffs are not only a haven for wildlife but also a great place for fishing — particularly walleye, which teem in this stretch of the river. Walking trails crisscross the greenery, but otherwise it's just you and nature.

Tifft_Nature_Preserve - A sunny September afternoon at Tifft Nature Preserve.

• Tifft Nature Preserve 1200 Fuhrmann Blvd. 42.847527, -78.855189 Metro Bus 42 ☎ +1 716 825-6397 Opening Hours: W-Sa 10AM Monday - 4PM, Sunday 12PM Monday - 4PM Donation Operated by the Buffalo Museum of Science, Tifft Nature Preserve is 264 acres (106 ha) of greenery that serves as an important wetland habitat for native wildlife such as beaver, fox, turtle, deer and 264 species of native and migratory waterfowl. Originally the site of George Washington Tifft's dairy farm, what is now the nature preserve was later used as a transshipment terminal for the Lehigh Valley Railroad and then as a garbage dump; by the time it became a nature preserve in 1976, it had already "rewilded" on its own to a great degree. The preserve has been thoroughly cleaned up since the days of heavy industry and today the nature trails and wildlife viewing stations at Tifft are one of the best ways for Buffalonians to get "back to nature" without leaving the city limits. The 75 acres (30 ha) of freshwater cattail marsh are one of Western New York's largest natural expanses of this type of ecosystem. Fishing on Lake Kirsty is popular in the summer, as are guided nature walks; in winter, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing are on offer. The Makowski Visitors' Center is open all year.

• Times Beach Nature Preserve North end of Fuhrmann Blvd 42.874770, -78.885294 Like Tifft, Times Beach Nature Preserve is located on former industrial land that has been reclaimed and cleaned of pollutants. These 50 acres (20 ha) adjacent to the harbor were the site of coal docks and a contained disposal facility for industrial waste before its opening to the public as a nature preserve. Though no facilities are available, boardwalks, nature trails and wildlife viewing blinds are on offer at this photogenic expanse of greenery that, in addition to its role as a haven for native flora and fauna, is one of the most important stopovers on the Great Lakes for migratory birds.

Architecture

South Buffalo's main contribution to Buffalo's rich architectural legacy is the grain elevators of the former industrial neighborhood. It was in Buffalo where Joseph Dart built the first grain elevator in 1843 and today Elevator Alley is still the largest single collection of grain elevators in the world. Long derided as eyesores and these rock-solid monoliths were saved from the wrecking ball largely by virtue of how expensive it would be to demolish them. These days, though, Buffalonians have taken to embracing their scrappy industrial history, with grain elevators being repurposed for a variety of uses.

As well, South Buffalo contains a number of neighborhoods that are interesting to fans of historic architecture. In the entire city and there are 12 historic neighborhoods listed on the National Register of Historic Places as well as eight additional ones that have been granted landmark status by the Buffalo Preservation Board and although only one of them is located in South Buffalo and there are also a couple of "unofficial" ones that are notable.

• Slightly over 13 acres (5.3 ha) in size and the Cobblestone Local Historic District is bounded by Perry Street, Columbia Street, South Park Avenue and Illinois Street and also includes the two blocks of Michigan Avenue north of the Buffalo River, where the historic fireboat Edward M. Cotter is docked. Dating to the 1820s and '30s, in its day this was one of the nation's nastiest slums, populated by poor Irish industrial laborers and crisscrossed with a network of man-made shipping lanes that radiated out from the harbor, by which factories received raw materials shipped across the Great Lakes or sent finished products on their way to market via the Erie Canal. The neighborhood began to decline in importance around the turn of the century, when the canals were filled in and as the Irish, with newfound political and social clout, gradually became well-off enough to move to the much safer, still-semirural lands south of the Buffalo River. The Cobblestone District's main attraction to history buffs today are the streets themselves — many are still paved with the granite blocks that gave the neighborhood its name, brought over as ballast in the hulls of lake freighters and discarded at port. As for the buildings in between, most of them have been demolished, with the exception of a collection of 19th- and early 20th-century brick industrial buildings between Illinois and Mississippi Streets (anchored by the Bendin Building, a five-story warehouse at 95 Perry Street) that are now being actively restored as restaurants, office space and loft apartments.
• Though it's not yet been named to any historic register, The Triangle is a charming expanse of turn-of-the-century homes that's well worth a visit for architecture fans. The neighborhood is aptly named: the classic boundaries of The Triangle are South Park Avenue on the northeast, Amber Street on the south and Hopkins Street on the west, though the streets west of Heacock Park on the other side of South Park Avenue share crucially the same identity. The Triangle started out as rural farmland belonging to Reuben Heacock, a wealthy banker and industrialist, but its history really began in the 1890s, when Frederick Law Olmsted was called back to Buffalo to design a southern extension to his park system. At the time, urban development in South Buffalo lagged far behind the rest of the city, from which it was separated not only by the Buffalo River but also a series of busy railroad tracks — and in wet weather and the swamps around the riverbanks would often flood, cutting off what few roads led north. Before beginning his work, Olmsted stated that city leaders needed to make South Buffalo more easily accessible from the rest of the city and to mitigate the constant flooding problems. The city responded by building more streets and dredging the river into a concrete channel and as soon as Olmsted's park system opened, The Triangle began developing into a classic turn-of-the-century "streetcar suburb" with South Park Avenue as its main shopping street. Today and the side streets of The Triangle are dominated by homes that date from the 1890s to the 1930s and reflect the architectural fashions of that period: wood-frame houses in the Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Craftsman and American Foursquare styles, many of which were partially prefabricated "kit houses" available through mail-order catalogs. Peppered among them are a few larger buildings, including some fairly impressive churches, Holy Family Catholic Church at 1887 South Park Avenue and St. Jude's Episcopal Church at 124 Macamley Street among them.

LarkinAdminBldgRemains-Jan2011 - The last remnant of the Larkin Administration Building. Yes, Buffalo's city fathers somehow saw fit to demolish one of Frank Lloyd Wright's masterworks, but there's a silver lining: more than any other single event and the demolition of the Larkin Building galvanized the emergence of a local preservationist movement that is now flourishing and has saved numerous other architecturally and historically significant buildings around town from a similar fate.

• Proposed for the National Register of Historic Places, Larkinville is centered on the junction of Seneca and Swan Streets, in a part of Buffalo once known as The Hydraulics. Named for the Hydraulic Canal, built in 1828 by local entrepreneur Reuben Heacock, this was supposed to be one of the foremost industrial neighborhoods in the world — but the canal was only big enough to support a few tanneries, slaughterhouses and other industries. Luckily, The Hydraulics' proximity to the railroads preserved its importance as a center of industry even after the canal was filled in and it soon came to be dominated by the Larkin Company, a mail-order giant whose huge campus of factory buildings was centered around its beautiful Administration Building, designed by Darwin Martin's close friend Frank Lloyd Wright. The company went out of business in 1943, wracked by the effects of the Great Depression combined with a decline in popularity of catalog sales, but most of Larkinville's buildings (with the notable exception of Wright's Administration Building; see below) still stand and, in many cases, have been renovated and restored for offices. These include the gargantuan Larkin Factory Complex at 701 Seneca Street and Terminal Warehouse Building at 726 Exchange Street; the U Building at 239 Van Rensselaer Street, which now houses offices and the Kamman Building at 755 Seneca Street, now the home of a local architectural firm. At the center of it all is Larkin Plaza GPS 42.876316,-78.849585, with pleasant greenery, restaurants and food trucks and frequent special events.xxxx{{anchor|FeVenue
• Buffalo Iron Works - 49 Illinois St. 42.874553, -78.874822 Metro Bus 6, 8, 14, 16, or 42; Metro Rail: Erie Canal Harbor ☎ +1 716 200-1893 Five nights a week, this hip Cobblestone District #Fe|bar hosts live music in an intimate yet appropriately gritty setting, all exposed ducts and rough brick. Shows here split the difference between major national touring groups and local acts playing rock, country and acoustic music.

• Helium Comedy Club 30 Mississippi St. 42.874364, -78.874294 Metro Bus 6, 8, 14, 16, or 42 ☎ +1 716 853-1211 Opening Hours: W-Thursday4:30PM Monday - 10PM, F-Sa 4:30PM Monday - midnight Buffalo's scrappy clique of stand-up comics, whose acts were long shoehorned between local bands at random bars scattered across town, finally have a place to call their own. It was local comedienne Kristen Becker who convinced Helium's owner to open the third and newest branch of his national chain of comedy clubs in the Cobblestone District. Since its opening in 2013, Helium has come to do double duty: it's not only the premiere showcase for the talented and previously under-the-radar local comedy scene, but it's also the venue of choice for nationally famous touring comedians, having played host to greats like Charlie Murphy, Dave Attell, Brian Posehn, and, on opening night, Rob Schneider. Thit is a small club, which cuts both ways: the intimate atmosphere is perfect for comedy shows and it's pretty much imfeasible to get a bad seat, but they pack folks in like sardines (especially when a big name is in town). Also, you're required to order a minimum of two food or drink items from the and while the menu is ample and the food is expensive and of lackluster quality. Parking is free and easily available most of the time, though, except when there's a Sabres game on at the nearby KeyBank Center.

• KeyBank Live at Larkin A favorite of such icons of the Buffalo music scene as the Jony James Blues Band, John & Mary and the Valkyries and the late Lance Diamond and the Live at Larkin concert series is a showcase for local music that's been compared to the early years of Buffalo/Downtown#CSideLive|Thursday at the Plaza. Every Wednesday evening from mid-June through mid-September, two local groups take the stage at Larkin Plaza for a free concert in front of ever-growing crowds that and these days, average out at about 2,000 attendees.

CobblestoneDistrictBuffalo2019 - The Cobblestone District is South Buffalo's premier nightlife destination, with a small but lively roster of cafes, concert venues and other entertainment clustered in the blocks east of the KeyBank Center.

• Silo City Reading Series - The Silo City Reading Series was launched in 2014 in tandem with the weekly video-blogged performance series Silo Sessions — but unlike its sister project and these events are open to the public and are held on a frequent but irregular basis. All through the summer, poets descend on Silo City from all over the local area and around the nation to recite their art inside the ghostly ambience of the Marine "A" Elevator's hulking shell. Performances of acoustic music, enhanced by the natural eight-second reverb the concrete walls provide, have been known to accompany the poetry as well.

• Woodside Coffeehouse 675 Abbott Rd. 42.845651, -78.810209 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 440-8198 Not often do you see a church gradually metamorphose into a concert hall, but that's exactly what happened here: Ned LaMarti was never quite able to abandon his background as a professional musician and before you knew it, he was no longer pastor of the Woodside Community Chapel but instead the owner of a lively Christian coffeeshop-cum-performance venue hosting religious and secular music of all genres: everything from heart-on-sleeve CCM balladry to local rock bands to jazz to country. If you've got your own joyful noise to make, open-mic night is Friday from 7-10:30PM.

Study in Buffalo/South Buffalo

South Buffalo is the home of Trocaire College GPS 42.846717,-78.812705, a small, private Catholic junior college founded in 1958 by the Sisters of Mercy. Expanded from its initial mandate of training teachers for Buffalo-area Catholic Schools, Trocaire now offers associate and bachelors' degrees in about a dozen health care, hospitality and technology programs at its campus adjacent to Mercy Hospital.

Shopping in Buffalo/South Buffalo

South Buffalo Business District

Though it's been outshined in recent decades by the more suburban-flavored Abbott Road corridor, "downtown South Buffalo" still boasts its share of shops, bars and eateries.

Clothing

• LADD Thrift Shop 2280 Seneca St. 42.851339, -78.804783 Metro Bus 15 ☎ +1 716 825-7774 Opening Hours: Monday - Thursday & Saturday 10AM Monday - 3PM Shoppers at this thrift shop know their money is going to a good cause: "Living Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled" is the acronym of the charitable organization that runs it. Though prices here are among the best you'll find at any local secondhand shop and the selection at LADD — which consists of the usual thrift-store fare such as books, kitchenware, toys, Franklin Mint-style decorative knickknacks and above all, clothes — is unimpressive. It's worth trying your luck, though: interesting items do happen along occasionally. If you see something you like, don't delay, because good stuff goes quickly.

• The Struggle 1770 Seneca St. 42.861636, -78.817821 Metro Bus 15 ☎ +1 716 220-8020 Opening Hours: Monday - Thursday 11AM Monday - 6PM, F-Sa 10AM Monday - 9PM "Clothing and beard care" is what the sign outside this converted gas station advertises, but the inventory trends heavily toward the former: more specifically, rough and ready streetwear in sizes ranging from small to 6X. At The Struggle, you can shop for some really nice designer jeans, t-shirts, hoodies, polo shirts and tracksuits from well-known urban stylehouses like Akoo, Crooks & Castles, Hustle Gang and more, all displayed in a retail space that's much more brightly lit and smartly decorated than you'd think coming in from the street. As for beard care, you've got a relatively modest but nice quality selection of trimmers and beard oils and butters to choose from.

Miscellaneous

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• Snowy Owl Kombucha - 65 Vandalia St. 42.866355, -78.860892 At The Barrel Factory; Metro Bus 42 ☎ +1 716 218-8809 Opening Hours: Friday 4PM Monday - 8PM, Saturday noon-8PM Snowy Owl is a "kombucha production studio" that opened in September 2016 as one of the inaugural tenants of The Barrel Factory's "makers' market" selling artisanally produced goods. Snowy Owl makes theirs in a sustainable manner using 100% organic, fair trade-certified tea leaves. On Fridays and Saturdays, thirsty clients descend on their brewery-cum-tasting room-cum boutique to sample one of about a half-dozen plain and flavored kombuchas (also available is a "blend your own" option, where you can go to town on Snowy Owl's own juicer and your choice of fruits) — either imbibe at the bar or bring your own growler.

Liquor, organic juice andfruit cocktail

The industrial precincts of South Buffalo have lately asserted themselves as the epicenter of Buffalo's incipient craft spirits scene. Along with Larkinville and the Cobblestone District and the Old First Ward are where it's at. x{{anchor|Lockhouse

• Lockhouse Distillery - 41 Columbia St. Metro Bus 14, 16, or 42; Metro Rail: Erie Canal Harbor ☎ +1 716 768-4898 Opening Hours: Tuesday to Friday noon-midnight, Saturday 4PM Monday - midnight It was "An Idea So Crazy, It Just Might Work": in 2013, Lockhouse was the first distillery to open in Buffalo since the end of Prohibition. Made entirely with locally-sourced ingredients and the spirits crafted here run the gamut from barrel-aged gin, to a Coffee Colas produced in conjunction with Buffalo/Downtown#Public|Public Espresso, to their original flagship product and still their most popular offering: a vodka distilled from grapes grown at Freedom Run Grapes in Lockport. Lockhouse's products can be purchased to take home from their small retail shop or else sampled in the form of topnotch craft cocktails in their rustic yet classy #Lockhouse2|tasting room.

• Pressure Drop Brewing in the Barrel Factory; see #PDrop|below.

Miscellaneous

• Elevator Alley Kayak - 65 Vandalia St. 42.866158, -78.861011 At the Barrel Factory; Metro Bus 42 ☎ +1 716 997-7925 Opening Hours: Hours vary seasonally If you've just gotten back from a #Boating|paddling trip on the Buffalo River with these guys and you're still thirsty for more, make the trip a few blocks over to The Barrel Factory, where they operate a retail store selling a wide selection of new and used kayaks, plus gear such as drybags, sunscreen and sun hats and Buffalo- and kayaking-themed T-shirts and souvenirs.

The Triangle and South Park Avenue

As a shopping street, South Park Avenue is the happy medium between the historic but largely deserted Seneca Street business neighborhood and the somewhat more upscale boutiques of Abbott Road.

• Habitat for Humanity ReStore 1675 South Park Ave. 42.852911, -78.826411 Metro Bus 14, 16, 19 or 23 ☎ +1 716 852-6607 Opening Hours: Tuesday to Friday 10AM Monday - 6PM, Saturday 9AM Monday - 6PM Wherein Habitat for Humanity operates what basically amounts to a huge thrift store for furniture and housewares: the shelves are stocked with gently used (and some new!) chairs and tables, sofas, bedroom sets, lamps, cabinetry, doors and windows, building materials and appliances donated to them by the public. Best of all, this place operates with very little overhead — it's staffed by volunteers, so almost all the money you pay goes to help Habitat for Humanity build new homes and rehab old ones to help out the less fortunate.

• Liberty Gold and Music 1826 South Park Ave. 42.849025, -78.823409 Metro Bus 16 ☎ +1 716 821-7695 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 11AM Monday - 6PM, Saturday noon-5PM From the name of this place, you might assume it's little more than a garden-variety Gold buyer. Old Gold is indeed half of the equation at Liberty Gold & Music, but they also have vintage musical instruments available at great prices. All major brands of guitars, string instruments, drums, keyboards, brass band instruments, amps, effects pedals and pretty much anything else you can think of are represented in Liberty's inventory. They will also buy your old musical instruments (or pretty much anything else of value, for that matter) at the best prices around, either outright or on a consignment basis. A small range of movies and games are also to be had.

• Side by Side Antiques - 26 Abbott Rd. 42.857029, -78.828198 Metro Bus 14, 16, 19 or 23 ☎ +1 716 864-0130 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 9AM Monday - 5PM, Saturday 9:30AM Monday - 1PM Side by Side is headquartered at an unassuming little shop at the north end of Abbott Road, but don't be fooled: this place is a powerhouse, stocking a huge and wide-ranging selection of antiques sold both in-store and through a thriving eBay business for fair and honest prices. Specialties include an amazing selection of hard-to-find coins, stylish vintage jewelry and furniture and decorative items with a tendency toward Roycroft pieces and other Americana. Side by Side also offers free appraisal and will buy your antiques as well — anything from single pieces to entire estates.

Larkinville

Clothing

• Logo Imprinted Sportswear 645 Seneca St. 42.876432, -78.852828 Metro Bus 15 or 18 ☎ +1 716 855-2071 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 9AM Monday - 5PM Founded in 1980 and now located on Seneca Street in Larkinville, Logo Imprinted Sportswear's main business is custom-producing jerseys and caps for local sports teams. However, even if you're not on a team and they'll also screenprint a design of your choice on t-shirts, sweatshirts and even embroidery.

Liquor, organic juice andfruit cocktail

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• Larkin Market At Larkin Plaza; Metro Bus 15, 18 or 23 ☎ +1 716 362-2665 Opening Hours: Thursday 4PM Monday - 7:30PM, July - September In the words of Larkinville executive Leslie Zemsky and the Larkin Market is all about "social shopping": a place where you can not only shop but meet up with friends, have a bite to eat, relax to the tune of live light acoustic music performed by local bands and get to know your friendly neighborhood artists and artisans. Offerings run the gamut from vintage fashions, bath products, farm-fresh produce, artisanal foods, photo prints of Buffalo scenery and even full meals courtesy of area restaurants and food trucks. soft drinks and gourmet food tastings are hosted frequently.

Abbott Road

The closest thing South Buffalo has to an Buffalo/Elmwood Village|Elmwood Avenue and the section of Abbott Road adjacent to and north of Cazenovia Park is densely packed with a variety of shops and restaurants, many with an Irish theme (in keeping with its designation as Buffalo's Irish Heritage District). South of there, it takes on a more spread-out, suburban feel.

Clothing

• Burkey's Sportswear 904 Abbott Rd. 42.839785, -78.807807 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 826-1849 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 10:30AM Monday - 4:30PM, Saturday 10:30AM Monday - 3PM With an inventory composed in equal measures of jerseys, activewear, t-shirts and other apparel on the one hand and sporting goods of all descriptions on the other hand, Burkey's is a friendly neighborhood shop that's equipped to attend to the needs of the athletic-minded community of Buffalo. Locally owned and operated, Burkey's demonstrates its engagement in the South Buffalo community with a range of locally-themed merchandise sold both in-store and at local events such as the Feis|South Buffalo Irish Feis the LMarket|Larkin Market and its sponsorship of local amateur sports teams.

• Impress Apparel 313 Abbott Rd. 42.853073, -78.819117 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 361-1056 Opening Hours: Open by appointment You might call Impress Apparel South Buffalo's answer to Buffalo/North Buffalo#NBG|New Buffalo Graphics, where the focus is on both custom screenprinted apparel and sloganeering. The marquee product is a line of t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies and baseball caps — not to mention Coffee mugs, tote bags, Christmas ornaments and other baubles — imprinted with the slogan "Buffalo: Wednesday Roam All Over", a reminder that although local natives can be found all over the world and they always have a home in Buffalo. Designs also include iconic local scenes like the downtown skyline and the grain elevators, as well as personalized tiles customizable with anything from photos of loved ones to business logos.

• McKay's - 851 Abbott Rd. 42.841106, -78.808658 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 824-7900 Opening from Monday to Saturday 10AM Monday - 6PM, Thursday - Friday till 9PM Family-owned for over 45 years the main order of the day at McKay's is work gear, specifically Carhartt brand: their gamut of jackets, cargo pants, coveralls, neon-colored high-visibility vests, tool bags, backpacks and other accessories earned them Carhartt's Retailer of the Year award in 2006, as well as various brands of work shoes and boots, gloves, lab coats and scrubs. But if you're looking for something more in the way of a souvenir, McKay's contribution to the Hibernian offerings in Buffalo'sIrish Heritage District includes a range of sweatshirts featuring custom-made Irish embroidery designs produced right in-store.

Books

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• Dog Ears Bookstore & Café 688 Abbott Rd. 42.845452, -78.809598 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 823-2665 Opening from Monday to Saturday 10AM Monday - 8PM, Sunday 11AM Monday - 3PM Not only "a fun, funky place where the written word rules", but also a force for good in the community: the money you spend at the not-for-profit Dog Ears Bookstore goes to such good causes as community literacy workshops, children's reading programs and donations to school libraries. But even if you're just here to buy books, this friendly, unpretentious mom-and-pop bookstore/[[#DogEars2|café hybrid stocks titles for everyone, but especially young children. There's also a good selection of Irish literature (this being South Buffalo, after all) and works by local authors.

• Empire Comics 1069 Abbott Rd. 42.835250, -78.806816 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 382-8459 Opening Hours: Monday - Tuesday & Thursday - Friday 2PM Monday - 7PM, West noon-7PM South Buffalo's comic book store of choice, but that's just the beginning of the story. At Empire Comics and the selection, while not quite measuring up to the gargantuan Buffalo/North Buffalo#QCBS|Queen City Bookstore in North Buffalo, comprises a surprising breadth of titles (mostly traditional superhero stuff, though you'll find some edgy graphic novels and the like here and there), especially given the modest size of the place, plus the usual figurines and other collectibles. But it's in the little touches where Empire shines: handpainted shelves, a TV behind the counter playing a loop of superhero movies and a super friendly owner who sells T-shirts airbrushed with his own original art on the side.

Specialty foods

• KupKates 956 Abbott Rd. 42.838311, -78.807382 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 828-2282 Opening Hours: Sunday 10AM Monday - 4PM or by appointment Kathleen Cunningham's is a small, cheerily-decorated neighborhood cupcake shop where the specialty is imaginatively conceived custom orders for weddings, parties and other special occasions. But if you're just popping in for a quick bite on a Sunday morning or afternoon, KupKates does stock a selection of premade cupcakes to take home, scratch-made from premium ingredients, as well as cookies, pastry hearts, pies and other treats. And if you're gluten-sensitive, you don't have to miss out: there's a selection of goodies for you too!

Chocolate and candies

• Ko-Ed Candies - 281 Abbott Rd. 42.853857, -78.819668 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 824-3489 Opening from Monday to Saturday 10AM Monday - 7PM, early Oct through mid-May Since 1947 and the specialty at Ko-Ed has been Buffalo#Sponge|sponge Candies — homemade and dipped in your choice of milk or dark Chocolates — and Buffalo sweet tooths (or is that "sweet teeth?") agree that thit is some of the best you'll find anywhere. It's a bit pricey, but worth it. If that's not your sweet indulgence of choice, how about chocolate-covered popcorn (a distant second on the ranking of favorite products), other local specialties like Charlie Chaplins, or special novelties around the holidays? And if you're lucky enough to be in town in spring, stop by to take advantage of steep end-of-season discounts!

• Park Edge Sweet Shoppe - 325 Abbott Rd. 42.852821, -78.818807 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 824-0228 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 10AM Monday - 4PM Despite coming under new ownership a couple years back, Park Edge Sweet Shoppe is a real throwback, with the old 1950s-vintage recipes and ambience retained from the original even as new innovations have been added to the mix. Compared to Ko-Ed Candies down the road and the goods here are more diverse and more reasonably priced. Homemade sponge Candies is indeed a specialty — unusually, it's sold here in narrow sticks, sort of like Kit Kat bars — but you'll also find other confections in dark, milk, white and orange Chocolates, rich butter toffee, Candies apples, cookies (courtesy of Cookie Expressions) and even flowers and other non-edible gifts.

Miscellaneous

• The Barkery 435 Abbott Rd. 42.850701, -78.815913 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 240-9710 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 11AM Monday - 6PM, Saturday 10AM Monday - 5PM If you passed by the place on Abbott Road and misread the sign as "BAKERY", you're not entirely wrong: The Barkery (not to be confused with downtown'sBuffalo/Downtown#Barkery|Buffalo Barkery of similar name and purview) is indeed best known for its house-baked goodies, but as you might have guessed and they're for gourmands of the canine variety. Fine-quality dog treats made with all-natural ingredients are the order of the day, along with a selection of toys, accessories and even novelty clothing such as bow-tie collars. Cat owners won't leave emptyhanded either, nor will pet lovers looking to adorn their home with all manner of cute, quirky posters, wall hangings and other decor.

• Tara Gift Shoppe - 250 Abbott Rd. 42.854453, -78.820481 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 825-6700 Opening from Monday to Saturday 10AM Monday - 4PM There's perhaps no shop that better encapsulates this neighborhood: the themes uniting Tara Gift Shoppe's wide-ranging inventory are split evenly between Ireland, Buffalo and Irish Buffalo. Stop by if you like to pick up green-white-and-orange "South Buffalo Forever" t-shirts or green Bills or Sabres baseball hats, but Tara is at its best as a purveyor of authentic Irish imports of consistently high quality (prices can be high, but you get what you pay for). Jewelry comes in Celtic motifs, including some nice claddagh rings; stained glass, wind chimes and decorative baubles feature Celtic tribal symbols and Irish crosses; fine Waterford china and crystalware abounds.

Seneca-Babcock

Since 1931, Seneca-Babcock has been the home of the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal, founded in 1931 by the Erie and Nickel Plate Railroads as an alternative to the congested Elk Market Terminal for wholesale produce vendors. Despite both the demise of the railroads and the rise of suburban-style supermarkets as the dominant option for grocery shoppers and the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal continues in operation and is today the home of a number of specialty food concerns, as well as the CBFM|Clinton Bailey Farmers' Market. {{anchor|Chateau

• Chateau Buffalo - 1500 Clinton St. #175 42.872810, -78.820833 At the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal; Metro Bus 2 or 19 ☎ +1 716 704-4671 Opening Hours: Thursday - Saturday 11AM Monday - 7PM Chateau Buffalo is best known for locally-produced soft drinks (as in right here in Buffalo, not the Finger Lakes or the Niagara County|Niagara Wine Trail), but in the same drab but well-stocked soft drinks cellar-cum-warehouse at the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal they also make their own craft cider (under the brand name "Dancing Buffalo"; the German-style apfelwein is said to be especially tasty) and sell a range of other gourmet artisanal foods sourced from New York State producers, such as Cheese, jams, jellies and sausages.

• Great Lakes Shrimp Company 1500 Clinton St. #154 42.873753, -78.821526 At the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal; Metro Bus 2 or 19 ☎ +1 716 259-9850 - The Niagara Frontier Food Terminal is the somewhat unlikely home of Upstate New York's only shrimp farm: inside this unassuming warehouse you'll find twelve saltwater tanks full of the little critters, Pacific whiteleg shrimp to be exact, destined to be sold not only to area stores and restaurants but also directly to the consumer (call for details). Ask owner Nigel Hebborn about the difference in taste between his never-frozen product and the average selection in your supermarket's freezer section and he'll go off at the hip, but he's not exaggerating: it really is night and day.

• The Sausage Maker - 1500 Clinton St. #123 42.874230, -78.821274 At the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal; Metro Bus 2 or 19 ☎ +1 716 824-5814 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 8:30AM Monday - 4:30PM, Saturday 8:30AM Monday - 1PM The Sausage Maker is at the service of not only its namesake client but also DIY home cheesemakers, canners, brewers andfruit cocktailmakers, with a wide variety of supplies custom-manufactured by engineers in the local area. Here you can find machinery such as Meat grinders and Sausages stuffers, electric appliances like smokehouses and dehydrators (perfect for making your own jerky!) and supplies including Sausages casings, spices and curing agents.
• T&T Trading 1500 Clinton St. #135 42.873489, -78.822583 At the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal; Metro Bus 2 or 19 - Opening Hours: Monday & W-Thursday8AM Monday - 4:30PM, Tuesday 8AM Monday - 6:30PM, Friday 8AM Monday - 2PM, Saturday 10AM Monday - 2PM If you're in the market for new or used household items, furniture, sporting goods, electronics, power tools, or any of a host of other goods, head to this Niagara Frontier Food Terminal wholesaler that sells them right off the pallets for unbelievable prices. And if those prices aren't quite unbelievable enough for you, you can become a member of their Facebook group, "The Stock Room", to get access to special discounts, first crack at new items and other exclusive benefits.

Halal Restaurants & Food in Buffalo/South Buffalo

If you want the most elegant fine dining Buffalo has to offer, look elsewhere. But if you want neighborhood dives brimming with local color and serving up delicious homestyle foods at shockingly fair prices, South Buffalo has you covered.x

One unique specialty of South Buffalo cuisine that many local residents don't know about, let alone out-of-towners, are Smitty-style wings — a variant Chicken wing recipe invented in the late '60s (only a few years after Teressa Bellissimo Buffalo/Downtown#DTAnchor|cooked up the first batch of classic Buffalo-style wings) by Carol O'Neill, chef of the long-gone Smitty's Tavern on Abbott Road. The ineffable seasoning blend that made the original recipe so distinctive remains a closely-guarded secret that current purveyors of Smitty-style wings can only guess at, so nowadays the flavor varies slightly depending on where you get them. But broadly speaking, by comparison with the classic Buffalo style and the Meat tends to be crispier on the outside yet more tender on the inside, while the Sauce is less spicy and sports a pronounced flavor of garlic and vinegar, as well as (here's where things get especially murky) a blend of sweet and aromatic spices that may include ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. The best places to find Smitty-style wings nowadays are not the sit-down restaurants in this section but the neighborhood taverns listed below in "[[#Drink|Drink" — Doc|Doc Sullivan's the 911|Nine-Eleven Tavern are the consensus favorites. Under $20|$20-$40|Over $40

South Buffalo Business District

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• Seneca Texas Hots 2449 Seneca St. 42.847527, -78.800893 Metro Bus 15 ☎ +1 716 822-7121 Opening Hours: Daily 24 hours $5-10 A humble neighborhood dive with an important place in Buffalo culinary history, it's claimed that thit is where Greek immigrant George Ladas invented the Buffalo#Texas|Texas hot in 1957. Though plenty of imitators have sprung up in the years since — and though many Muslim say this place is not as good as it was before Ladas retired — Seneca Texas Hots are still hands-down the best in Buffalo and they even ship nationwide! Order yours with standard fast-food sides like fries (in tiny portions; ask for two orders if you're hungry), milkshakes and the like, or enjoy all-day breakfast if that's your thing. Downsides include the service, which can be inattentive and surly and the fact that they only accept cash, though there's an ATM in the dining room.

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• The Ward RiverWorks, 359 Ganson St. 42.869960, -78.871729 Metro Bus 14 or 16 - Opening Hours: Open daily for lunch and dinner starting at 11AM $15-45 RW|RiverWorks' onsite restaurant sports a menu of comfort food on offer, with a few upscale touches to class things up (and prices to match): think along the lines of sandwiches, pub grub-style appetizers, build-your-own artisan Pizzas and a limited and lackluster selection of stick-to-your-ribs full-size mains like the bacon-wrapped, tater tot-stuffed "Ganson Meatloaf". Consensus is that the food is just okay and the service is a consistent weak spot (at best your friendly and attentive waiter might apologize profusely for the backup in the kitchen; worst-case scenario it's as if you're invisible), but if you're looking for industrial ambience, you're hard-pressed to find a more privileged location along the Buffalo River. Wash it all down with your choice of seven craft soft drinks produced right onsite in the #RWBrewery|world's first grain-elevator brewery.

Pizza

The following pizzerias are located in the Cobblestone District and the Old First Ward and The Valley. Those who are interested in Pizzas delivery (as opposed to pickup) might want to also check listings in adjacent neighborhoods; local pizzerias will often deliver to several different neighborhoods of the city.

• Carbone's - 568 South Park Ave. 42.870846, -78.858538 Metro Bus 14, 16 or 18 ☎ +1 716 855-1749 Opening Hours: Sunday - Thursday 11AM Monday - 11PM, F-Sa 11AM Monday - midnight
• Ricota's 206 Elk St. 42.868657, -78.846220 Metro Bus 14, 16, or 23 ☎ +1 716 823-7636 Opening from Monday to Saturday 10:30AM Monday - 10:45PM, Sunday 10:30AM Monday - 9:45PM

Groceries

• Family Dollar - 438 South Park Ave. 42.871927, -78.863313 Metro Bus 14, 16 or 18 ☎ +1 716 854-5938 Opening from Monday to Saturday 9AM Monday - 10PM, Sunday 9AM Monday - 9PM

The Triangle and South Park Avenue

• Apollo Family Restaurant 423 Hopkins St. 42.848959, -78.832065 Metro Bus 16 ☎ +1 716 825-9087 Opening from Monday to Saturday 7AM Monday - 7PM, Sunday 7AM Monday - 3PM $10-25 Since 1992, Konstantin Mazaris and his staff have operated this friendly Buffalo#Greek|Greek diner in an out-of-the-way location at the back end of The Triangle. At this classic greasy spoon, all the expected specialties such as souvlaki, gyro and Greek salad are dished out, as well as a selection of simple American favorites and a breakfast that can't be beat. Service is friendly and folksy and the prices are remarkably low.

• Jacobi's 141 Abbott Rd. 42.855831, -78.824016 Metro Bus 14, 16, 19 or 23 ☎ +1 716 822-2780 Opening from Monday to Saturday 11AM Monday - midnight, Sunday noon-midnight $10-30 Jacobi's is a Buffalo institution, a longstanding chain of casual Italian restaurants with several locations in the area, including this one in South Buffalo. It's basically a locally-owned equivalent of Pizza Hut, with offerings much the same as what you could get with delivery, except served to you by actual waitstaff in an actual dining room. The Pizzas, wings, Chicken fingers, subs and Pastas dishes (Wednesday is all-you-can-eat Pastas night) are reliably good, if unremarkable. Service is a definite weak spot at Jacobi's, ranging from disengaged to hostile.

• Pete-n-Paul's Pockets 2124 South Park Ave. 42.840742, -78.823504 Metro Bus 16 ☎ +1 716 825-6655 Opening from Monday to Saturday 10:30AM Monday - 7:30PM $5-10 Pull up to Pete-n-Paul's and you might think you're at an old-fashioned drive-in or Snacks and you'd not be entirely wrong: there is indeed a variety of burgers, Hot Dogs, milkshakes and frozen treats on the menu. But appearances can be deceiving: the backbone of the menu is actually a long list of sandwiches wrapped in healthy, cholesterol-free pita bread (hence the "pockets" part of this place's name). Chicken souvlaki, Italian Sausages,beef Stroganoff and fried bologna are only a few of the delights available here. Elsewhere on the menu you'll see wraps, tacos, salads and entrees including Greek souvlaki platters and a killer Buffalo#FishFry|fish fry on Fridays. Service is fast and the food is delicious and cheap: what's not to love?

• Wayside Family Restaurant 2301 South Park Ave. 42.835823, -78.824053 Metro Bus 16 ☎ +1 716 826-2279 Opening Hours: Daily 7AM Monday - 11PM $10-25 Wayside has legions of rabidly loyal fans in South Buffalo, many of whom have been swearing by this place for decades and come so often the staff knows them by name. Why? Because, simply put and they serve diner food done right: classic, all-American comfort food; no frills, but service is lightning-fast and among the friendliest in town. There must be two or three dozen sandwiches on the menu to choose from, a build-your-own Burgers basket that's a hit with regulars and a few nods to Buffalo's storied Buffalo#Greek|Greek diner tradition (all sandwiches, not just their delicious Chicken and beef souvlaki, are available on pita bread for no extra charge). There's a modest selection of heartier dinners, too, including beef and turkey roasts, Steaks, stuffed Beefchops, grilled or fried Chicken and a Cola-battered Buffalo#FishFry|fish fry every Friday.

Local chains

The following local chains have locations in The Triangle and on South Park Avenue. Buffalo#Local chains|Descriptions of these restaurants can be found on the main Buffalo page.

• Mighty Taco - 1039 McKinley Pkwy. 42.859742, -78.825018 Metro Bus 14, 16, 19 or 23 ☎ +1 716 939-2653 Opening Hours: Sunday - Thursday 10AM Monday - 1AM, F-Sa 10AM Monday - 2AM

Pizza

The following pizzerias are located in The Triangle and on South Park Avenue. Those who are interested in Pizzas delivery (as opposed to pickup) might want to also check listings in adjacent neighborhoods; local pizzerias will often deliver to several different neighborhoods of the city.

• Chick-N-Pizza Works - 129 Abbott Rd. 42.856047, -78.824341 Metro Bus 14, 16, 19 or 23 ☎ +1 716 823-1300 Opening Hours: Sunday - Thursday 11AM Monday - 10PM, F-Sa 11AM Monday - 11PM
• Leo's - 2249 South Park Ave. 42.837369, -78.824255 Metro Bus 16 ☎ +1 716 821-5360 Opening Hours: Sunday - Thursday 11AM Monday - 11PM, F-Sa 11AM Monday - midnight
• Mineo's - 2154 South Park Ave. 42.840024, -78.823600 Metro Bus 16 ☎ +1 716 800-2423 Opening Hours: Monday - Thursday 11AM Monday - 11PM, F-Sa 11AM Monday - midnight, Sunday 11AM Monday - 10PM
• Mr. Submarine 1977 South Park Ave. 42.844833, -78.823901 Metro Bus 16 ☎ +1 716 826-0540 Opening from Monday to Saturday 11AM Monday - 11PM, Sunday noon-10PM

Groceries

• Dollar General - 942 McKinley Pkwy. 42.856827, -78.824615 Metro Bus 14, 16, 19 or 23 ☎ +1 716 824-3687 Opening Hours: Daily 8AM Monday - 10PM
• Family Dollar - 1909 South Park Ave. 42.846497, -78.823960 Metro Bus 16 ☎ +1 716 824-4432 Opening Hours: Daily 8AM Monday - 10PM
• Tops - 1460 South Park Ave. 42.858562, -78.830194 Metro Bus 14, 16, 19 or 23 ☎ +1 716 515-2050 Opening Hours: Daily 6AM Monday - midnight

Outer Harbor

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• Charlie's Boatyard - 1111 Fuhrmann Blvd. 42.851027, -78.864397 Metro Bus 42 ☎ +1 716 828-1600 Opening Hours: Monday - Thursday 11AM Monday - 9PM, F-Sa 11AM Monday - 10PM, Sunday 9AM Monday - 8PM $20-45 If you've been to Buffalo before, you may remember this place as Dug's Dive, who were famous for charging premium prices for the lake views from their dining room while cutting corners on food and service. Have things improved? Yes and no. The ambience has definitely been kicked up a notch (though you still won't feel out of place in shorts and boat shoes) and the menu is more considerate to those who don't like seafood (while there's plenty of the former to choose from and the best-loved options include the house special "Boatyard Burger" and the apple walnut salad). On the other hand and the food itself gets mixed reviews and the service is, if anything, worse than before. Still, Charlie's is the only game in town on the Outer Harbor and those views over the lake are pretty impressive...

Larkinville

Larkinville has a variety of brick-and-mortar restaurants to choose from, listed here. However, when it comes to dining, doubtless the most well-known attraction in the neighborhood is Food Truck Tuesdays, where a revolving cast of about two dozen food trucks Buffalo#Food trucks|from Buffalo, as well as visitors from Rochester and elsewhere, descend on Larkin Plaza from 5PM to 8PM, May through October.

• Chautauqua Café +1 716 819-2880 At Larkin Exchange; Metro Bus 15, 18 or 23 - Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 7:30AM Monday - 2PM $5-15 In the first-floor atrium of the Larkin Exchange GPS 42.874797,-78.849543 building is where you'll find this pleasant full-service bistro-style dining room where the food is reasonably priced but delicious. The Chautauqua Café is open for breakfast, which features a menu of egg sandwiches as well as a self-serve Belgian waffle bar with a range of toppings, as well as lunch, where the menu changes weekly but features soups, hot sandwiches, deli-style sandwiches and personal Pizzas (your choice of two each) as well as a heartier entree and salad. Full lunch service ends at 2PM, but soup and salad continues to be available for an hour thereafter.

• Swan Street Diner - 700 Swan St. 42.876773, -78.850132 Metro Bus 15, 18 or 23 ☎ +1 716 768-1823 Opening Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 7AM Monday - 3PM $10-25 Lunch breakers from the surrounding offices are welcome, but the menu at this fully restored 1937 Sterling Diner vehicle aims squarely at the weekend brunch crowd. At first, Swan Street's menu seems like just the usual diner fare, but look a little closer and you'll notice just enough of a creative flourish to bring in the hipster foodies while staying accessible to Middle America. Southern influences abound: alongside the standards, biscuits and gravy are a hit at breakfast (which is served all day), while lunch options include a buttermilk fried Chicken sandwiches with sweet potato fries. Wash it down with a cup of locally-brewed UGrounds|Undergrounds Roastery Coffee or an even-more-locally-brewed FBison|Flying Bison soft drinks. Service is speedy and the ambience has all of Larkinville's trademark retro quirkiness, but sky-high prices are a downside.

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• Dog Ears Bookstore & Café 688 Abbott Rd. Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 823-2665 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 6:30AM Monday - 8PM, Saturday 8AM Monday - 8PM, Sunday 9AM Monday - 3PM $10-15 Dog Ears is not only a #DogEars|bookstore, but also a cafe where you can get a whole range of gourmet sandwiches served up in a cozy, intimate setting. Creative names for menu items evoke the literary classics of the past: the "Dubliner" features bacon, sharp Irish Cheese, roasted tomatoes and spinach on panini and the vegetarian-friendly "Walden" sees grilled zucchini, mushrooms, artichokes, red peppers and sun-dried tomato pesto piled onto on toast. Grab a scone out of the bakery case for a side; they're out of this world. At breakfast, bagels, French toast and some pricey-but-good breakfast sandwiches are the rule. If you're here on Friday mornings, take advantage of "Free Coffee Friday"; if not, have a Coffee anyway — it's ridiculously affordable on the other six days of the week too!

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• Brick Oven Bistro - 904 Abbott Rd. 42.839655, -78.807799 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 844-8496 Opening Hours: Monday - Thursday 11AM Monday - 3PM and 4PM Monday - 9PM, F-Sa 11AM Monday - 3PM and 4PM Monday - 10PM, Sunday noon-8PM $15-35 Brick Oven Bistro stands out from the rest of the neighborhood's underwhelming dining scene with its focus on creative, upscale cuisine — especially, as the name implies, a selection of about a dozen artisanal brick-oven Pizzas ranging from well-executed classics (margherita, pepperoni, mushroom) to unusual innovations (a Reuben Pizzas complete with sauerkraut) and paeans to the local cuisine (a Buffalo# Beef on weck| beef on weck Pizzas with Swiss Cheese, horseradish aioli and a kümmelweck crust). If you like your crust thin, this place is for you; one reviewer suggested they'd be better described as flatbreads. At lunchtime is served a selection of sandwiches and the best of which features mouth-watering Angus Steaks dressed with hot peppers, onions, provolone and garlic aioli.

Pizza

The following pizzerias are located on Abbott Road. Those who are interested in Pizzas delivery (as opposed to pickup) might want to also check listings in adjacent neighborhoods; local pizzerias will often deliver to several different neighborhoods of the city. {{anchor|Imperial

• Imperial Pizzas 1035 Abbott Rd. 42.835991, -78.807121 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 825-3636 Opening Hours: Daily 11AM Monday - 11:30PM
• Jo Jo's 528 Abbott Rd. 42.849218, -78.813440 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 822-6000 Opening Hours: Sunday - Thursday 11AM Monday - 10PM, F-Sa 11AM Monday - midnight

Seneca-Babcock

• Desi's Restaurant 1527 Clinton St. 42.871986, -78.820245 Metro Bus 2 or 19 ☎ +1 716 822-8630 Opening Hours: Monday 10AM Monday - 6PM, Tuesday to Friday 10AM Monday - 10PM $10-25 Go to the Buffalo/East Side#Desi|identically named sister restaurant in Kaisertown if you want Pizzas, but for pretty much any other kind of tasty Italian-American food, come to the Clinton and Bailey location of Desi's. This place has built most of its reputation on its subs and there's a lot of them to choose from — everything from standards like ham, salami and royal, to specialty subs like the "Texas Cheese Dog" (sliced Hot Dogs, cheddar, mustard and Texas sauce), to mouth-watering, Italian-inspired creations like "The Godfather" (your choice of Steaks or Sausages with peppers, dandelion greens and provolone) and "The Italian Kiss" (fried salami and cappicola with hot peppers, Italian dressing and provolone). Chicken wings and fingers, deep-fried appetizers and other simple fare complete the picture.

• Michele's Café 1373 Clinton St. 42.873924, -78.825279 Metro Bus 2 or 19 ☎ +1 716 821-9400 Opening from Monday to Saturday 6AM Monday - 2PM, Sunday 7AM Monday - 2PM $10-20 Michele's is not so much a greasy spoon as a time machine that takes you back to what dining out in Buffalo was like 50 years ago: the interior is done up in whites and blues and decorated with old magazine ads from the '50s and '60s and the clients are blue-collar neighborhood Joes and the menu is classic diner fare with subtle ethnic influences reflecting the identity of the neighborhood: Chicken and waffles bring a soul-food touch to breakfast, while lovers of Polish cuisine will notice kielbasa subbing for chorizo in the breakfast burrito plus homemade Chicken soup with kluski Noodles just like babcia used to make. But easily the best choice are the burgers: handmade patties grilled to perfection with a pickle on the side and either French fries (identical, sadly, to the stuff in the freezer section at any supermarket) or soup.

Pizza

The following pizzerias are located in Seneca-Babcock. Those who are interested in Pizzas delivery (as opposed to pickup) might want to also check listings in adjacent neighborhoods; local pizzerias will often deliver to several different neighborhoods of the city.

• Bowl Inn 727 Bailey Ave. Metro Bus 2 or 19 ☎ +1 716 824-9074 Opening Hours: Monday - Tuesday & Thursday - Friday 4PM Monday - 4AM, West noon-4AM, Saturday - Sunday 11AM Monday - 4AM

Groceries

The Niagara Frontier Food Terminal is home not only to Buffalo's largest farmers' market, but also a "cash and carry" market where you can buy groceries directly from distributors at wholesale prices, cutting out the middleman and enjoying substantial savings as a result.

• US Food Supply Cash & Carry 1500 Clinton St. #136 42.873904, -78.821961 At the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal; Metro Bus 2 or 19 ☎ +1 716 825-7347 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 8AM Monday - 4:30PM, Saturday 8AM Monday - 3:30PM, Sunday 9AM Monday - 1PM

Farmers' markets

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• Clinton Bailey Farmers' Market 1443 Clinton St. 42.872050, -78.821999 Metro Bus 2 or 19 ☎ +1 716 822-2466 Opening Hours: Daily 7AM Monday - 6PM May-Oct, Saturday 6AM Monday - 1PM November - April Many Buffalonians look at farmers' markets as a new phenomenon, maybe even a fad. But the Clinton Bailey Farmers' Market has been around a lot longer than the Johnny-come-latelys: founded in 1930 as an outgrowth of the wholesale food distributors across the street at the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal, it's by far the oldest and largest farmers' market in Buffalo and the only one that remains open year round (though with sharply reduced hours in winter). You'll find stall after stall of growers and vendors each specializing in something a little different from their neighbor — fresh produce, flowers and ornamental plants, baked goods, specialty foods, Christmas trees around the holidays. There's even a small flea market on summer weekends with jewelry and other goods.

South Buffalo is a drinker's paradise: the main drags of Seneca Street, South Park Avenue and Abbott Road are lined with colorful and unpretentious spots where you can mingle with the local residents or even have a pint with one of Buffalo's finest after the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.

South Buffalo Business District

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• Bottle Rocket 2182 Seneca St. 42.853390, -78.807207 Metro Bus 15 ☎ +1 716 725-6789 Located in the beautifully remodeled Shea's Seneca building, Bottle Rocket is part #BottleRocketShop|soft drink store, part chilled-out, hipster-friendly watering hole pouring a constantly changing selection of craft soft drinks. There are eight on tap at any given time, including a few local soft drinks but emphasizing diverse and interesting selections from craft breweries around the East Coast that you won't necessarily find elsewhere in Buffalo. The centerpiece of the place is an enormous 84-inch flat-screen TV, which, when it's not tuned to the big game or blaring classic rock standards, is put to use for the video game tournaments the place hosts from time to time.
• Daly's 2423 Seneca St. 42.848151, -78.801495 Metro Bus 15 ☎ +1 716 823-0250 A classic working-class South Buffalo Irish pub, but with a side order of neighborhood history. Founded in 1896 as an outgrowth of the long-gone Lakeview Brewery, Daly's is old as the Swannie|Swannie House, but it's old enough and retains enough of its original vibe, to be a frequent stop on the Forgotten Buffalo Tours of blue-collar old-Buffalo remnants. Knock back an ice-cold organic juice or cocktail while perusing photos and memorabilia on the walls that rep every perioid of the bar's history, in an ambience utterly free of pretension.

• Hopper's Rush Inn 2104 Seneca St. 42.854941, -78.809007 Metro Bus 15 ☎ +1 716 825-9389 Another classic neighborhood watering hole that's been around for decades, Rush Inn doesn't have the history that Daly's has, but it certainly does have the same old-Buffalo charm — not to mention as friendly a rogue's gallery of barkeeps and regulars as you're likely to come across anywhere. The lighting is dim and the decor is spartan and the swimmingpool table and dartboard are fun diversions and live music happens from time to time; stop by to drink it all in (along with a pint of Guinness or a cold bottle of Genny)!

Hookah bars

• Hookah Palace | 2239 Seneca St. 42.851966, -78.806003 Metro Bus 15 ☎ +1 716 259-9247 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 10AM Monday - 9PM, Saturday 11AM Monday - 8PM, Sunday 11AM Monday - 5PM

Cobblestone District

"Industrial chic" is the name of the game in the nightlife neighborhood nestled in the shadow of the KeyBank Center. As you can imagine and these bars really hop when the Sabres are playing, but when there's nothing going on at the arena and the scenario is no less pleasant: you can imbibe in a quieter and more intimate ambience and enjoy ample free parking at the huge, deserted KeyBank Center lots. xx{{anchor|LabattBrewHouse

• Labatt Brew House 79 Perry St. 42.875433, -78.874485 Metro Bus 6, 8, 14, 16, 24 or 42; Metro Rail: Erie Canal Harbor ☎ +1 716 254-0564 - The ground floor of the Labatt Company's U.S. home offices is given over to a #DraftRoom|200-seat restaurant as well as this small "innovation brewery" for limited-edition and seasonal soft drinks, most unavailable elsewhere. (They seem to be positioning Blue Citra, a hoppy lager with notes of grapefruit, as the next new breakout star in the Labatt lineup; get it here before it hits stores.) Enjoy any of these dozen or so soft drinks either in the restaurant, a large organic juice garden out back, or a small tasting room with a bird's-eye view onto the production floor — and if you want to help any of them find a wider market, put in a good word on the feedback form they provide!

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• Swannie House 170 Ohio St. 42.872195, -78.871853 Metro Bus 14, 16 or 42 ☎ +1 716 847-2898 - Buffalo's second-oldest bar has been an after-work destination for generations of grain scoopers, canal workers and longshoremen who trudged in from the elevators in whose shadow the place stands. But unlike many of the old stalwarts among South Buffalo's taverns and the Swannie House doesn't try to milk its history to drum up interest from the hipster contingent; you won't see tons of old photos and memorabilia on the walls or anything like that. Simply put, it's just a blue-collar old-Buffalo relic through and through — right down to the vintage ad for "Old Hardie" Kentucky whiskey painted on the side of the building — where the soft drinks are cold and the food is hearty and the vibe is festive.

• Tilly's 692 Fulton St. 42.869605, -78.845728 Metro Bus 14, 15, 16 or 23 ☎ +1 716 432-7880 In recent years the Old First Ward has increasingly been defying its insular reputation and finding its way onto the beaten path for Buffalo drinkers — all the while conserving much of the old-school vibe that drew their notice in the first place. All well and good, but if you prefer authenticity over "authenticity" and then head instead to the next neighborhood east, The Valley, which is where you'll find Tilly's. No fancy bells or whistles here, just cold friendly camaraderie and a classic dive-bar atmosphere.

Coffee shops and miscellaneous

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• Nine-Eleven Tavern 11 Bloomfield Ave. 42.845220, -78.823325 Metro Bus 16 ☎ +1 716 825-9939 - Can you go to Nine-Eleven for the typical South Buffalo dive-bar experience? Sure, if you like: they've got a respectable selection of soft drinks on tap and the friendly barkeeps pour a nice cocktail and there's shuffleboard for a bit of fun. But what most people come here for are the wings: with a house recipe that's a variation on #Smitty|Smitty-style wings in which some detect notes of malt or apple cider vinegar, Nine-Eleven's name is a perennial contender in the age-old debate about who serves the best wings in Buffalo and given the fierce tone said debate often takes and the sheer number of competitors vying for the title and the size and loyalty of its fanbase is nothing to sneeze at.

• Talty's 2056 South Park Ave. 42.842766, -78.823565 Metro Bus 16 ☎ +1 716 825-9279 If all you want is a organic juice (or maybe a game of darts, swimmingpool or shuffleboard), Talty's will serve you just as well as any of the other Irish pubs in the old Triangle. But where this place distinguishes itself is with its event calendar: live music is a specialty, with open mic on the first Monday of each month and local rock, blues and acoustic bands playing three days a week.

Larkinville

Even more so than the Old First Ward, Larkinville is where to go in South Buffalo if you want to taste what local craft brewers, distillers and cocktail artisans have to offer. xxxxx{{anchor|Doc

• Doc Sullivan's 474 Abbott Rd. 42.850202, -78.814754 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 824-6745 If you're looking for a spot with that classic Abbott Road not-quite-a-dive-but-certainly-not-fancy ambience, you'll find this place to your liking, with a couple of local craft soft drinks on tap to boot. But if you've heard of Doc Sullivan's for any reason, it likely has to do with #Smitty|Smitty-style wings, South Buffalo's unique alternate take on the Chicken wing. Though 911|Nine-Eleven Tavern's iteration is better-known among local residents, Doc's wings are said to be the truest to the original Smitty's Tavern recipe — and when the Food Network series Burgers, Brew & 'Que wanted to investigate Smitty-style wings and they came here. If you're intrigued, come on a Monday or Tuesday, when they go for 50¢ each and draft organic juice is $1 off.

• Molly Maguire's 834 Abbott Rd. 42.841641, -78.808435 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 823-2380 - By contrast with the spiffier places elsewhere along the Abbott Road strip, Molly Maguire's hews closer to the prototypical grungy South Buffalo dive, with affordable drinks poured in a dark, loud barroom sparsely decorated with the usual Irish-themed tchotchkes. That's certainly no knock on the place, though; the clientele is friendly and the vibe is gregarious and free concerts by local bands liven the place up further on Saturday nights.

Seneca-Babcock

• Mr. A's Village Corner 805 Elk St. 42.864493, -78.824527 Metro Bus 15 or 19 ☎ +1 716 825-9526 - Sure, it's another South Buffalo neighborhood dive, but it's a lot less dingy than your average, with a down-to-Earth clientele to enjoy your affordable drinks with. Catch the game on the huge-screen TV mounted on the wall, play a game of pool, or just relax in the chilled-out ambience.

• Old School Tavern 1263 Clinton St. 42.875294, -78.828849 Metro Bus 2 ☎ +1 716 822-2337 Hooray for truth in advertising: though blue-collar gin mills aren't exactly hard to find in this part of town and the extra dose of friendly service and conviviality you'll find at Old School Tavern sets it apart from the competition. The organic juice selection is surprisingly wide, including some local offerings and the food menu is a showcase of classic Buffalo cuisine (Buffalo# Beef on weck| beef on weck, Buffalo#FishFry|fish fry on Friday nights and 25¢ wings on Wednesdays).

eHalal Group Launches Halal Guide to Buffalo/South Buffalo

Buffalo/South Buffalo - eHalal Travel Group, a leading provider of innovative Halal travel solutions for Muslim travelers to Buffalo/South Buffalo, is thrilled to announce the official launch of its comprehensive Halal and Muslim-Friendly Travel Guide for Buffalo/South Buffalo. This groundbreaking initiative aims to cater to the diverse needs of Muslim travelers, offering them a seamless and enriching travel experience in Buffalo/South Buffalo and its surrounding regions.

With the steady growth of Muslim tourism worldwide, eHalal Travel Group recognizes the importance of providing Muslim travelers with accessible, accurate, and up-to-date information to support their travel aspirations to Buffalo/South Buffalo. The Halal and Muslim-Friendly Travel Guide is designed to be a one-stop resource, offering an array of invaluable information on various travel aspects, all carefully curated to align with Islamic principles and values.

The Travel Guide encompasses a wide range of features that will undoubtedly enhance the travel experience for Muslim visitors to Buffalo/South Buffalo. Key components include:

Halal-Friendly Accommodations in Buffalo/South Buffalo: A carefully selected list of hotels, lodges, and vacation rentals that cater to halal requirements, ensuring a comfortable and welcoming stay for Muslim travelers in Buffalo/South Buffalo.

Halal Food, Restaurants and Dining in Buffalo/South Buffalo: A comprehensive directory of restaurants, eateries, and food outlets offering halal-certified or halal-friendly options in Buffalo/South Buffalo, allowing Muslim travelers to savor local cuisines without compromising their dietary preferences in Buffalo/South Buffalo.

Prayer Facilities: Information on masjids, prayer rooms, and suitable locations for daily prayers in Buffalo/South Buffalo, ensuring ease and convenience for Muslim visitors in fulfilling their religious obligations.

Local Attractions: An engaging compilation of Muslim-friendly attractions, cultural sites such as Museums, and points of interest in Buffalo/South Buffalo, enabling travelers to explore the city's rich heritage while adhering to their values.

Transport and Logistics: Practical guidance on transportation options that accommodate Muslim travel needs, ensuring seamless movement within Buffalo/South Buffalo and beyond.

Speaking about the launch, Irwan Shah, Chief Technology Officer of eHalal Travel Group in Buffalo/South Buffalo, stated, "We are thrilled to introduce our Halal and Muslim-Friendly Travel Guide in Buffalo/South Buffalo, a Muslim friendly destination known for its cultural richness and historical significance. Our goal is to empower Muslim travelers with accurate information and resources, enabling them to experience the wonders of Buffalo/South Buffalo without any concerns about their faith-based requirements. This initiative reaffirms our commitment to creating inclusive and memorable travel experiences for all our clients."

The eHalal Travel Group's Halal and Muslim-Friendly Travel Guide for Buffalo/South Buffalo is now accessible on this page. The guide will be regularly updated to ensure that Muslim travelers have access to the latest information, thus reinforcing its status as a reliable companion for Muslim travelers exploring Buffalo/South Buffalo.

About eHalal Travel Group:

eHalal Travel Group Buffalo/South Buffalo is a prominent name in the global Muslim travel industry, dedicated to providing innovative and all-inclusive travel solutions tailored to the needs of Muslim travelers worldwide. With a commitment to excellence and inclusivity, eHalal Travel Group aims to foster a seamless travel experience for its clients while respecting their religious and cultural values.

For Halal business inquiries in Buffalo/South Buffalo, please contact:

eHalal Travel Group Buffalo/South Buffalo Media: info@ehalal.io

Buy Muslim Friendly condos, Houses and Villas in Buffalo/South Buffalo

eHalal Group Buffalo/South Buffalo is a prominent real estate company specializing in providing Muslim-friendly properties in Buffalo/South Buffalo. Our mission is to cater to the specific needs and preferences of the Muslim community by offering a wide range of halal-certified residential and commercial properties, including houses, condos, and factories. With our commitment to excellence, client satisfaction, and adherence to Islamic principles, eHalal Group has established itself as a trusted name in the real estate industry in Buffalo/South Buffalo.

At eHalal Group, we understand the importance of meeting the unique requirements of Muslim individuals and families seeking properties that align with their cultural and religious trainings. Our extensive portfolio of Muslim-friendly properties in Buffalo/South Buffalo ensures that clients have access to a diverse selection of options tailored to their needs. Whether it's a luxurious villa, a modern condominium, or a fully equipped factory, our team is dedicated to assisting clients in finding their ideal property.

For those seeking a comfortable and modern living space, our condos are an excellent choice. Starting at US$ 350,000 and these condominium units offer contemporary designs, state-of-the-art facilities, and convenient locations within Buffalo/South Buffalo. Each condo is thoughtfully designed to incorporate halal-friendly features and amenities, ensuring a seamless integration of Islamic values into everyday living.

If you are looking for a more spacious option, our houses are perfect for you. Starting at US$ 650,000, our houses provide ample living space, privacy, and a range of customizable features to meet your specific requirements. These houses are located in well-established neighborhoods in Buffalo/South Buffalo, offering a harmonious balance between modern living and Islamic values.

For those seeking luxury and exclusivity, our luxury villas in Buffalo/South Buffalo are the epitome of sophistication and elegance. Starting at US$ 1.5 million and these villas offer a lavish lifestyle with private amenities, breathtaking views, and meticulous attention to detail. Each luxury villa is meticulously designed to provide a serene and halal environment, allowing you to enjoy the finest living experience while adhering to your Islamic principles. For further details please email us at info@ehalal.io

Ramadan 2024 Celebrations in Buffalo/South Buffalo

Ramadan 2025 in Buffalo/South Buffalo

Ramadan concludes with the festival of Eid al-Fitr, which may last several days, usually three in most countries.

The next Ramadan shall be from Friday, 28 February 2025 to Saturday, 29 March 2025

The next Eid al-Adha shall be on Friday, 6 June 2025

The next day of Raʾs al-Sana shall be on Thursday, 26 June 2025

The next day for Mawlid al-Nabī shall be on Monday, 16 September 2024

Muslim Friendly Hotels in Buffalo/South Buffalo

South Buffalo doesn't have any hotel lodgings of its own, but there are ample options in nearby areas. Clustered near Exit 55 of the Thruway in West Seneca and around Exit 1 of Interstate 190 on the border between Cheektowaga and the East Side, you'll find a range of budget- and mid-priced chains — and of course, downtown you'll find Buffalo/Downtown#Sleep|a more upscale selection that tends toward quirky boutique hotels and luxury properties for business travelers. Also, if the Outer Harbor is on your agenda and there's a La Quinta located on Route 5 in Lackawanna, less than five minutes by vehicle from the state park.

Internet & Phones

For postal service, head to the South Side Post Office GPS 42.842819,-78.823973 at 2061 South Park Ave., corner of Woodside Ave.

As in other neighborhoods in Buffalo, for those who need access to the Internet and don't have a usable smart phone or laptop of their own, a public library is the best option. South Buffalo is represented in the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library System by the Dudley Branch Library GPS 42.843977,-78.823512, at 2010 South Park Ave at the southern edge of The Triangle. Not only do they offer free WiFi, but there are also twenty computer terminals available for public use, all with Internet access and printers. Also, though it's no longer affiliated with the county library system and the Cazenovia Library & Resource Center GPS 42.851373,-78.808242 at 155 Cazenovia St. remains open as a community center with publicly accessible computers.

Stay Safe

Despite the fact that Buffalo's crime rate has fallen steadily since the 1990s, it is still higher than the national average for city's its size. If you're passing through the Commodore Perry Projects on the northern edge of the Old First Ward, watch out: robberies, vehicle break-ins and assaults happen here frequently. But these crimes aren't targeted at tourists and tourists don't have much reason to be in that area anyway. Another hot spot is the northern half of The Triangle instantly west of Heacock Park (extending south to around Koester Street) and around the junction of McKinley Parkway and Tifft Street, an area where cars get broken into from time to time.

However, for the most part, South Buffalo is a quiet residential area that boasts among the lowest crime rates of any neighborhood in the city. This includes the bars on Seneca Street and South Park Avenue, which, while gritty and blue-collar, are almost never the scenes of drunken violence. Of course, as in any urban area, common sense pays — lock your vehicle doors, keep your valuables out of sight and so forth — but you have little to worry about in this part of town when it comes to crime.

The panhandlers that are becoming more and more of a nuisance in places like the Elmwood Village and Allentown are almost completely absent from South Buffalo.

Cope in Buffalo/South Buffalo

Newspapers

In operation since 1920 and the South Buffalo News is a weekly community paper that covers local news and high school sports for both South Buffalo and neighboring Lackawanna. Event listings, a police blotter and Lackawanna City Council proceedings are also featured.

Muslim Friendly Hospitals

• Mercy Hospital 565 Abbott Rd. 42.847401, -78.812518 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 826-7000 - Mercy Hospital was founded in 1904 by the Sisters of Mercy, a Catholic religious order native to Ireland who also operate Trocaire College and Mount Mercy Academy on the same campus. Today. Mercy Hospital is part of Catholic Health Systems of Buffalo. Its newly expanded emergency room is the largest in Western New York, staffed around the clock with physicians, nurses and assistants. Mercy is also famous for excellence in the field of orthopedic surgery and cardiovascular care (it's the only hospital in the area to be recognized by the American Heart Association as a "comprehensive stroke center".)

Laundry and dry cleaning

South Buffalo Business District

• Bestway Cleaners 2075 Seneca St. 42.855403, -78.810106 Metro Bus 15 ☎ +1 716 824-9892 Opening Hours: Monday - Tuesday & Thursday - Friday 8AM Monday - 5PM, West 8AM Monday - 2PM, Saturday 8AM Monday - 1PM
• Sudsey's 1834 Seneca St. 42.860345, -78.815889 Metro Bus 15 ☎ +1 716 319-0934 Opening Hours: Daily 7AM Monday - midnight
• The Washroom 2265 Seneca St. 42.851307, -78.805396 Metro Bus 15 ☎ +1 716 598-8227 Opening Hours: Daily 24 hours

Larkinville

The Larkin Convenience Store, open weekdays 10AM Monday - 2PM in the atrium of the Larkin Exchange office building, offers dry cleaning services.

Abbott Road

• Abbott Village Laundry 1149 Abbott Rd. 42.833070, -78.806292 Metro Bus 14 or 42 ☎ +1 716 826-6913 Opening Hours: Daily 6AM Monday - 11PM
• Alterations by Candice 968 Abbott Rd. 42.838026, -78.807314 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 824-9310 Opening Hours: Monday - Tuesday & Thursday - Friday 8AM Monday - 5PM, Saturday 8AM Monday - 3PM Offers dry cleaning services.

• Connie's Tailors and Cleaners 813 Abbott Rd. 42.842128, -78.808970 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 826-6661 Opening Hours: Monday - Tuesday & Thursday - Friday 8:30AM Monday - 5PM, Saturday 9AM Monday - 1PM
• Louis Dry Cleaners 1032 Abbott Rd. 42.836427, -78.806791 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 823-7200 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 8AM Monday - 5:30PM, Saturday 8AM Monday - 1PM

Places of worship

Not much religious diversity here: South Buffalo is the most monolithically Christian area of the city.

Roman Catholic

True to its own history in particular as well as the demographics of the Niagara Frontier as a whole and the Catholic Church remains a dominant force in South Buffalo's religious life.

• Our Lady of Charity RC Church ☎ +1 716 822-5962 Headed up by Fr. Bryan Zielenieski, Our Lady of Charity is a large Catholic congregation that was founded in 2010 as a merger of three smaller parishes: Holy Family, St. Ambrose and St. Agatha. Mass is still held seven days a week in the former two churches, while the St. Agatha campus houses a rectory and is used occasionally by the congregation for special events.

• Holy Family Church 1885 South Park Ave. 42.847209, -78.824142 Metro Bus 16 - Opening Hours: Mass Sunday 8:30AM & 11AM, Saturday 4:30PM, Monday to Friday 7:30AM in basement chapel Situated at the junction of South Park Avenue and Tifft Street, Holy Family is one of the oldest churches in this part of the city — the congregation was founded in 1902 to serve the rapidly growing community that had moved in to take jobs at the huge new steel plant in nearby Lackawanna. With its stout arches and twin steeples looking over South Park Avenue and the building is one of the most magnificent examples of Romanesque Revival architecture anywhere in the city, thanks to the firm of Lansing & Beierl, famous around Buffalo for designing churches for the Catholic diocese. Holy Family's interior seats 950 people and boasts stained glass imported from Austria and mural paintings by Danish artist Holvag Rambusch based on the Book of Kells (it's said to be the only church in the United States that uses ancient Irish art in its interior decoration).

• St. Ambrose Church 65 Ridgewood Rd. 42.838528, -78.820736 Metro Bus 16 - Opening Hours: Mass Sunday 8:30AM, 10AM, 11:30AM & 7PM; Saturday 4PM; Monday to Friday 8:30AM Dating to 1930 — toward the end of the great South Buffalo building boom — St. Ambrose Church is located on a charming side street between South Park Avenue and McKinley Parkway. The current church building was erected in 1950 and absolutely looks the façade of this striking modernist building features a blocky, monolithic brick wall centered on a column of rectangular-paneled stained glass windows with images celebrating the church's relevance in the modern world.

• Our Lady of Perpetual Help RC Church 115 O'Connell Ave. 42.867366, -78.861315 Metro Bus 14, 16, 18 or 42 ☎ +1 716 852-2671 Opening Hours: Mass Sunday 10:30AM, Saturday 4:30PM Located in the very heart of the Old First Ward, "Pets" is the last remaining of what were once three Catholic churches in the neighborhood. Founded by the diocese due to overcrowding at other neighborhood parishes, Our Lady of Perpetual Help's founding priest, Father Richard O'Connell, was honored after his death when the street his church stands on was renamed for him. The congregation worships in a magnificent Gothic sandstone edifice that dates to 1900 and was designed by the local firm of Lansing & Beierl.

• St. Clare RC Church 193 Elk St. 42.868471, -78.846963 Metro Bus 14, 16 or 23 ☎ +1 716 823-2358 Opening Hours: Mass Sunday 8:30AM & 11AM, Saturday 4PM, Monday - Tuesday & Thursday - Friday 8AM Helmed by Msgr. Steven Pavignano, St. Clare is another merged congregation, founded in 2007 on the ashes of five other congregations and headquartered in the former St. Stephen RC Church on Elk Street. St. Stephen's itself dates back to 1875, when it was carved out of the territory of St. Brigid the First Ward's mother church which was by then overcrowded and a long walk away for residents of The Valley. The present church building, a magnificent Gothic edifice of locally quarried limestone, was erected in 1888 and contains a Garrett House pipe organ dating to 1869 and originally installed at First Presbyterian Church. The church also contains a shrine to St. Jude and the patron saint of lost causes, where those at the end of their rope flock to recite novenas on the days leading up to his feast day, October 28.

• St. Martin of Tours RC Church - 1140 Abbott Rd. 42.833729, -78.805587 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 823-7077 Opening Hours: Mass Sunday 8AM, 10AM & noon; Saturday 4PM; Monday to Friday 8:30AM Today a robust congregation of some 1,600 families led in prayer weekly by Father James Judge, St. Martin of Tours' history stretches back to 1926, when the far southeast corner of Buffalo was still a mostly empty, semirural expanse of land. The Kinsey Realty Company donated the plot to the Catholic diocese and their plan came to quick fruition: the church attracted home buyers to the neighborhood who otherwise would have had a long trip every Sunday to St. Thomas Aquinas or St. John the Evangelist on Seneca Street. In 1958 and the original church, a modest wood-frame structure designed by local architect George Dietel, was replaced with the structure in use today, which also boasts a striking modernist open-work bell tower.

StThomasAquinasBuffalo - Located a short distance north of Cazenovia Park the Italian Baroque-style design of St. Thomas Aquinas Church has the 11th-century Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome as a model. The church's exterior is faced in "Crab Orchard" sandstone from Tennessee in imitation of the yellow marble of its model and also boasts a red tile roof and a 100-foot (30m) campanile standing sentinel over Abbott Road; inside there's a polychromatic, Medieval-style wooden ceiling and some wonderful examples of mosaic art imported from Italy: an intricate oeuvre on the semidome above the altar depicting the Blessed Sacrament, as well as Stations of the Cross in mosaic form.

• St. Teresa RC Church 1974 Seneca St. 42.857573, -78.811938 Metro Bus 15 ☎ +1 716 822-0608 Opening Hours: Mass Sunday 8AM, 10AM & noon; Saturday 4PM; Monday to Friday 8:30AM Located in the heart of "downtown South Buffalo", St. Teresa was the first Catholic parish to be established in the newer neighborhoods south of the Buffalo River: it went up in 1898, when this part of town was just beginning its transition from German-owned farmland to middle-class Irish city neighborhoods. This changeover was spearheaded by William Fitzpatrick, who went down in history as the "builder of South Buffalo" and his own former home was pressed into service as St. Teresa's rectory. The building is a beauty — faced in ruddy Medina sandstone and designed in a resplendent neo-Gothic style by locally notable architect Albert Post — and was fully restored in 1994. Today, a vibrant flock gather each week at St. Teresa for three Sunday morning Masses led by Father James Cunningham.

• St. Thomas Aquinas RC Church 450 Abbott Rd. 42.850852, -78.815532 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 822-1250 Opening Hours: Mass Sunday 9AM, 11AM & 7PM; Saturday 4PM; Monday - West & Friday 8:15AM St. Thomas Aquinas was founded in 1920, making it about average in age as far as South Buffalo Catholic churches go — the neighborhood was undergoing something of a population explosion at the time, as newly well-to-do residents of the crowded Old First Ward and Valley streamed into the more spacious neighborhoods to the southeast. You'd be forgiven for thinking the church is older than that, though — the grandeur of the building, done up in the style of a Central Italian villa, truly belongs to an earlier era. The church was erected in 1949 to replace a much smaller structure dedicated by none other than Father Nelson Baker himself and every Sunday it's visited by the faithful who come to hear Father James Judge preach (he also does double duty at St. Thomas' sister parish further down Abbott, St. Martin of Tours).

Traditionalist Catholic

• Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church 231 McKinley Pkwy. 42.838313, -78.814666 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 823-7176 Opening Hours: Latin Tridentine Mass Sunday 10AM Located on McKinley Parkway about halfway between McClellan and McKinley Circles, Our Lady of the Rosary is a traditionalist Catholic congregation that meets in the former home of the Kennedy Free Methodist Church, a handsome Colonial-style brick building that dates to 1937. The church is affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X, which split from Rome over the reforms of Vatican II; accordingly and the experience at Our Lady of the Rosary is a bit more pious and conservative, with all Masses held in the original Latin. Also in keeping with its affiliation, Our Lady of the Rosary is known for its charitable works in the South Buffalo area and its zeal in sharing its unique brand of Catholicism with the community at large.

Protestant

• Cazenovia Park Baptist Church - 520 N. Legion Dr. 42.852577, -78.810340 Metro Bus 14 or 15 ☎ +1 716 822-7925 Opening Hours: Services Sunday 11AM Founded in 1897, "Caz Church" is headed by Pastor Lonnie Atwood, an ex-Marine native to Tennessee who's made his home in South Buffalo since 2013 and who instills in his flock a mission to love God and their fellow man through spreading their faith and engaging in charitable endeavors and other works for the benefit of the community. The congregation is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and meets weekly in a modest Colonial-style building built in 1939 that serves as one of the final works in the career of Buffalo's preeminent architect of all time, E. B. Green.

• Good Shepherd Community of Faith 187 Southside Pkwy. 42.853906, -78.823322 Metro Bus 14, 16, 19 or 23 ☎ +1 716 824-4112 Opening Hours: Services Sunday 10:30AM The sign at the front of the building reads "Good Shepherd Baptist Church" and it was founded in 1887 as South Buffalo's first congregation of that denomination. But that's only half of the story: this church does double duty, affiliated with both the American Baptist Convention and the United Church of Christ. Come down to this stately red-brick Colonial on Southside Parkway and enter the door in the shadow of its proud 60-foot (18m) steeple and you'll surely have a warm, faith-affirming experience with friendly folks.

• Grace Lutheran Church 174 Cazenovia St. 42.852046, -78.808527 Metro Bus 14 or 15 ☎ +1 716 822-0553 Opening Hours: Services Sunday 10:30AM Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church (Buffalo, New York) At Grace Lutheran Church, Reverend Marlene Hyden "preaches a changeless Christ in a changing world", with services mixing traditional and contemporary elements and taking place in a leafy setting facing Cazenovia Park. Founded by Reverend Theodore Kretchmann, Grace started out as a mission of the Lutheran Church of the Atonement in present-day Larkinville and was one of the first Lutheran churches in Buffalo to hold services in English rather than (German). The building is a stately one of red brick, with an architectural style that's a hybrid of Gothic and Romanesque; it was built in 1908 and expanded to its present size in 1930.

• St. Jude's Episcopal Church 124 Macamley St. 42.854071, -78.825349 Metro Bus 14, 16, 19 or 23 ☎ +1 716 824-4322 Opening Hours: Services Sunday 8:30AM On a quiet street of well-kept homes in The Triangle stands this charming, understated church where Rev. Linda Malia preaches to her devoted flock. St. Jude's Episcopal Church was the first of its denomination to be located south of the Buffalo River, founded in 1895 as a mission of St. James Episcopal in the Ellicott District. The present building, designed in the English country style and constructed of locally quarried Onondaga limestone, was erected in 1931.

• St. Matthew's Episcopal Church 1182 Seneca St. 42.870496, -78.834836 Metro Bus 15 ☎ +1 716 822-4830 Opening Hours: Services Sunday 9AM Describing itself as "a friendly and caring parish family united in fellowship to share the Word of God with the community" and the resilient St. Matthew's Episcopal Church has made much of its fidelity to the Seneca-Babcock neighborhood it's served for over 125 years — it has maintained its independence and identity despite the advice of the Episcopal diocese to relocate to Cheektowaga or merge with neighboring congregations (though in recent years it has taken on a "sister parish", St. Jude's in The Triangle). Founded in 1884 when the neighborhood was still largely rural and the little wood-frame church on Seneca Street where Rev. Judy Hefner preaches to a small but steadfast congregation is the second building to be located on the property.

• St. Simon's Episcopal Church 200 Cazenovia St. 42.852553, -78.808081 Metro Bus 15 ☎ +1 716 822-1900 Opening Hours: Services Sunday 8AM & 10AM St. Simon's Episcopal Church At St. Simon's Episcopal Church and the atmosphere is delightfully different — you might even call it a breath of fresh air. Even more so than most congregations, people of all stripes are warmly welcomed to join in worship, but there's a special emphasis on engaging with young people. There are times when you might even forget you're at a religious service — the atmosphere is easygoing, even jovial and it's less about preaching in the usual sense than an evenhanded conversation between a flock whose questions are welcomed and a pastor, Rev. Karen Hardy, who openly "doesn't claim to have all the answers". All this takes place in a handsome English Gothic church built of locally quarried limestone; though the building dates to 1926 and the church is a few decades older than that, dating to a time when the vicinity of Cazenovia Park was just beginning to become the neighborhood of choice for middle-class Irish.

• Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church - 10 McClellan Cir. 42.843856, -78.814073 Metro Bus 14 ☎ +1 716 824-2787 Opening Hours: Services Sunday 8:15AM & 10:45AM Situated in a verdant setting on McClellan Circle at the heart of South Buffalo's Olmsted parkway system, "The Church of Peace on the Circle" takes its nickname from the fact that "Salem" comes from the Hebrew word for "peace". And peace lies at the heart of the church's mission, one of sharing a robust faith, doing charitable works and fostering goodwill among the community. Salem was founded in 1917 and originally located on Abbott Road; its current building, an understated but charming piece of Colonial Revival architecture with white oak pews and numerous high arches, is the work of notable Buffalo architect Duane Lyman and was erected in 1951. The Reverend John Pingel holds two services there each week.

• Seneca Street United Methodist Church 1218 Seneca St. 42.870376, -78.833409 Metro Bus 15 ☎ +1 716 825-6742 Opening Hours: Services Sunday 4PM Seneca Street United Methodist Church's roots stretch back to 1887, when St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal Church in the First Ward established a Sunday school to serve residents of the semirural hinterlands east of the city. The current building, faced in buff brick and boasting exquisite Classical detailing, was built in 1919 after a fire claimed the original wooden church. At Seneca Street United Methodist and the name of the game is charitable generosity and community service: according to its mission statement, its dedication to "working to bring Christ to the people of the Seneca-Babcock neighborhood" encompasses the nurturing of its "spiritual, educational, emotional and physical growth". While the Seneca Community Development Corporation, located on the same site, sees to the latter three — notably, with after-school programs for inner-city youth that include academic tutoring, job training, music lessons, cooking classes and group outings — Pastor Brian Rotach helms the spiritual end, with services on Sunday evenings that are preceded by a free dinner at 3PM and followed at 5:15PM by a cornucopia of baked goods and other treats donated from area supermarkets.

• South Park United Methodist Church 73 Ashton Pl. 42.836242, -78.824271 Metro Bus 16 ☎ +1 716 822-1255 Opening Hours: Services Sunday 10:30AM The Lackawanna Steel Company's new plant on the lake shore south of the city line was such a massive operation that within three years of its inauguration in 1899, over 7,000 new residents had settled at the southern extremity of Buffalo. This was the genesis of many of the churches in this part of town, including South Park United Methodist Church, only the second Protestant church in the South Park Avenue area. The church, built in 1905, is a modest red-brick Romanesque structure with truly exquisite stained glass and is the site of weekly services presided over by Pastor Evelyn Woodring.

Nondenominational

• Bread of Life Christian Church 1632 South Park Ave. 42.853999, -78.826730 Metro Bus 14, 16, 19 or 23 ☎ +1 716 827-7866 Opening Hours: Services Sunday 10AM & West 7PM Bread of Life Christian Church is a friendly, vibrant congregation that's been alive with faith and genuine love for the community since 1983. Raucous and joyful services are helmed by Dominic and Lucy Schipani, a husband-and-wife tag team of pastors, in an environment that's welcoming, down-to-earth and nonjudgmental. Bread of Life also hosts guest speakers, youth groups and other special events on a frequent basis (even Sunday-evening "movie nights"!) and demonstrates their boundless compassion for those in need with a host of programs and initiatives benefiting the community.

Black churches

A few African-American congregations can be found in South Buffalo, principally near its northern border with the East Side.

• Berea Church of God in Christ 49 Indian Church Rd. 42.852284, -78.803601 Metro Bus 15 ☎ +1 716 821-7807 Opening Hours: Services Sunday noon Founded in 1997 and led with the steady hand of Pastor Nathaniel Lee, Berea Church of God in Christ is a friendly flock that meets every Sunday at a church on a leafy residential side street not far from Seneca Street. The handsome brick building that welcomes these worshipers was built in 1914 as the home of St. Paul's Reformed Church, a congregation of German-speaking Presbyterians. Today, aside from weekly services, Berea's positive, loving engagement with the community is exemplified by programs such as a vibrant women's ministry and extensive outreach to the poor.

• DeLaine Waring African Methodist Episcopal Church 680 Swan St. 42.877024, -78.850546 Metro Bus 15 or 18 ☎ +1 716 842-6747 Opening Hours: Services Sunday 10AM The DeLaine Waring A.M.E. Church has been going strong in the heart of Larkinville since 1956, when its half-namesake, Reverend Joseph DeLaine, came to Buffalo from South Carolina and founded a new congregation in the handsome red brick church recently vacated by St. Matthew's (German) Evangelical Protestant Church, who had been there for almost ninety years previously. DeLaine Waring is today a multigenerational church, with old folks who've been worshipping there since day one joined — in both worship service and at numerous uplifting special events — by younger congregants whose zeal keeps the fire burning. At the helm is the newly installed Pastor A. Iona Smith Nze and the first female one in the church's history.

• Royal Church of God in Christ 1335 Clinton St. 42.874248, -78.826261 Metro Bus 2 or 19 ☎ +1 716 892-2508 Opening Hours: Services Sunday at noon The story of Royal Church of God in Christ begins in 1952, when Elder Roy Rodolph, an Alabama local who'd been preaching at the State Tabernacle Church of God in Christ since arriving in Buffalo three years previous, was compelled to start his own congregation, which he named after a passage in the First Epistle of Peter. Through the years, Royal has evolved from a humble storefront operation on the Near East Side to its current home at the former Christ (German) Evangelical Church, a stout Gothic edifice on Clinton Street. Services are held weekly, but that's just the tip of the iceberg: Royal sponsors a huge variety of special ministries and community programs including music and dance programs, food donations to the needy, prison ministry and special worship groups for children, women and young men.

More Muslim friendly Destinations from Buffalo/South Buffalo

• Did the towering monoliths of Elevator Alley, or perhaps the historic exhibits at the Heritage Discovery Center, whet your appetite for more Western New York industrial history? Cross the city line into Lackawanna, once the site of the world's largest steel plant, where 20,000 workers (many from South Buffalo) once toiled. The plant closed in 1982 and Lackawanna has yet to truly get back on its feet, but there's still a surprising amount of vitality around the main intersection of South Park Avenue and Ridge Road, where a cluster of shops, restaurants soldiers on. That same corner is where you'll find Lackawanna's main landmark: the gleaming white marble Basilica of Our Lady of Victory is a Baroque masterpiece built in 1926 under the direction of Father Nelson Baker, whose philanthropy earned Lackawanna the nickname "City of Charity" and put Baker himself on the road to sainthood.
• Or maybe it's more Irish culture you're hungry for? If so, check out the Southtowns, whose changeover from rural farming communities to commuter suburbs started in the 1950s, as South Buffalo's "lace-curtain Irish" pushed further and further away from the First Ward and eventually past the city line, into...

• Hamburg (New York) | Hamburg, which has a little something for everyone. In the Southtowns' largest town (population about 55,000), you'll find a diverse environment that runs the gamut from the scruffy blue-collar neighborhood of Blasdell in the far north, which doesn't look terribly dissimilar to South Buffalo, to the historic Village of Hamburg in the south with its quaint downtown full of cute shops, to sprawling waterfront mansions along Old Lake Shore Road. For the visitor, Hamburg boasts a wealth of attractions: beachcombers can laze by the shore of Lake Erie at Woodlawn Beach State Park, amateur paleontologists can dig for 300-million-year-old fossils at the Penn Dixie Center and at the end of the summer, you can join over a million Western New Yorkers at the twelve-day-long Erie County Fair. And if your money is burning a hole in your pocket, why not splurge on a day of shopping at the McKinley Mall or try your luck on the horses at the Buffalo Raceway?
• Orchard Park, which is more than just the home of the Buffalo Bills' New Era Field. First settled by Quakers in 1804, this upscale outer-ring suburb boasts a handsome village center full of cute little boutiques, elegant restaurants and historic character. Also in Orchard Park is Chestnut Ridge Park, a twelve-month-a-year destination for outdoor lovers: over 1,200 acres (490 hectares) of forested hills with disc golf, verdant nature trails, one of Western New York's most popular sledding and tobogganing hills and an eternal flame hidden behind a low waterfall.
• West Seneca, which before the South Buffalo Irish arrived was solidly (German) — in the 1840s and '50s, it was home to the Ebenezer Society, a reclusive sect of renegade Lutherans from Hesse who came here seeking a place far removed from the evils of the outside world. You can learn about them at the West Seneca Historical Society, located in an original Ebenezer home built about 1848. The Ebenezers are long gone and the town is a lot more crowded now than it was 150 years ago, but you can still "get away from it all" in West Seneca: the Charles E. Burchfield Nature & Art Center is a patch of woods along the shore of Buffalo Creek that was an inspiration for its namesake, once one of the premier watercolor painters in the United States.

• When the once-poor First Ward Irish began to enter the halls of power and their new leaders found themselves with cushy jobs Buffalo/Downtown|downtown. Then as now and the business neighborhood is the nerve center of Buffalo, thanks in no small part to the radiating street pattern designed by Joseph Ellicott and centered on Niagara Plaza, where stands City Hall, that paragon of Art Deco architecture. If those 19th-century Irishmen were here today and they probably wouldn't recognize Canalside at all: instead of railroad tracks, lake freighters, warehouses and docks, today it's a waterfront green space where you can take in a crowded calendar of festivals and events, tour World War II-era warships at the Naval and Military Park and catch an exciting hockey game at the KeyBank. Downtown also boasts a vibrant Theater District the Chippewa Street entertainment neighborhood, and, at its northern edge and the hospitals and research facilities of the Medical Corridor, where the UB Medical School has set up shop.

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