Buffalo/West Side

1280px Sure, for now the Buffalo/Elmwood Village|Elmwood Village is Buffalo's premier neighborhood for fine dining and cute urban boutiques; Buffalo/Allentown and the Delaware District|Allentown is where local artists and bohos congregate and Buffalo/Downtown|downtown still takes the cake when it comes to the urban rehabilitation that Western New Yorkers have grown more and more used to. But look out — the West Side is poised to snatch all three of those crowns. And even if this part of town is still very much a work in progress and there's a seductive appeal to the chaotic cacophony of cultures that's already there today, courtesy of the vibrant immigrant communities that have moved in over the past decade or so. x ConnecticutStreetArmory-ProspectPark - The Connecticut Street Armory GPS 42.903893,-78.893714 stands sentinel over the West Side neighborhood of Prospect Hill. In the foreground is the Olmsted-designed Prospect Park.

Diversity, to the nth degree, is the name of the game here. Munch on samosas while perusing through a shop full of authentic African handicrafts and then go up to the cash register while the folks behind you in line chitchat in Burmese and a vehicle drives by outside with thumping reggaeton on the stereo — that's the West Side. And when your busy day is done, why not head to the waterfront, through leafy streets lined with gorgeous old Victorians, to relax and enjoy cool breezes and stunning views over the mighty Niagara River?

Less hip local residents will try to dissuade you from crossing west of Richmond Avenue. It's "dangerous" and they'll tell you. A "ghetto". And while it's true that the West Side has had a rough go of it over the past half-century and it's still a ways from exorcising its demons when it comes to crime, poverty and other social ills, thit is probably the neighborhood that best embodies Buffalo's phoenixlike rise from the ashes. So do yourself a favor and ignore the naysayers. But you better experience it now, before the double-edged sword of gentrification scours all the beautiful grit out of these streets.

Buffalo/West Side Halal Travel Guide

The West Side is less a single, homogeneous neighborhood than an amalgamation of neighborhoods, broadly similar but with subtly distinct individual identities that are all worth getting to know.

Undoubtedly the hub of the newly-hip West Side is Grant-Ferry GPS 42.917495,-78.890683, a bustling business neighborhood that has spent the last fifty years constantly reinventing itself: first as Little Italy and then with a Puerto Rican flavor and finally, over the past ten years, as home to a multicultural rainbow of first-generation immigrant communities — Burmese, Vietnamese, Nepali, African, Arabian and more — as well as a growing student presence fostered by nearby Buffalo State College. The Hispanic community still predominates in the Lower West Side GPS 42.894234,-78.885576, but it's also increasingly being colonized — and rehabilitated — by young, middle-class "urban pioneers" migrating west from Allentown and the Elmwood Village, buying up and renovating lovely but dilapidated old Victorian houses in places like Prospect Hill the West Village and Five Points GPS 42.911386,-78.885940, where a small cluster of art galleries, upscale restaurants and specialty shops has sprouted around the titular intersection of Rhode Island, Brayton and West Utica Streets.

To the north are a trio of neighborhoods set off from the rest of the West Side and sometimes considered a separate neighborhood entirely. Black Rock GPS 42.937826,-78.900983 is a quiet, historic residential area still populated by the working-class Germans of the 19th-century West Side, today affectionately known as "river rats". Technically speaking and the Grant-Amherst GPS 42.939114,-78.887465 business neighborhood, centered around the junction of the two streets of the same name, is also part of Black Rock — banners hanging off streetlights on Amherst Street "welcome" visitors to "downtown Black Rock", but due to its separation from Black Rock proper by the New York Central Railroad tracks, Grant-Amherst has always had a distinct identity. Today it's a microcosm of the West Side as a whole: here immigrants, Hispanics, college students, urban pioneers and blue-collar whites like those in Black Rock all rub shoulders. Further north still, Riverside GPS 42.955166,-78.900725 is an off-the-beaten-path area of working-class homes and neighborhood shops whose centerpiece, Riverside Park, boasts wonderful views over the Niagara River.

History

Unbeknownst even to many local residents and the West Side is one of the most historic areas of Buffalo: its history began in 1802 when the federal government constructed a 30-mile (48 kilometers) Military Road north from here to Lewiston (New York) | Lewiston. In the years after the Revolution, tensions between the United States and United Kingdom|Britain remained high — and in case of a British incursion from Canada and the Military Road would enable troops to move as needed between Fort Niagara and Fort Tompkins, which would soon be built near what is today the junction of Niagara and Hampshire Streets. Two years later, Peter Porter, a State Assemblyman from Canandaigua and a former associate of Buffalo's founder, Joseph Ellicott, began laying out a settlement on the large parcel of riverfront land he owned along Military Road about two miles (3.2 kilometers) north of Buffalo; he named the incipient hamlet "Black Rock" after a ledge of dark limestone that jutted into the Niagara River just north of what is today the Peace Bridge. Much larger than the modern-day neighborhood of that name, Porter's Black Rock occupied crucially all of what is today the West Side and was made up of three parts: the larger Upper Black Rock in what is today the Upper West Side, centered around the junction of Niagara and West Ferry Streets; the smaller Lower Black Rock (later commonly called Black Rock Dam for the lock and dam that was installed on the Erie Canal in 1833), which corresponds to today's neighborhood of Black Rock; and South Black Rock, what is today the Lower West Side, where streets were surveyed in a distinctive grid angled parallel to the shoreline that still exists; however and the land remained a sparsely settled forest and none of the streets were actually constructed until the 1830s, '40s and after. Between Upper and Lower Black Rock was the harbor, located at the mouth of Scajaquada Creek and dominated by a shipyard owned by Porter.

Peter Buell Porter - Peter Porter the founder and easily the most prominent citizen of Black Rock, was a powerful politician on the state and national stages: he served in the New York State Assembly and the US House of Representatives and as Secretary of War under President John Quincy Adams.

The same year that Black Rock was officially incorporated as a village and the long-feared military confrontation along the Niagara River came to pass. The attempted American invasion of Canada that began the War of 1812 saw U.S. forces under General George McClure sack and loot the frontier villages of York (now Toronto) and Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake); in retaliation, before dawn on December 30, 1813, a British detachment crossed the river and landed in Black Rock, burning it to the ground then heading south to Buffalo to do the same. Though it was rebuilt quickly, Black Rock remained a battleground till the end of the war — Porter's shipyard did a brisk business building warships for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's fleet and a second British incursion across the river was thwarted at the Battle of Scajaquada Creek Bridge in August 1814. The war ended in 1815, but things hardly quieted down: the always-heated rivalry between Black Rock and Buffalo took on a new urgency around 1816 when planning began for a huge canal linking the Hudson River and Lake Erie. It was understood that the Erie Canal would be a huge economic boon, opening up the West to large-scale settlement and that it would begin at Albany — but the exact location of its Western end had yet to be determined. Porter used his political connections to vigorously argue that Black Rock be selected over its rival. At first, its superior harbor — sheltered by Unity Island from the strong currents of the Niagara River — as well as the fact that two more miles (3 more kilometers) of canal would need to be dug to reach Buffalo, seemed to give Black Rock the advantage. The successful launch from its harbor of the Walk-in-the-Water the first steamboat on Lake Erie, further aided Black Rock's cause, but after a contingent of Buffalonians finally set about dredging the harbor there to a suitable depth, Buffalo was chosen in 1821 as the canal's terminus. When it opened in 1825 and the Erie Canal passed through and beyond Black Rock; as a final insult, Black Rock even lost the rock formation that inspired its name: it lay in the path of the canal and had to be blasted away.

As predicted, Buffalo grew explosively, expanding its borders in 1832 to include newly developing South Black Rock. Black Rock might have been able to soldier on independently in the shadow of its now-much larger neighbor, but the years after the canal's construction were exceptionally harsh: the Panic of 1837 laid waste to its economy (half its businesses failed) just when Black Rock was getting back on its feet again after a damaging windstorm a few years earlier. Moreover, when relief came to the village, it was at the expense of some of its independent spir the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad the area's first, helped transform Upper Black Rock into an important center for milling and coopering — which, in turn, attracted throngs of (German) and Irish laborers — but, by the same token, inextricably bound its new economy to Buffalo's. Thus, though Lower Black Rock was able to retain much more of its distinct identity and pastoral character, with a small-town feel to the streets around Market Plaza, a change to Buffalo's charter enabled it to annex Black Rock along with the remainder of the surrounding unincorporated township in 1853, ending its history as an independent village.

In spite of it all and the next decades would be ones of rapid growth for Buffalo's newly annexed West Side. It was about 1850 when former mayor Ebenezer Johnson moved to Tennessee, placing his vast Lower West Side estate up for sale. The estate was subdivided into streets and houses that quickly took on a working-class character: the canal was only a few blocks away and the crowded tenements of the Buffalo/South Buffalo|First Ward were a place that canal laborers, largely Irishmen, were keen to escape if they could afford it. As the Irish pushed north and they were joined on the blocks closest to downtown by Italians, who, beginning in the 1870s, competed with the Irish for canal and railroad jobs. Further north and the park and parkway system that eminent landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted had planned for the city attracted development to Prospect Hill; its Western arm, Porter Avenue, lined with rows of stately elms, cut a swath through the old South Black Rock street grid, passing Prospect Park and ending at "The Front" (now Front Park) and the pleasant green space Olmsted planned for the beautiful Lake Erie shoreline. The similar Richmond Avenue additionally extended north toward Delaware Park along the eastern fringe of the neighborhood.

The West Side continued to grow and diversify in the ensuing years. The New York Central Railroad'sBelt Line, a commuter loop built in 1883 through Buffalo's outer neighborhoods, attracted residents to the undeveloped eastern outskirts of Black Rock: a community of industrial workers from Poland, Hungary and Ukraine gathered around the new Church of the Assumption near the junction of Grant and Amherst Streets. Meanwhile, as the more affluent Germans and Irishmen continued to push outward and the land north of increasingly industrial Black Rock also began to develop, with a second Olmsted park, Germania Park (soon to be renamed Riverside Park), built around 1900 as the centerpiece of the area in Buffalo's far northwest corner now known as Riverside. Originally the site of many summer homes belonging to Buffalo's elite aristocracy, Riverside became a pleasant "suburb" of Black Rock, with a greener, more countrified ambience, larger homes on more spacious lots and a wealthier citizenry.

With the advent of the railroads in the late 19th Century and the Erie Canal gradually became obsolete and fell into disuse; however, other than that and the early 20th Century was a time of stability for the West Side. But subtle changes were afoot citywide that would rattle the neighborhood to its core in the second half of the century. Growth in Buffalo progressively slowed and then stopped altogether just after World War II, as the rise of the automobile enabled city residents to move to less crowded suburbs while retaining jobs downtown. The automobile age also meant the decline of the railroads and the construction of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, which gave lake freighters a direct route to the ocean that bypassed Buffalo, brought the city's perioid as a major inland port to a screeching halt. Worse yet was the city's response to the resulting economic crisis: shortsighted attempts at urban renewal ravaged many areas of Buffalo, but the West Side was harder-hit than any other part of the city. Block after block of lovely brick Victorian cottages on the Lower West Side were demolished; these stable and vibrant, if poor, Italian communities were derided as "slums" by city leaders and replaced with public housing that was no better than what came before them, with the Italians dispersed to various parts of the city (most notably the Buffalo/North Buffalo|Hertel Avenue area). As well, no sooner was the bed of the abandoned Erie Canal filled in than the monstrous Interstate 190 was built over its top. With the opening of I-190 in 1958, Buffalo was crucially cut off from its own waterfront; Front and Riverside Parks' serene river views were replaced by that of a noisy expressway. Thankfully, at the end of the 1960s, grassroots pressure forced the cancellation of plans for the West Side Arterial, another highway which would have bisected the Lower West Side along Virginia Street (the huge Niagara Street exit of I-190 and the intended west end of the West Side Arterial, is a gruesome example of what might have been in store for the neighborhood).

By the 1980s and the West Side was in rough shape. Though the Hispanic community that had replaced the Italians on the Lower West Side (and, later, spread northward to Prospect Hill and the Upper West Side) tried their best to keep the area up and the battle against drugs, crime and poverty at times seemed hopeless. However, glimmers of hope were emerging by the turn of the millennium and it came about that what saved the West Side was its trademark ethnic diversity — which, along with affordable housing and a low cost of living, began to attract newly landed immigrants to the neighborhood. By 2003, when Dr. Myron Glick founded Jericho Road Ministries, an offshoot of his Upper West Side medical training providing refugees assistance with food, housing, finances, literacy and education, Buffalo had overtaken New York City as the state's leading destination for new immigrants. At the same time, Buffalo State College was instrumental in helping small businesses sprout on Grant Street after student-oriented shops began being priced out of the increasingly tony Elmwood Village and D'Youville College also made massive investments in the surrounding neighborhood of Prospect Hill as it expanded during the 2000s. In turn, this investment attracted that of urban pioneers as well as preservationist-minded business owners such as Prish Moran the 2007 opening of whose Coffee shop S7|Sweet_ness 7 is widely seen as the single turning point that cemented Grant-Ferry's arrival as Buffalo's newest hip neighborhood. The boom in property values that resulted from all thit is still ongoing and today the West Side, probably more than any other area of Buffalo, is truly rising from the ashes.

How is the Climate in Buffalo/West Side

Much like downtown Buffalo but not nearly to the same extent and the West Side riverfront is noticeably cooler and windier than other areas of the city and region. The refreshing breezes are a big part of why local residents are drawn to waterfront oases like LaSalle Park during the stifling summer months, but by the same token, visitors looking to walk the Bird Island Pier during the spring or autumn would be well-advised to wear a windbreaker and long pants.

BuffaloBurmeseCommunityCenterSign - If you're in Buffalo and you come across a sign like this, you're most likely to be on the West Side! It's estimated that 40 or 50 languages are spoken in Buffalo and no doubt the majority of them are represented in this vibrant melting pot.

Local Languages

As the longtime home of Buffalo's Hispanic community, visitors to the West Side will likely hear Spanish spoken almost as frequently as English. Those who want to training their Spanish on the West Side may run into some difficulty, though: the fast-paced, somewhat slurred Caribbean dialects most often heard here may be difficult to understand for those used to standard Spanish.

However, Spanish's strong second-place position among languages spoken on the West Side is gradually eroding away: the growth of the immigrant communities that have settled here — particularly the area around Grant Street — means that visitors stand a good chance of hearing Burmese phrasebook|Burmese, Vietnamese phrasebook|Vietnamese, Minnan phrasebook|Taiwanese, Somali phrasebook|Somali and Amharic phrasebook|Amharic, among others.

Monolinguals need not worry — no matter their nationality, it's quite rare to encounter any West Side residents who cannot speak English at all.

Get in and around

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How to travel to Buffalo/West Side by car

Interstate 190 (I-190) passes along the length of the West Side riverfront from downtown to Tonawanda (and onward to Niagara Falls and the Canadian border), via which the whole neighborhood can be easily accessed:

• Exit 8 (Niagara Street) provides access to the West Village and the Lower West Side as well as downtown.
• Exit 9 (Peace Bridge via northbound lanes; Porter Avenue via southbound lanes) leads to Prospect Hill and also Fort Erie, Ontario via the Peace Bridge. Cars headed southbound exit directly onto Porter Avenue, with the Peace Bridge onramp accessible via the roundabout on the other side of the overpass. Northbound traffic can either proceed directly to Customs and over the bridge or else keep to the left lane and exit at the junction of Busti and Massachusetts Avenues. (Despite what the signs say and there's no direct access to Porter Avenue from the northbound 190).
• Exit 12 (Amherst Street) and Exit 13 (Austin Street) are accessible from the northbound lanes only, providing access to Black Rock and, in the former case, also to Grant-Amherst slightly further afield.
• Exit 14 (Vulcan Street via northbound lanes; Ontario Street via southbound lanes) is located in Riverside.

As well and the Scajaquada Expressway (NY 198) is a short highway that begins in Black Rock at Exit 11 of I-190, passing eastward through the West Side and Buffalo/North Buffalo|North Buffalo and ending on the Buffalo/East Side|East Side at the Kensington Expressway. The Scajaquada's Grant Street exit makes for a convenient route to Grant-Ferry, Grant-Amherst and Buffalo State College. There's also a Niagara Street exit accessible to westbound traffic only.

The main thoroughfare of the West Side is Niagara Street (NY 266), which begins downtown at Niagara Plaza and proceeds through the Lower West Side in a straight southeast-to-northwest orientation (in conformity with the old South Black Rock street grid); shortly after crossing Hampshire Street, it turns north and parallels the Niagara River shore through the Upper West Side, Black Rock, Riverside and on beyond the city line. As well, Grant Street the West Side's main shopping street, runs northward from Hampshire Street through the heart of the Upper West Side and into Black Rock, where it ends at Military Road.

Other main drags on the West Side include Richmond Avenue, a verdant, tree-lined boulevard designed by Frederick Law Olmsted that extends along the inner fringe of the West Side from Symphony Circle north to Forest Avenue and Tonawanda Street the main street of Black Rock and Riverside which splits off Niagara Street just north of Scajaquada Creek and runs north and northwest past the city line and into Tonawanda. From south to north, major crosstown routes on the West Side include: on the Lower West Side, Virginia Street, Porter Avenue, Connecticut Street, Massachusetts Avenue and Hampshire Street; on the Upper West Side, West Ferry Street, Lafayette Avenue, West Delavan Avenue and Forest Avenue; and in Black Rock and Riverside, Amherst Street, Hertel Avenue and Vulcan Street. Additionally, in Riverside, Ontario Street runs from a point on Niagara Street about midway between Hertel Avenue and Riverside Park northeastward to Kenmore Avenue, intersecting at acute angles with Niagara and Tonawanda Streets.

Driving in the Lower West Side can be tricky due to its many one-way streets. An easy trick to navigating the Lower West Side that dates back to the initial survey of the South Black Rock street grid is that most of the crosstown streets (those that run perpendicular to Niagara Street) are named after the United States' Eastern Seaboard states, with more southerly states closer to downtown and more northerly ones further out. Thus, anyone with basic knowledge of U.S. geography can judge what direction they're heading and roughly how many blocks they are from their destination. The system isn't perfect, though: the word "New" has been shed from the street names (for instance, it's "Jersey Street", not "New Jersey Street") and there's only one Carolina Street, rather than a North Carolina|North and South Carolina|South and the Olmsted-designed Porter Avenue supplanted the portion of York Street west of West Avenue in the early 1870s, Hudson Street interlopes between Maryland and Pennsylvania Streets and Maine and Delaware are not represented (respectively, to avoid confusion with Main Street and because Delaware Avenue already exists Buffalo/Allentown and the Delaware District|elsewhere in the city). After Hampshire Street the scheme of state names (and the old South Black Rock street grid) ends.

Grant-Ferry is the only place on the West Side where on-street parking is ever hard to find. Parking meters are in place on Grant Street between West Delavan Avenue and West Ferry Street, as well as on West Ferry for half a block in either direction from Grant. They're in effect till 5PM every day except Sunday, at a rate of 50¢ per hour to a maximum of 2 hours. Additionally, though parking is free north of West Delavan and the 2-hour maximum rule on Grant extends as far as Potomac Avenue, except Sundays.

Elsewhere on the West Side, parking is a breeze. Parking meters are in place on the Lower West Side along Niagara Street south of Hudson Street (the same rules apply as on Grant, but parking is $1.00 per hour) and in Riverside along Tonawanda Street between Hunt and Crowley Avenues. Signs indicate that paid parking in Riverside is in effect till 6PM every day but Sunday with rates of 50¢ per hour to a maximum of 2 hours, but word is that some or all of the meters don't work and are slated to be removed. As well and the 2-hour maximum rule is also in effect along Ontario Street between Tonawanda Street and Kenmore Avenue.

Grant-Amherst has no parking meters or restrictions of any kind, but visitors to that neighborhood should keep in mind that the lot on the north side of Amherst Street between Howell and Bush Streets is for the exclusive use of clients of Casey's Tavern and Nick's Place and enforcement is vigilant. If you can't find on-street parking along Amherst (unlikely), try the large lot at Tops Plaza at the junction of Grant Street.

Muslim Friendly Car Rentals in Buffalo/West Side

• Hertz - 369 Niagara St. 42.894506, -78.885438 Metro Bus 3, 5, 29 or 40 ☎ +1 716 854-5441 - Located at Sammy's Collision.

Car sharing

Members of Zipcar have access to their choice of three vehicles parked at Buffalo State College's Parking Lot G-22, opposite the Grant Street entrance to campus: a Honda Civic and a Ford Focus sedan are each available for a price of $7.50/hour or $69/day Monday - Th; $8.50/hour or $77/day F-Su, while a Ford Escape SUV goes for $8.50/hour or $77/day Monday - Th; $9.50/hour or $83/day F-Su. These rates all include fuel, insurance and 180 free miles (about 290 free kilometers) per day.

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.

If you'll be doing a lot of coming and going on the West Side via public transportation, you're likely at some point to have a transfer at the Black Rock-Riverside Transit Hub GPS 42.945656,-78.907246, located at the junction of Niagara and Ontario Streets. It's a major nexus for many of the Metro buses that serve the West Side, as well as North Buffalo and the northwestern suburbs of Tonawanda and Amherst (New York) | Amherst.

Travel on a Bus in Buffalo/West Side

The West Side is traversed by a number of NFTA Metro bus routes:

To and from downtown

NFTA Metro Buses #1 — William, #2 — Clinton and #4 — Broadway all begin and end on and take the same route to and from and the Lower West Side: outbound buses proceed southward down 4th Street from Carolina Street, turning left on West Genesee Street and entering downtown; inbound buses turn right from West Genesee Street onto 7th Street and proceed as far as Carolina Street. Buses #1, #2 and #4 end, respectively, at the AppleTree Business Park in Cheektowaga, at the Bank of America Operations Center in West Seneca and at the Thruway Mall Transit Center in Cheektowaga.

NFTA Metro Bus #3 — Grant. Beginning at the city line at the junction of Tonawanda and Vulcan Streets, Bus #3 serves Riverside via Vulcan and Skillen Streets, proceeding thenceforward down Military Road and Grant Street through Black Rock and the Upper West Side, with service to Buffalo State College. Turning right on Hampshire Street, inbound buses pass through the Lower West Side via Normal Avenue, York Street and West Avenue, emerging onto Carolina Street and proceeding downtown via Elmwood Avenue. Outbound buses serve the Lower West Side via Hudson Street and Plymouth Avenue, turning right on Hampshire Street and rejoining the above-described route.

NFTA Metro Bus #5 — Niagara-Kenmore. Beginning at the University Metro Rail Station, Bus #5 enters the West Side via Kenmore Avenue, serving Riverside via Ontario Street, Tonawanda Street and Vulcan Street. The bus then turns left at Niagara Street, passing through Black Rock with service to the Black Rock-Riverside Transit Hub then proceeds through the West Side proper, ending downtown.

NFTA Metro Bus #7 — Baynes-Richmond. Beginning at the Richardson-Olmsted Complex in the Elmwood Village, Bus #7 proceeds southward on Baynes Street through the Upper West Side and then turning on West Ferry Street and continuing southward down Richmond Avenue through the Lower West Side to Symphony Circle, ending downtown. Bus #7 does not run Saturdays, Sundays or holidays.

NFTA Metro Bus #40 — Buffalo-Niagara Falls. Beginning at the Portage Road Transit Center in Niagara Falls, Bus #40 proceeds through the West Side via Niagara Street, serving the Black Rock-Riverside Transit Hub on its way south toward downtown, where it ends. It is important to note that Route #40 does not serve passengers whose trips are located entirely south of Hertel Avenue.

Crosstown routes

NFTA Metro Bus #12 — Utica. Beginning at the junction of Niagara Street and Busti Avenue, eastbound buses on Route #12 head northward along Niagara Street, proceeding eastward through the Upper West Side and Grant-Ferry via West Ferry Street. Turning southward onto Richmond Avenue and the route then enters the Elmwood Village at West Utica Street and ends at the University Metro Rail Station.

NFTA Metro Bus #22 — Porter-Best. Beginning at the junction of Jersey Street and Lakeview Avenue, eastbound buses on Route #22 serve Prospect Hill via Jersey Street, 7th Street and Porter Avenue, entering the Elmwood Village at Symphony Circle and ending at the Thruway Mall Transit Center in Cheektowaga. Westbound buses proceed along Porter as far as Lakeview and then turning left and proceeding as far as Jersey Street.

NFTA Metro Bus #23 — Fillmore-Hertel. Beginning at the Black Rock-Riverside Transit Hub, Bus #23 serves Black Rock via Niagara Street before turning eastward at Hertel Avenue. From there and the bus enters North Buffalo, continues through the East Side via Fillmore Avenue and finally ends in Buffalo/South Buffalo|South Buffalo.

NFTA Metro Bus #26 — Delavan. Beginning at the junction of Niagara Street and West Delavan Avenue, eastbound buses on Route #26 proceed along West Delavan Avenue through the Upper West Side, ending at the Thruway Mall Transit Center in Cheektowaga. Westbound buses turn left from West Delavan to Herkimer Street and then proceed westward again via Lafayette Avenue and return to West Delavan via Niagara Street.

NFTA Metro Bus #29 — Wohlers. Beginning at the junction of Efner and Maryland Streets, eastbound buses on Route #29 proceed through the Lower West Side via Maryland Street. Buses then turn right on Cottage Street and enter Allentown, ending at the Delavan-Canisius College Metro Rail Station. Westbound buses serve Trenton, Esperar and Efner Streets, ending back at Maryland Street. Bus #29 does not run Saturdays, Sundays or holidays.

NFTA Metro Bus #32 — Amherst. Beginning at the Black Rock-Riverside Transit Hub, Bus #32 serves Black Rock via Niagara Street before turning eastward at Amherst Street. From there and the bus enters North Buffalo before finally ending its run at the Thruway Mall Transit Center in Cheektowaga.

NFTA Metro Bus #35 — Sheridan. Beginning at the Marina Vista Apartments, Bus #35 heads northward on Niagara Street, passing through Black Rock and Riverside with service to the Black Rock-Riverside Transit Hub. From there it crosses the city line into Tonawanda and ends its run in Amherst at the North Campus of the University at Buffalo.

By Metro Rail

The Metro Rail runs along Main Street, far east of here. However and the West Side is easily accessible from the Amherst Street, Delavan-Canisius College, Utica and Summer-Best Metro Rail Stations by way of NFTA Metro Buses #32, #26, #12 and #22, respectively. Those traveling to the West Side by both bus and subway are strongly advised to purchase a day pass for $5.00.

By bike

Riverwalkin' - The Shoreline Trail hugs the shore of the Niagara River as it heads north past the Fontana|Fontana Boathouse toward the Peace Bridge.

Buffalo has been making great strides in recent years in accommodating bicycling as a mode of transportation, with recognition from the League of American Bicyclists as a Bronze-Level "Bicycle-Friendly Community" to show for its efforts. The quality of bicycle infrastructure on the West Side is variable, but it's generally quite good by local standards and, as in the rest of the city, steadily improving. The Lower West Side is undoubtedly the most bicycle-friendly area in the neighborhood, populated largely by immigrants whose habituation to alternative modes of transportation, including bicycles, is imported from their home countries — as well as young, middle-class "urban pioneers" for whom carfreedom is a conscious choice.

Buffalo's oldest, largest and best-known bike path is the Shoreline Trail, a multi-use trail that connects the Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna to Gratwick Park in North Tonawanda via the West Side waterfront, for a total distance of 22.6 miles (36.4 kilometers). The Shoreline Trail passes into the West Side near the posh Waterfront Village condos and closely hugs the shore of Lake Erie and the Niagara River for its length, with excellent views over the water and easy access to many waterfront attractions including LaSalle Park the Fontana Boathouse, Broderick Park, Unity Island Park and Riverside Park. Best of all, for the vast majority of its length and the Shoreline Trail follows its own off-street right-of-way with no traffic to contend with — the exception is a short, unsigned stretch of 0.4 miles (700 m) along Busti Avenue and Niagara Street between Hampshire and West Ferry Streets, but the roadway boasts wide shoulders and sidewalks that provide a modicum of safety for cyclists. The trail is paved with asphalt in its entirety and a speed limit of 15 mph (24 km/h) is enforced.

As well as being a lovely trail in itself and the Shoreline Trail also serves as a central spine for Buffalo's larger network of bike paths. Branching off of it is the Jesse Kregal Pathway. The path follows the north shore of Scajaquada Creek opposite the expressway for a distance of 2.4 miles (3.8 kilometers), with the attractions of Black Rock and Grant-Amherst within easy striking distance. Passing out of the West Side and the Scajaquada Creekside Trail enters Delaware Park and ends near the Buffalo History Museum. Near its northern terminus in Tonawanda and the Shoreline Trail also connects with the Erie Canalway Trail.

As indicated above, in Prospect Hill and the Lower West Side especially, bike lanes and other lodgings have also been steadily added to the street grid. Among the streets which have been improved in this way is Richmond Avenue, with "sharrows" (pavement markings on roads too narrow to accommodate dedicated bike lanes, indicating that drivers should be aware of bicyclists on the road) in place between Forest Avenue and Colonial Circle and a dedicated bike lane on each side of the street from Colonial Circle south to Symphony Circle. The ongoing redesign of the Niagara Street corridor saw dedicated bike lanes added to the stretch between South Elmwood Avenue and Hudson Street, with sharrows north from there to Porter Avenue. Niagara Street also has bike lanes further north in Riverside, from Ontario Street north through Riverside Park to the city line. Elsewhere, Porter Avenue sports a dedicated bike lane on each side between Symphony Circle and Niagara Street plus a signed off-street bike path west of Niagara Street as far as LaSalle Park where it connects to the Shoreline Trail and Hudson Street boasts parallel bike lanes on each side between Plymouth and Busti Avenues, with sharrows in place east to Wadsworth Street and west to 4th Street with access to LaSalle Park via a pedestrian bridge over Interstate 190. As well, sharrows lead from Hudson Street to Symphony Circle by way of West Avenue and Pennsylvania Street and are in place on Connecticut Street between Niagara Street and Richmond Avenue, on Wadsworth Street from Symphony Circle to Allen Street, on Grant Street from Forest Avenue south to Hampshire Street, on Forest Avenue from Niagara Street to Richmond Avenue (from which point cyclists can continue eastward into the Elmwood Village via an off-street pathway) and on the entirety of Hampshire Street from Grant Street to the Shoreline Trail.

Bike sharing

The West Side has nine Buffalo#Bike sharing|Reddy Bikeshare racks:

• on the east side of Niagara Street between Virginia and Carolina Streets, alongside the back end of the Ru's Pierogi parking lot
• on the south side of Porter Avenue at the junction of Jersey Street and Normal Avenue, across the street from Grover Cleveland High School
• on the south side of Porter Avenue at the junction of Fargo Avenue, in front of the D'Youville College Center
• on the north side of Connecticut Street at the junction of Normal Avenue, in front of Horsefeathers Market
• on the south side of Vermont Street between West and Fargo Avenues, in front of West Side Community Services
• at the Five Points intersection, on the south side of West Utica Street at the junction of Rhode Island Street, across the street from Black Monarchy
• on the south side of Rhode Island Street at the junction of Landis Place, in front of Left Bank
• on the east side of Grant Street at the junction of Lafayette Avenue, in front of Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church and across the street diagonally from Sweet_ness 7
• on the north side of Amherst Street between Bush and Howell Streets, across from The Dapper Goose

Walk in Buffalo/West Side

The various neighborhoods of the West Side cover a large geographic area and it's not practical to see all of them without the aid of a car, bicycle, or public transit. Still and there are many lovely places for a stroll on the West Side. Aside from the bike paths and waterfront trails listed above, paramount among pedestrian-friendly West Side areas are the bustling Grant-Ferry commercial strip with its vibrant multiethnic street culture, as well as compact, charming Grant-Amherst. Visitors should be on guard after dark, though — for all its recent flourishing and the West Side remains one of the highest-crime areas of Buffalo and when the sun goes down these streets take on a noticeably sketchy character. See the #Stay safe|Stay safe section for more information.

What to See

History

x{{anchor|Karp

• Karpeles Manuscript Library (Porter Hall) 453 Porter Ave. 42.902435, -78.88593 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 22 ☎ +1 716 885-4139 Opening Hours: Sunday - Tuesday 11AM Monday - 4PM Free The brainchild of California real estate magnate David Karpeles and the Karpeles Manuscript Library is the world's largest privately-owned collection of historic documents and manuscripts. The library consists of twelve branches nationwide, including two in Buffalo: Porter Hall, located in Prospect Hill at the beautifully restored former home of the Plymouth Methodist Church and North Hall in Allentown. In addition to the travelling exhibits that rotate among all twelve branches of the library, Porter Hall houses the permanent collection of the Buffalo branch of the Karpeles Manuscript Library, including the William McKinley Room where original documents concerning the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley at Buffalo's Pan-American Exposition are displayed.

Art

In the wake of the gentrification that has lately transformed Allentown and the Elmwood Village from boho to bourgeois and the West Side is largely where the Buffalo art scene has reconvened in the 21st Century. Grant-Amherst and Five Points are home to some of the West Side's more longstanding artist communities, but nowadays the bulk of the action is on Niagara Street, where many of the old warehouses of the Upper West Side and Black Rock have been transformed into gallery spaces where the luminaries of the local scene exhibit. {{anchor|AKC

• Anna Kaplan Contemporary - formerly BT&C Gallery | 1250 Niagara St. 42.918242, -78.899323 Metro Bus 5, 12 or 40 ☎ +1 716 604-6183 Opening Hours: Thursday - Friday noon-5PM, Saturday noon-4PM Opened in February 2014 as the oddly named Body of Trade & Commerce Gallery the newly reborn Anna Kaplan Contemporary can be found in a converted warehouse on Niagara Street in the Upper West Side that's also home to Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper the Resurgence|Resurgence Brewery and is across the street from the new headquarters of Sugar City. Under the careful direction of its namesake, whose pedigree in the local arts community has included stints as curatorial assistant at the Buffalo/Elmwood Village#AKAG|Albright-Knox Art Gallery and on the faculty of Daemen College's fine arts department, Anna Kaplan Contemporary's focus is not only on hosting exhibitions of minimalist, abstract contemporary art in a diversity of media, but also — contrary to the majority of other Buffalo galleries whose promotional focus is strictly on the local market — to work actively in the marketing of local artists to galleries and collectors outside Western New York.

• Argus Gallery - 1896 Niagara St. 42.935540, -78.903010 Metro Bus 5, 32 or 40 ☎ +1 716 882-8100 - Operated by the same team of folks behind the Eleven Twenty Projects gallery on Main Street in Buffalo/Allentown and the Delaware District|Midtown, Black Rock's Argus Gallery launched in spring 2017 with a focus on supporting and nurturing emerging artists who come from communities that are underrepresented in the art world, through the exhibition of contemporary works in a variety of media that explore thought-provoking and sometimes controversial themes.

• Artsphere Studio & Gallery - 447 Amherst St. 42.939022, -78.887276 Metro Bus 3 or 32 ☎ +1 716 874-2863 Opening Hours: Thursday - Friday noon-5PM, Saturday 11AM Monday - 3PM or by appointment A pioneering institution in the now-burgeoning art scene in Grant-Amherst, Artsphere Studio opened in 2003, across the street from its current building. This bright, airy and spacious gallery features the work of its owner Doreen Boyer DeBoth, a painter, photographer and jewelrymaker; her husband, noted potter Douglas DeBoth, whose works are available for sale at the gallery; and other local artists working in a diverse variety of media. As well, temporary exhibitions are frequently held whose themes are often related to the rich history and unique identity of Black Rock and Grant-Amherst: Boyer DeBoth is a founding member of the BRHS|Black Rock Historical Society and spearheaded the Black Rock Historic Photo Project whose constituent works can be seen on the exterior walls of several Amherst Street buildings. As well, a modest selection of Books on local history and art are available for sale.

StFrancisXavier-BuffaloReligiousArtsCenter - The gargantuan complex in Black Rock that was once St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, which closed in 2007, is now the home of the Buffalo Religious Arts Center.x{{anchor|EssexArts

• Essex Arts Center 30 Essex St. 42.913639, -78.883159 Metro Bus 7 or 12 ☎ +1 716 667-2808 A complex of four buildings that serve as living quarters as well as studio and exhibition space for painters, sculptors, photographers, musicians and all manner of other artists and the Essex Arts Center has been a mainstay on the West Side for four decades running. The center traces its history back to 1969, when local steel sculptor Larry Griffis and his Ashford Hollow Foundation, which was established three years previously to administer the 400-acre (160 ha) sculpture park he'd established in Cattaraugus County, purchased the former Webster-Citizens Company Ice House to use as an arts studio and performance venue. The Essex Arts Center instantly attracted to its roster a veritable Who's Who of Buffalo's arts scene of the 1970s and '80s and over the years it has proven to be an incredibly prolific incubator of institutions that have gone on to become major players in the local arts scene — Buffalo/Downtown#Hallwalls|Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center the Buffalo/Downtown#CEPA|CEPA Gallery the dearly missed Artists' Committee Gallery all got their start from 30 Essex before striking out on their own and Big Orbit Gallery, founded in 1991 and described below, carries on the tradition at its original location. Besides the gallery and the Essex Arts Center also hosts frequent events such as art auctions, musical performances and educational workshops and seminars whose proceeds go directly to benefit the local arts community.

• Big Orbit Gallery 42.913824, -78.883784 ☎ +1 716 560-1968 Opening Hours: F-M noon-5PM or by appointment Established in 1991, Big Orbit Gallery is a collective run by and for artists, featuring a changing schedule of experimental exhibitions in a diversity of media. This expansive gallery — situated in a former warehouse whose high ceiling, adjacent interior courtyard and minimalist decor lend it a cavernous, airy ambience — features diverse exhibitions of works by local artists. Everything from traditional media like painting and photography, to performance art and sound sculpture, to genre-defying, avant-garde spectacle of all kinds can be found here. These works are united by their transcendence of cultures and viewpoints: Big Orbit Gallery prides itself not only on bringing established artists from the Buffalo area to the national and international stage, but also on building awareness of emerging artists of underrepresented demographics. A word of warning: updates to their website are sporadic at best, so Facebook or the pages of Artvoice are probably better options for those who want to see what's on at Big Orbit.

• The Fargo House - 287 Fargo Ave. 42.904691, -78.891610 Metro Bus 3, 5, 22, or 40 - Opening Hours: Open by appointment This handsome old Victorian in Prospect Hill is part private residence, part archaeological dig and part art gallery: award-winning artist, architect, author and UB professor Dennis Maher bought it in 2009 when it was on the city's demolition list and has been living in and renovating it ever since, a process that has yielded a treasure trove of salvaged structural and decorative elements that he assembles — along with found items from thrift stores, flea markets and other sources — into imaginative collages displayed in the gallery space on the house's first floor. This ongoing project has earned him praise from the New York Foundation for the Arts and in the pages of the New York Times, among others. Aside from Maher's own work and the Fargo House also occasionally hosts exhibitions by other artists from the local area.

• Sugar City 1239 Niagara St. 42.917574, -78.898957 Metro Bus 5, 12 or 40 - Sugar City is the loose arts collective that's been best known recently for their impromptu "guerrilla"-style art shows and performances that have popped up at various spots around town over the two-year interval between their departure from their former home on Wadsworth Street in Allentown and the grand opening of their new one in the Upper West Side. True to their usual nature, most of the renovation work at the new facility was performed by the seven "Sugar Citizens" themselves, but it wouldn't be exactly accurate to pin the "DIY" label on the collective: its community-based, participatory approach to art would be better described as "do it together". The exhibit space in Sugar City's front room is given over to those artists who cannot obtain space in more traditional galleries, with an aim of blurring the lines and redefining what is and is not considered art. There's probably no way to describe the exhibits you'll find here, other than to say these are the misfits of Buffalo's art scene whose creative output defies categorization, so expect the unexpected.

• The WASH Project 593 Grant St. 42.930134, -78.888940 Metro Bus 3 or 7 ☎ +1 716 253-1068 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 11AM Monday - 5PM and during events The humble West Side Value Laundromat on Massachusetts Avenue is hardly the place you'd expect to be a reliable clearinghouse for information on community cultural happenings, let alone the venue for art studio space, a small library and a wide gamut of artistic and cultural events. Yet that's exactly what the WASH Project (the acronym stands for "Westside Art Strategy Happenings") consists of. Owner Zaw Win, one of the West Side's growing legion of Burmese refugees who boasts a long history of political activism in his home country, teamed up in 2012 with local activist Barrett Gordon and financial benefactors including Houghton College the local chapter of AmeriCorps to turn his laundromat into a beehive of community cultural life where the accent, not surprisingly, is on the diverse patchwork of ethnic groups that have forged a cohesive community on the West Side. At the WASH Project's small gallery, you can peruse monthly changing exhibitions of work by local artists, attend classes and workshops on a wide range of artistic subjects, create your own masterpiece in the "Creative Spin" studio (chalk art on the sidewalk outside the building is popular during the warmer months) — and maybe throw in a load of laundry while you're at it. NOTE: The WASH Project has temporarily moved to a new location in Grant-Ferry, where it will remain until fall 2018 while renovations on their original Massachusetts Avenue location are ongoing. Laundry facilities are available across the street at The Laundry Spot. The address and directions given in this listing are for the temporary location.

Breweries

Though Buffalo/South Buffalo|Larkinville and the Old First Ward have lately usurped the title of epicenter of the incipient Buffalo craft brewing and distilling industry and the West Side retains a measure of importance as home of two of the heavy hitters of the local scene. x{{anchor|Resurgence

• Resurgence Brewery - 1250 Niagara St. Metro Bus 5, 12 or 40 ☎ +1 716 381-9868 Opening Hours: Tours by appointment With a moniker that pays tribute to the newfound ambition and vigor in Buffalo (and particularly on the emerging stretch of Niagara Street where the brewery is located) and the Resurgence Brewery opened in June 2014 in the wake of $1 million in renovations to the former Sterling Engine Company warehouse that's also home to the offices of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper the AKC|Anna Kaplan Contemporary gallery. Co-owners Jeff Ware and Dave Collins are Buffalo natives who've put to work their extensive experience in the brewing industry and research of organic juice culture across North America in the manufacture of premium-quality craft soft drinks in their own hometown. The company's goal for their first year is to produce 3,000 barrels of over a hundred different brews, ranging from standards such as Belgian tripel, saison and India pale ale to locally-themed flavors such as "Loganberry Wit" and "Sponge Candy Stout". Also in the pipeline is a pilot brewing program, where organic juice buffs can dream up their own recipes, have a few small batches brewed and sampled by clients, with the potential for those that prove most popular to earn a permanent slot on the menu.

Outdoors

BroderickParkFishing - A typical sight at Broderick Park: anglers casting their lines into the waters of the upper Niagara River.

Parks

The West Side is the greenest part of Buffalo — in particular and the waterfront is the place to find Buffalonians basking in the summer sun and enjoying cool breezes off the lake and river. Among the West Side's parks are two that were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and the eminent landscape architect who did some of his best work here in Buffalo. x{{anchor|MAP

• Massachusetts Avenue Project 389 Massachusetts Ave. 42.912305, -78.887496 Metro Bus 3 ☎ +1 716 882-5327 Opening Hours: Staff-led tours Tuesday 4PM & Saturday 10:30AM $2 suggested donation Founded in 1992 by West Side residents and the Massachusetts Avenue Project's vision encompasses access to affordable and nutritious food for all and the transformation of blighted urban areas into productive green space, community education and economic betterment on a grassroots level. Its centerpiece is the Growing Green Urban Farm the first one in Buffalo, located on thirteen vacant lots totalling more than an acre (4,000 square meters) in area. Produce is grown in a large greenhouse as well as expansive garden beds and the farm also features a small orchard of fruit trees, free-range chickens and a fish hatchery — all kept green by a state-of-the-art, rainwater-fed aquaponics system installed in 2009. Farm work is performed by local youths recruited through the Mayor's Summer Youth Program, educating them with information about healthy food as well as valuable work skills. There's also a farm stand onsite where the fruits of the land are sold.

Life Memorial Park - Located at the junction of Porter and Normal Avenues, Life Memorial Park GPS 42.902700,-78.885237 is a component of the Fargo Estate Historic District that signifies a wholly different aspect of the neighborhood's historical identity: namely and the community who, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, settled in the neighborhood after migrating westward from Allentown in search of cheaper housing. At the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, an important neighborhood institution for these individuals was the Benedict House, a communal apartment for AIDS patients located a block from here on Jersey Street. The park was established by community residents on what was then a vacant lot in commemoration of Buffalonians who had fallen victim to this deadly disease.

Architecture

More and more, Buffalo's exquisite and impeccably maintained architecture has grabbed the attention of local residents and tourists alike. As of June 2017 and there are 12 historic neighborhoods in Buffalo 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. Five of those neighborhoods are located on the West Side:

• Fargo Estate Historic District 42.900515, -78.886767 - Fargo Estate Historic District - Covering an irregularly-shaped expanse of 49 acres (20 ha) on the south slope of Prospect Hill bounded very roughly by Prospect Avenue, Hudson Street, Normal Avenue, York Street and Porter Avenue and the Fargo Estate Historic District is located right next door to the Allentown Historical District, with which it shares some similarities especially in terms of architecture. The neighborhood's namesake is the opulent country manor that once occupied two and a half of these blocks — home to William Fargo, a onetime Buffalo mayor and millionaire shipping magnate who went down in history as co-founder of Wells, Fargo & Co. — but the Fargo Estate itself was short-lived, existing only for two decades before Fargo's heirs subdivided the land into residential lots around 1890. What you'll see here now is a tract of two- and three-story wood-frame or brick houses that date to between roughly 1880 and 1930 and were once home to a middle-class Italian-American community; one of the most historically intact residential neighborhoods on the West Side. Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles dominate, along with some later styles such as Craftsman and American Foursquare. Today, it's the intactness of the period streetscape, more so than any individual buildings, that's at the heart of the Fargo Estate's appeal to fans of architecture and urban design. However, if you're interested in seeing some neighborhood historical and architectural monuments, you can head to the former Plymouth Methodist Episcopal Church at 453 Porter Ave., built in 1911 and now home to the Karp|Karpeles Manuscript Library, or the lovely Second Empire-style Engine No. 2 and Hook and Ladder No. 9 fire house (1875, 310 Jersey St.) Another facet of the neighborhood's history is exemplified by Life Memorial Park at the junction of Porter and Normal Avenues, a pleasant garden established in 1992 in commemoration of local victims of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

• Market Plaza Historic District 42.934943, -78.900634 - Market Street Historic District (Buffalo, New York) - This small historic neighborhood is centered on the three blocks of Amherst Street between Niagara and Tonawanda Streets, represents what was originally the village center of Lower Black Rock; the wide grassy esplanade flanking each side of Amherst Street's westernmost block, now filled with historic monuments and interpretive panels, was once the site of a large public market gifted to the village by its founder, Peter Porter. In contrast to what was once called Upper Black Rock, which became heavily industrialized after annexation and grew into an integral part of the city, Lower Black Rock retained its independent spirit and, even in the present day, still has the look and feel of a small village. The architecture of the buildings here — which include some of the oldest extant houses in Buffalo — comprises fine examples of such styles as the Italianate, Queen Anne, Greek Revival and Federal. The red-brick Gothic St. John's United Evangelical Church (81 Amherst St., 1890) and the Federal-style Jacob Schmidt House and Tavern and Stephen W. Howell House and Store (71 Amherst St. and 189 Dearborn St. respectively, both c. 1830) and the gargantuan FrankX|St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church (161 East St., 1912) are some of the historic sites to be found in the Market Plaza Historic District.

• Prospect Hill Historic District 42.903307, -78.895719 - Located on the waterfront near the foot of the Peace Bridge at the west end of the larger neighborhood with which it shares its name and the Prospect Hill Historic District is a 21-acre (8.5ha), five-block cluster of single- and two-family homes bounded roughly by Busti Avenue, Rhode Island Street, Niagara Street, Columbus Parkway, 7th Street and Porter Avenue. The houses in the neighborhood span a relatively long period of history — from the 1850s through the 1950s, roughly — during which time Prospect Hill's evolution from a proto-suburban scattering of houses and small farms on the outskirts of town to a well-off inner-city neighborhood populated by the upper crust of Buffalo's Italian-American community was set into motion largely by Frederick Law Olmsted's park system and the far Western reaches of which — Front Park, Porter Avenue and Prospect Park — abut the neighborhood. Though it held up to Buffalo's late 20th-century decline better than most West Side neighborhoods and remains a desirable address today, sadly and the majority of Prospect Hill's most historic buildings have been lost to the wrecking ball over time — notably and the castlelike Fort Porter (built in 1844 at the north end of Front Park and used by the military as a customs and guard house) and the Tuscan villa-style Colonel Samuel Wilkeson House (c. 1863, once located at 771 Busti Ave.) were demolished for two separate expansions of the Peace Bridge plaza, in 1926 and 2013 respectively. However and the neighborhood still contains a number of handsome homes in a wide variety of architectural styles.

• Upper Black Rock Local Historic District 42.918824, -78.899288 - Comprising the buildings on either side of Niagara Street between Breckenridge Street and Lafayette Avenue, as well as the adjacent buildings to the West on Mason Street, thit is a remarkably intact period streetscape that dates from the years between 1885 and 1915, when the "Upper Rock" was a buzzing industrial neighborhood at the crossroads of numerous methods of transportation — the old warehouses and factory buildings on the west side of the street back up directly onto the New York Central Railroad tracks and what was once the Erie Canal, while the east side of the street is characterized by houses and storefronts serving the working-class residents of the neighborhood. Some of the buildings you'll see in the Upper Black Rock Historic District are the former Sterling Engine Company (1246-1270 Niagara St.), built in 1907 and now redeveloped as the home of Resurgence|Resurgence Brewery the AKC|Anna Kaplan Contemporary gallery and the old Union Meeting House (44 Breckenridge St.), which predates all other buildings in the neighborhood as the oldest extant church building in Buffalo, erected in 1827.

• West Village Historic District 42.892253, -78.879221 - West Village Historic District (Buffalo, New York) - Much like the Fargo Estate Historic District and the West Village is a period residential neighborhood located on the site of what was once a large private estate: in this case, that of Buffalo's first mayor, Dr. Ebenezer Johnson, which was sold to developers after he left town in 1850. The West Village is the closest part of the West Side to downtown — 22 acres (9 ha) bounded by South Elmwood Avenue, Tracy Street, Carolina Street, Whitney Place and West Chippewa Street — and it contains a veritable encyclopedia of late-19th Century architectural styles, with the Italianate, French Second Empire, Romanesque Revival and Gothic Revival all well-represented. In addition and the single-family dwellings that dominated the neighborhood through the 1800s were joined around the turn of the century by a few handsome brownstone apartment buildings. As with the Fargo Estate neighborhood and the appeal of the West Village doesn't have as much to do with individual buildings as with its overarching identity as an unusually intact example of an attractive mid-19th Century residential neighborhood — as well as its street pattern, where the radial avenues laid out by Joseph Ellicott in Buffalo meet the diagonally-tilted old South Black Rock gridiron in an irregular labyrinth centered on Johnson Park, deeded to the city by the former mayor on what was once the site of his front lawn and redesigned by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1876. Nonetheless and the Gothic Revival Prospect Avenue Baptist Church at 262 Prospect Ave. (corner of Georgia St.), built in 1867 and enlarged in 1881, is a real beauty.

Prospect Hill is also home to one of the Niagara Frontier's six Frank Lloyd Wright buildings: {{anchor|Fontana

• Fontana Boathouse 40 Porter Ave. 42.900635, -78.901878 Metro Bus 22 ☎ +1 716 362-3140 Opening Hours: Open for tours (April - September: check website for schedule, October - Mar: by appointment only) Tours $10 The only boathouse ever designed by the eminent Frank Lloyd Wright and the Charles and Marie Fontana Boathouse has perhaps the most unusual history of any of Buffalo's Wright buildings. Designed in 1905 (contemporaneously with Wright's most famous Buffalo commissions and the lost Buffalo/South Buffalo#Admin|Larkin Administration Building the very-much-alive Buffalo/North Buffalo#DDM|Darwin D. Martin House), it was intended to be built for the University of Wisconsin Boat Club in Madison, but was instead built in Buffalo — in 2007, over a century after Wright's design was finalized — and only thanks to the dogged efforts of a local group of Wright aficionados financed largely by Buffalo-born screenwriter Tom Fontana. The only alteration to the original design was the replacement of the stucco on the exterior walls with concrete. The Fontana Boathouse does double duty today as both the working boathouse of the West Side Rowing Club and a destination for the growing legion of architectural tourists who come to Buffalo to see the works of Wright and other greats. It's also available to rent for private events.

Top Muslim Travel Tips for Buffalo/West Side

Festivals and events

Yet once again, "diversity" is the key word when it comes to the West Side's calendar of festivals. There seems to be an annual event for every component of the area's identity — from the immigrants of Grant-Ferry, to the working-class Germans of Black Rock, to the hipster-friendly Buffalo Small Press Book Fair.

Spring

• Buffalo Small Press Book Fair - Held annually in early April and the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair sees authors, artists, poets, booksellers, bookmakers and book enthusiasts descend on Karpeles Manuscript Library'sPorter Hall to break bread, exchange ideas and interact with fans and aspiring authors. Books, zines, artwork and other materials can be purchased and sold and lectures, symposia, poetry readings and other cultural performances are also put on. Attendance is free of charge and open to the public.

Summer

• Discover Amherst Street Festival Every year since 1997 on the third Saturday in June and the Discover Amherst Street Festival has shined a limelight on the newly revitalized neighborhood of Grant-Amherst. A huge variety of activities, events and sales are put on by neighborhood businesses all day, culminating with a parade that begins at noon at the festival's ground zero and the historic Flemish Renaissance-style Ladder #12 Firehouse. Trolley rides and horse-drawn buggies traverse Amherst Street all afternoon, live music is performed at various places around the neighborhood and don't forget the annual weiner-eating contest at Spar|Spar's European Sausages!

• Taste of Diversity - The Taste of Diversity has been held on Grant Street every summer since 2003 on varying dates and has become the most popular street festival on the West Side, with almost 2,000 attendees gathering on the block between Lafayette and Auburn Avenues in the heart of the strip. As might be inferred from its title, what's celebrated at the Taste of Diversity are the delicious and vibrant cuisines of each of the West Side's vibrant ethnic communities. But don't mistake this for a clone of downtown'sTaste of Buffalo: rather than the area's hoity-toitiest restaurants duking it out for prize money and publicity and the Taste of Diversity takes a decidedly more grassroots approach, where the food is prepared by smaller, more humble (but, it should be emphasized, equally delicious and arguably more authentic) neighborhood restaurants and food trucks and where the goal is to celebrate the beauty of West Side's diversity — and perhaps more importantly and the fact that a united, cohesive community with an increasingly high quality of life has been forged out of these disparate elements. Festivities at the Taste of Diversity also comprise traditional music, dancing and other events representing the full spectrum of the West Side's cultural rainbow.

Autumn

{{anchor|Okt

• Black Rock Riverside Oktoberfest - Inaugurated in 2016 as the largest of several observances that compete for the attention of Buffalo's German-American and Germanophile communities (others include River Rocktoberfest on Grant Street and a celebration at the Central Terminal on the East Side) and the festivities at Black Rock Riverside Oktoberfest begin in the afternoon at the Artisan Kitchens & Baths GPS 42.936785,-78.896355 warehouse on Amherst Street with live oompah music, a ceremonial keg tapping of special Oktoberfest and kiosks staffed by various neighborhood businesses and restaurants, before continuing late into the night at a range of Halal restaurants all over Black Rock, Riverside, Grant-Amherst and West Hertel (shuttle service between venues lasts through 1AM), each of which have their own lineups of soft-drink specials, delicious (German) food, music and revelry.

Ice skating

{{anchor|Bakewell

• Ruben (Bud) Bakewell Ice Rink 2607 Niagara St. 42.955747, -78.909286 At Riverside Park; Metro Bus 5, 35 or 40 ☎ +1 716 875-4820 Opening Hours: Sunday & Friday 2PM Monday - 3:50PM, Monday 3PM Monday - 4:50PM, Thursday 5PM Monday - 6:50PM, Saturday 1PM Monday - 2:50PM except during special events, October - Feb only City residents $2, non-residents $3, skate rental $3

Boat cruises

• Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper Tours ☎ +1 716 852-7483 Opening Hours: Check website for schedule Free

Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper the community organization whose mission is to contribute to Buffalo's revitalization through the remediation of local waterways, holds a series of educational kayak tours in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and points between. The lineup of tours changes from year to year, but as an example, on the West Side the 2014 schedule included the annual Scajaquada Creek Regatta, a "leisurely paddle down the Black Rock Canal and up historic Scajaquada Creek, an underutilized resource full of history and ecology" that launched at the Great Lakes Center GPS 42.899095,-78.901841 off Porter Avenue. Participants can bring their own kayak or reserve one of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper's limited supply.

• Classic Cruises - 1 Dann St. 42.934075, -78.903997 At Rich Marina; Metro Bus 5, 32, 35 or 40 ☎ +1 716 946-7246 Opening Hours: By appointment $50 per hour Offering customized cruises for up to 6 people on the Summerlove, a 1956-model Chris Craft express cruiser with ample room on the deck for sightseeing, sunbathing or just taking in the surroundings, "Captain Rich" and "First Mate Pat" will take you anywhere you want to go on the upper Niagara River — whether it be a trip through the historic Black Rock lock, a cruise down to Buffalo/Downtown|Canalside, a visit to the Erie Canal or Beaver Island State Park, a full circle around Grand Island, or whatever suits your fancy. A relaxing day on the water is in store for clients: as the website put it, "the way she cuts through the water and the smell of varnish and the sight of glistening mahogany wood and the rumble of a vintage motor all lend themselves to an unforgettable experience." In case of inclement weather, you can reschedule your cruise at no charge (subject to availability) or else receive a full refund.

Theater

• Kavinoky Theatre 320 Porter Ave. 42.902455, -78.891184 Metro Bus 3, 5, 22 or 40 ☎ +1 716 829-7668 - The Kavinoky Theatre is located in Prospect Hill on the campus of D'Youville College. Over the course of its history, not only has the Kavinoky Theatre thoroughly restored the historic former Porter-View Room under the auspices of the D'Youville Capital Campaign, but this local repertory company of professional actors has produced nearly 150 plays and musicals of a consistently high quality, earning them more awards than any other troupe in Buffalo. The Kavinoky Theatre has given many actors of local extraction their start in the business.

• New Phoenix Theatre on the Park 95 Johnson Park 42.892982, -78.879889 Metro Bus 3, 5, 11, 20, 25 or 40 ☎ +1 716 853-1334 - Buffalo's premier alternative theatre and the New Phoenix Theatre on the Park opened in 1996 in a historic house in the Gulf countries Village and has quickly gained an impressive reputation for the high-quality, diverse range of performances it has hosted in its tiny space, trending heavily towards bold contemporary works of theatre as well as avant-garde reinterpretations of old favorites. The New Phoenix Theatre on the Park hopes to foster a spirit of community collaboration not only through its exciting theatrical offerings, but also by playing an active role in the ongoing revitalization of the West Village neighborhood.

Live music

Grant-Amherst is the place to go on the West Side for live music, with a trio of venues that are among the best-loved in Buffalo. As well and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra has its magnificent home stage on Symphony Circle. xxxx{{anchor|TabernacleVenue

• The Tabernacle 211 Lafayette Ave. Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26 ☎ +1 716 883-1738 A full calendar of rock, jazz and acoustic performances await in the incomparable environs of the pub-cum-performance venue Prish Moran opened in 2018 next door to her iconic S7|Sweetness 7 coffeeshop. A #TabernacleBar|psychedelic interior covered with garish frescoes lends the Tabernacle a trippy, jittery vibe described in Step Out Buffalo as reminiscent of such long-gone '90s-era underground coffeeshops as Stimulance and Coffee &.

• The WASH Project 417 Massachusetts Ave. Metro Bus 7 or 12 ☎ +1 716 253-1068 - This neighborhood laundromat-cum-cultural nucleus boasts WASH the Mic!, a bimonthly open-mic event where local musicians come to jam, as well as a monthly curated concert series that's a showcase for the local ambient, drone and experimental noise scenes.

Study in Buffalo/West Side

{{marker|type=listing* D'Youville College GPS 42.903355,-78.890543 is a private Catholic college that's been located in Prospect Hill since 1908. The college was established by the famous Grey Nuns of Montreal|Montréal and named after their founder, St. Marie-Marguerite d'Youville. A pioneer in the field of higher education for women, D'Youville was the first college in the Niagara Frontier to admit women and though it went co-ed in the 1970s, its student body is still about three-quarters female. The school has expanded aggressively over the past quarter-century, taking a leading role in neighborhood revitalization and constructing many new buildings in the area (and rehabbing several vacant ones too) for their use. Today, D'Youville is a robust college with a student body of 2,700, including over 1,000 post-graduate students. Undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs are offered in a wide range of fields such as international business, education and information technology, but especially in health-related professions such as nursing, dietetics, chiropractic and physical therapy.

Shopping in Buffalo/West Side

Grant-Ferry and the Upper West Side

Every shopping neighborhood in Buffalo seems to have its own specialty. On Elmwood it's the latest in trendy urban fashions, Allentown has art galleries galore and Hertel Avenue is the place for antiques and home decor. As for Grant Street — well, if you're in the market for ethnic handicrafts or exotic foods and you can't find what you're looking for here, you're probably out of luck. xx{{anchor|ASB

• Asia Super Bazaar 294 W. Ferry St. 42.915424, -78.890717 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 12 ☎ +1 716 939-3210 Opening Hours: Daily 9AM Monday - 9:30PM Owned by the same folks who run BGHM|Buffalo Grocery and Halal Meats on the Lower West Side, this place bills itself as a specialty grocery selling "Bangladeshi, (Pakistani), Indian, Burmese, Vietnamese, Nepali, Arabian, Somalian, African, Spanish and American food and spices". But that's a bit of an exaggeration — the offerings here consist of a selection of South and East Asian packaged foods that's really nothing special by Grant Street standards, plus some convenience-store Snacks, basic toiletries and a smattering of toys, bedding, clothes and gifts. One strong point Asia Super Bazaar does boast is a large frozen food section containing some interesting exotic goodies.

• Bungtla Asian Market 540 Grant St. 42.928720, -78.889441 Metro Bus 3 or 7 ☎ +1 716 768-2655 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 9AM Monday - 8PM, Saturday 9AM Monday - 9PM This shop takes its name from one of the most spectacular natural wonders of Myanmar's Western Myanmar|Chin State and it's certainly indicative of the type of food you'll find there. Bungtla's aisles are stocked mainly with Southeast Asian staples such as Rice and dried noodles, as well as Snacks, dried vegetables, spices and other nonperishables, but head for the pair of stand-up coolers on the far side of the store and you'll find a pretty good selection of fresh(-ish) produce.

• Golden Myanmar 92 Grant St. 42.916349, -78.890691 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 12 ☎ +1 716 551-0175 Opening Hours: Daily 9AM Monday - 7PM Golden Myanmar serves the growing community of immigrants and refugees from that country that have settled on Buffalo's West Side with a wide range of Burmese groceries, including fresh seafood, Meat and vegetables, as well as canned, packaged and frozen foods. For fans of Southeast Asian cuisine and the perpetually crowded aisles of Golden Myanmar are an excellent place to find exotic and unusual products and ingredients that aren't available anywhere else in Buffalo. Pots, pans, woks and miscellaneous kitchenware are also on offer.

• Hatimy Market 278 Grant St. 42.921493, -78.890387 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26 ☎ +1 716 884-8836 Opening from Monday to Saturday 9:30AM Monday - 7PM, Sunday 10AM Monday - 6PM Mirroring the neighborhood in which it's located, diversity is the name of the game at this friendly food market. Hatimy Market's helpful staff, helmed by Somali-born UB nursing student Ali Mohamed, serves nearly all of the West Side's varied communities of immigrants with a maddeningly eclectic variety of groceries from Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Arab world. Meat from beef and Chicken to lamb and goat, many of them certified https://, are joined on the shelves by seafood, canned goods, Rice, spices and various and sundry food items.

• Jomow International Market 188 Grant St. 42.919138, -78.890678 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26 ☎ +1 716 239-3474 Opening Hours: Opens daily at 10AM, closing time flexible Founded in 2010 under the name Marka Halal Market, thit is yet another West Side destination for imported African and Arabian Halal Food. A variety of general groceries are stocked, but Jomow International Market's true claim to fame is its wide selection of meats, from beef and fish to goat and camel.

• Kat Food Market 287 Grant St. 42.921759, -78.889974 Metro Bus 3 or 26 ☎ +1 716 259-9780 Opening from Monday to Saturday 10AM Monday - 6:30PM Founded in 2014 and the name of the game at this ethnic grocery at the north end of the Grant-Ferry strip is African and Middle Eastern specialty foods: from staples like Rice and fufu flour, to frozen foods, to a wide selection of fresh produce, meats and fish. A range of toiletry products and other daily crucials are also on offer.

• Renisha Mini Mart 289 Grant St. 42.921905, -78.889955 Metro Bus 3 or 26 ☎ +1 716 715-6979 Opening Hours: Daily 9AM Monday - 8:30PM The name has changed, but everything else remains much the same at the erstwhile Sagarmatha Grocery: a full range of fresh produce, canned and packaged foods and spices and a somewhat more modest selection of fresh produce and meats, to serve the palettes of Buffalo's Nepalese and Bhutanese immigrant communities, as well as other aficionados of those cuisines. That's not to say the rest of the multicultural West Side tapestry is neglected: there's an impressive range of Goya products for the local Latinos and Burmese and African foods on offer too.

• Win Asian Market 113 Grant St. 42.917112, -78.890404 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 12 ☎ +1 716 887-3908 Opening from Monday to Saturday 9AM Monday - 8PM, Sunday 9AM Monday - 6PM This place's small size and spartan interior belie an impressive variety of Burmese and other Southeast Asian grocery items that serve the culinary needs of the West Side's burgeoning community of immigrants and refugees.

Clothing and accessories

When it comes to cute, hip clothing boutiques, Grant Street is still a long way behind more established retail areas in Buffalo such as the Elmwood Village and Hertel Avenue. However, those in search of authentic, vibrantly-colored ethnic clothing and urban streetwear should be pleased with the offerings in the area. x{{anchor|GlobalVillages

• Global Villages 216 Grant St. 42.919867, -78.890580 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26 ☎ +1 716 887-3889 Opening from Monday to Saturday 7AM Monday - 9PM Best described as a locally-based iteration of Buffalo/Elmwood Village#10K|Ten Thousand Villages, Global Villages is where Rwanda-born Louise Sano sells a range of unique, hand-selected jewelry, accessories, soaps and bath items and fair-trade handicrafts from around the world. More interesting still is the book section, featuring a small range of literature primarily on African topics. Best of all, Sano prides herself on her extensive familiarity with her suppliers and their work, whether it be a traditional artisan in Kenya or Thailand, a local crafter on the West Side, or Sano herself, who designs much of the jewelry sold here.

• San-Bor Sports 116 Grant St. 42.917074, -78.89078 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 12 ☎ +1 716 881-5922 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 10AM Monday - 6PM, Saturday 10AM Monday - 5PM For over forty years, through all the ups and downs of the surrounding neighborhood, San-Bor has been at local residents' service in the realm of sporting goods — and even more than that, with a wide selection of sportswear. Here you'll find a wide gamut of athletic shoes (including Converse and Air Jordans), baseball caps, custom sports jerseys, jeans and other casual urban streetwear — plus, in season, a range of bubble jackets, boots and other cold-weather gear to see clients through the bleak Buffalo winters. If you want to really buy local, pick up a designer t-shirt from the Buffalo-based boutique label Stacks and Kicks.

• Unity Traditional Clothes & Grocery 85 Grant St. 42.916307, -78.890391 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 12 ☎ +1 716 398-6366 After a brief stint occupying a cramped space in the back corner of the Bazaar|West Side Bazaar, Unity Traditional Clothes moved in 2018 to its own storefront up the road apiece — and with the expansion of the retail space has come an expansion in the range of tems they sell. Owner Ezgiamn Aka still sells traditional garb from her native Eritrea and elsewhere in the Horn of Africa (bright colors and vibrant patterns abound, as usual) along with the same interesting selection of jewelry and accessories, but now a full range of African groceries is on hand as well. And if you're in need of custom alterations and tailoring, look no further!

Books

• Rust Belt Books - 415 Grant St. 42.925243, -78.889586 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26 ☎ +1 716 885-9535 Opening Hours: Monday noon-6PM, Tuesday - West 10:30AM Monday - 6PM, Thursday - Saturday 10:30AM Monday - 8PM, Sunday 11AM Monday - 5PM One of Buffalo's best and best-loved, secondhand bookstores, with an exhaustive selection of reading material of every genre — from old cookbooks to '70s music journalism to esoteric feminist essays to the classics of literature — and an enthusiastic and helpful staff and colorful clientele. More than that, Rust Belt Books' relentless devotion to the local community sees them playing host to a variety of community happenings, as well as poetry readings, plays and other special events.

• West Side Stories - 205 Grant St. 42.919580, -78.890303 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26 ☎ +1 716 803-8173 Opening Hours: Monday, West & Friday 11AM Monday - 6PM, Saturday 10AM Monday - 6PM, Sunday 10AM Monday - 3PM West Side Stories is a friendly, cozy independent bookstore, well-kept yet unpretentious, with a wide-ranging selection of over 12,000 gently used Books ranging from biography to mystery to kids' Books to sci-fi to the classics of literature, at prices that never exceed $10. Thit is a good place for families with children: there's a play area to safely leave the little ones in while parents take some time to themselves strolling the aisles and store policy allows kids to choose a book to take home with them for free (one per person per visit). They also do a brisk side business selling used records ($3.50 each).

Furniture and home decor

• Priceless Home Decor 118 Grant St. 42.917193, -78.890775 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 12 ☎ +1 716 436-2450 Opening from Monday to Saturday noon-6PM Whether you're looking for something for your living room, dining room, or bedroom, or in the market for new kitchen appliances, washer and dryer, TVs, or practically anything else for your home, furniture, appliance and home electronics emporium has you covered with aplomb. Both formal and casual styles are available, all united by a genuine class that may come as a surprise to those whose first impression is the rather humble exterior of the shop.

Music

• Black Dots 363 Grant St. 42.923935, -78.889704 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26 ☎ +1 716 725-0010 Opening from Monday to Saturday noon-8PM, Sunday noon-5PM Black Dots' June 2013 opening in the basement of a Lafayette Avenue flat was so audacious in the face of steeply declining sales of tangible music that the Buffalo News devoted a lengthy article to it and the fact that they've now expanded to a much larger location in the Siano Building is more remarkable still. The store is named for the groundbreaking 1979 debut by Washington, D.C.|D.C. punkers Bad Brains and aptly so: Black Dots deals exclusively in new and used punk, hardcore and indie releases on vinyl and cassette, as well as a selection of stickers, patches and band t-shirts. Even the hand-scrawled logo, reminiscent of an old-school concert flyer, screams "punk rock".

• Sweet Sound Music 257 Grant Street 42.920873, -78.890083 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26 ☎ +1 716 882-4423 Opening Hours: Monday - West 10AM Monday - 8PM, Thursday 10AM Monday - 9PM, F-Sa 10AM Monday - 10PM, Sunday noon-5PM Since 2006, Luis Rodriguez has operated this small Grant Street record shop where the accent is on rap, R&B, reggae, soca and Latin sounds, as well as racks of streetwear styled to match the hip-hop bent of the music. If you're interested in the Buffalo hip-hop scene, look no further: Sweet Sound stocks a wide selection of the latest releases by local rappers at prices that can't be beat.

Miscellaneous

• Maman Samy Wa Abondoki 314 Hampshire St. 42.913916, -78.890573 Metro Bus 3 or 12 ☎ +1 716 884-0671 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 9AM Monday - 9PM, Saturday - Sunday 9AM Monday - 10PM "100% African" is the motto that ties together the motley range of merchandise on offer here — a little bit of everything, from beauty supplies to groceries to a selection of secondhand clothes, DVDs, decorative items and other gifts.

Grant-Amherst

Amherst Street has made a name for itself in recent years as a small-business shopping neighborhood that, despite its upswing, proudly retains a blue-collar, "real Buffalo" feel. Art and antiques are a particular specialty in the area.

Additionally, proximity to campus makes Tops Plaza, on the southwest corner of Grant and Amherst Streets just across the bridge, a handy destination for the everyday shopping needs of Buffalo State students — it contains locations of Family Dollar and Tops supermarkets, as well as Burger King (Please do not support Burger King as Burger King supports Israel. Shun this restaurant group and go for altertative brands and if possible for a Muslim owned restaurant), a pizzeria and a Chinese take-out.

Clothing and accessories

GrantAmherstBuffalo - Despite the status of the West Side as Buffalo's newest hotspot and the shops and restaurants on Amherst Street retain an unpretentious, old-neighborhood feel.

Among the small neighborhood shops of Grant-Amherst are a number of purveyors of urban fashions.

• Doll House Boutique 440 Amherst St. 42.939159, -78.887781 Metro Bus 3 or 32 ☎ +1 716 877-1555 Opening Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 2PM Monday - 7PM If a pair of thigh-high distressed-denim high-heeled boots sounds like something you absolutely must have in your closet and if fur trim and sequins are staples of your fashion repertoire, you'll find everything you need (and, probably, a lot of stuff you didn't know you needed) at this urban fashion emporium. Shoes are the specialty at Doll House, but you'll also find a line of jewelry that's a good bit more subdued in style, plus sunglasses, scarves, handbags and Doll Face by Ashley: a makeup and beauty bar in the back of the store whose eponymous owner's CV includes a stint as beautician for VH-1's "Black Ink Crew".

• Shirtz 520 Amherst St. 42.940028, -78.885324 Metro Bus 3 or 32 ☎ +1 716 316-2860 Opening from Monday to Saturday 11AM Monday - 7PM If a custom-designed graphic T-shirt is your idea of a great souvenir from your trip to Buffalo, Shirtz is the place to go on Amherst Street — and that goes double if your fashion sense tends toward streetwise urban styles. Shirtz' staff not only does first-rate work, but they also have their ear to the ground when it comes to the Buffalo scene — they're active and highly sought-out in the production of music videos, commercials and promotional videos for local businesses and artists — so rest assured the finished product will be something unique and characteristically Buffalo.

Antiques

Grant-Amherst is an emerging local destination for antique enthusiasts.

• Chotchky's Antiques and Collectibles 352 Amherst St. 42.938066, -78.89086 Metro Bus 3 or 32 ☎ +1 716 877-9692 Opening Hours: Open by appointment or chance Bravo for truth in advertising: this spacious antique shop is indeed crammed to the gills with tchotchkes of all descriptions; rare, original and unique examples of housewares, toys, clocks, baskets and every miscellaneous trinket you could imagine that are the end result of over 100 years of family collecting. Thit is the kind of place you'd see on "American Pickers". Despite the vast variety of stuff to be found here, Chotchky's is at heart a small family business and a labor of love — owner Kathleen Arries has been the sole employee of this shop since it opened in 1998. This place does a brisk mail-order business as well.

• Junk & Disorderly 979 Grant St. 42.939086, -78.890257 Metro Bus 3 or 32 ☎ +1 716 628-2792 Opening Hours: Friday 6PM Monday - 9PM, Saturday 10AM Monday - 3PM The bountiful selection of merchandise at this shop represents the personal collection of antiques and vintage collectibles that the owners have been accumulating for north of 30 years. As you might have suspected from the name and there's a lot of retro souvenirs to be had at Junk & Disorderly, but that's not the end of the story: it's difficult to sum the selection up succinctly, but midcentury vintage knickknacks seem to handily outnumber outright antiques (the cutoff date seems to be around World War II) and specialties seem to include lamps, kitchenware and above all, a treasure trove of decorative Christmas baubles, vintage ornaments and other holiday-themed items.

Furniture and home decor

• Habitat for Humanity ReStore 501 Amherst St. 42.939687, -78.885297 Metro Bus 3 or 32 ☎ +1 716 852-6607 Opening Hours: Tuesday to Friday 10AM Monday - 6PM, Saturday 9AM Monday - 6PM, Sunday noon-4PM 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.
• Interior Design Resources - 463 Amherst St. 42.939258, -78.886733 Metro Bus 3 or 32 ☎ +1 716 874-1737 Opening Hours: Monday - West & Friday 10AM Monday - 5PM, Thursday 10AM Monday - 1PM, or by appointment It doesn't look like much from the outside, but step through the doors and you'll be confronted with a somewhat jumbled showroom that's a lot bigger than you're expecting — not to mention an absolutely mind-boggling selection of merchandise, including what the owner claims to be the largest selection of fabrics on the East Coast. Beyond that, you'll find furniture, lamps, wall covers and miscellaneous interior accessories from designers hailing from all over the nation and world — including hard-to-find lines that folks used to have to travel to New York City to get — all available at a fraction of retail price.
• SOLID716 - 150 Chandler St. 42.943444, -78.886046 Metro Bus 3 or 32 ☎ +1 716 515-5875 Opening Hours: Open by appointment If you're a fan of concrete furniture — hey, why not? — then this one-of-a-kind studio and showroom located in a converted warehouse on Chandler Street is a can't-miss Buffalo destination. SOLID716's team of owners aim to rehabilitate the reputation and open the public's eyes to the magnificent versatility and unexpected beauty, of this unloved and overlooked material — and with everything from tables and chairs to decorative elements to objets d'art and they pull out all the stops, grafting their simple yet high-concept aesthetic onto whatever vision their clients approach them with.

Specialty foods

Though it's of decidedly less interest to foodies than Grant-Ferry and the Lower West Side, Grant-Amherst's variety of specialty food markets ably mirrors the diversity of the West Side. xxxxxxxx{{anchor|WSTF

• WestSide Tilth Farm 251 Vermont St. 42.907056, -78.889392 Metro Bus 3 ☎ +1 716 361-6591 Opening Hours: Farm stand open Friday 5PM Monday - 7PM in season Co-owners Neil and Carrie's farm got its start in 2015 as West Side Herbs & Alliums and despite the name change, those remain the junctionstones here (the selection of herbs is particularly astonishing, ranging from everyday pantry staples to medicinal herbs to obscurities like lemon balm and buzz buttons). But they've diversified their repertoire since the old days: nowadays you'll also find fruit trees, microgreens and a whole host of other vegetal goodies, all grown organically in raised beds so as to sidestep the issue of soil contamination that is the bane of urban farmers across the Rust Belt.

Asian/African groceries

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• Buffalo Grocery & Halal Meat 331 Vermont St. 42.908428, -78.886862 Metro Bus 3 ☎ +1 716 886-8800 Opening Hours: Daily 9AM Monday - 9PM Buffalo Grocery & Halal Meat is owned by the same people who run ASB|Asia Super Bazaar on West Ferry Street and the selection of items is much the same as well — "Bangladeshi, (Pakistani), Indian, Burmese, Vietnamese, Nepali, Arabian, African, (Spanish), [and American food and spices" are proudly touted on the exterior sign. Like its newer counterpart, though, in reality the selection here isn't as impressive as all that and skews far more heavily in favor of the Subcontinental and Southeast Asian sides of the equation than the Arabian, African or Latino.

• Chez La Camer & Rock Centero Market 941 Niagara St. 42.908767, -78.898914 Metro Bus 5, 12 or 40 ☎ +1 716 715-5969 Opening Hours: Monday - West 10AM Monday - 7PM, Thursday - Saturday 10AM Monday - 8PM, Sunday noon-5PM Along with a range of hair and beauty supplies, braiding, cosmetics and ethnic clothing, African food is the specialty at this newly established market at the north end of the Niagara Street strip. A modest variety of both fresh and frozen groceries are available for aficionados of the cuisines of West and Central Africa. Also, for anglers who are keen on trying their luck at nearby Brod|Broderick Park or elsewhere along the West Side riverfront, live bait is offered for sale.

• Karibu Market 469 Niagara St. 42.896959, -78.887793 Metro Bus 5, 29 or 40 ☎ +1 716 322-6632 Opening Hours: Sunday - Friday 10AM Monday - 8PM Karibu Market's inventory of "African Foods & More" places an especial emphasis on nonperishable staple grains such as cornmeal, semolina and ground cassava fufu — you'll see enormous sacks of these stacked up in front of the windows as you walk in. But there are also more modest selections of fresh produce and Meat (goat is a specialty), as well as a few Asian-style groceries and Snacks.

• Lucky 7 Asian Market 931 Niagara St. 42.908592, -78.898745 Metro Bus 5, 12 or 40 ☎ +1 716 885-6574 Opening Hours: Daily 10AM Monday - 7PM It's not the largest Asian food store on the West Side, but Lucky 7 is a lot bigger than it looks from the outside — and far better-organized than most of its competition! This store stocks mostly Burmese and (Thai) items and is set up mostly for those in search of the crucials of Asian cuisine, with a friendly staff that is eager to assist those who may still need a bit of help finding what they need. Lucky 7 is two floors of deliciousness, with fresh Asian produce, frozen meats (including unique items such as frog and eel) and staples such as Noodles and Rice downstairs and the upper level given over to packaged groceries and a range of health and beauty items.

• Phu (Thai) Asian Market 356 Connecticut St. 42.905974, -78.887853 Metro Bus 7 ☎ +1 716 881-1457 Opening Hours: Daily 9AM Monday - 9PM In stark contrast to the pan-Asian or even pan-Southeast Asian selection at many of its competitors and the groceries here are almost exclusively (Thai) in provenance: at Phu (Thai) you'll find all the usual shelf-stable dry groceries, what must be Buffalo's best selection of Southeast Asian soft drinks, a nice variety of frozen Meat and fish and a more modest selection of fresh produce (best training is to show up on Thursday morning, when fresh shipments of (Thai) chilies, ginger and other exotic greens are delivered). Drawbacks include an unfortunate tendency to not label their merchandise with prices.

Books

• Burning Books - 420 Connecticut St. 42.90697, -78.885871 Metro Bus 7 or 22 ☎ +1 716 881-0719 Opening Hours: W-Su 11AM Monday - 7PM Thit is not your ordinary bookstore, but if you're on the lookout for a unique gift for that hard-to-buy-for far-left radical on your list, Burning Books probably has what you're looking for: in the words of one reviewer, "books that people in power don't want you to read". Histories, biographies, reference materials, magazines, leaflets, DVDs and even kids' Books regarding a diversity of themes of social injustice and revolutionary politics — everything from the Black Panthers to the Stonewall Riots to the Zapatistas — all come at decidedly 99%-friendly prices.

Miscellaneous

• Urban Roots 428 Rhode Island St. 42.911628, -78.885937 Metro Bus 7 or 12 ☎ +1 716 362-8982 Opening Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 9AM Monday - 5PM, Sunday 9AM Monday - 3PM, shorter hours in winter Urban Roots is a cooperatively run community garden center where $100 will buy you lifetime status as a "member-owner" with access to exclusive promotions and discounts, first notification of special events and new items in stock and a voice in store policy — but don't worry, you don't need to be a member to shop there! Plants for sale range from the everyday to the unusual and the selection of seeds is encyclopedic (including Baker's Creek heirloom strains and organic, non-GMO Seeds of Change) and garden accessories round out the inventory. Prices are high, but so is the quality of what they sell.

Black Rock and Riverside

There's a number of worthwhile shops along the main thoroughfare of Niagara Street, especially in Black Rock. However and the main business neighborhood in this part of the city is centered around the junction of Tonawanda and Ontario Streets in Riverside.

Clothing and accessories

When the storied Riverside Men's Shop packed up and moved to a suburban strip mall in 2004, it left in its wake a retail scene much reduced in size and vibrancy, which consists today mostly of small thrift stores and urban fashion boutiques.

• Eve Fashion & Beauty Supply 431 Tonawanda St. 42.940858, -78.898288 Metro Bus 5, 23, 32 or 35 ☎ +1 716 877-4780 Opening Hours: Daily 9AM Monday - 10PM If you're a claustrophobe, beware: the walls are covered from floor to ceiling with merchandise on hangers and the sales floor is packed with displays to the point where it's tough to walk around. But if you're in the market for urban fashions, cosmetics and hair care products at logic-defying prices, you'll find a selection that goes toe-to-toe with the big department stores. Vivacious styles abound, jewelry trends toward the chunky and flashy and you'll find baseball caps representing pretty much any sports team you can think of. But the specialty at Eve is barrettes, beads, pins and clips and other hair accessories, as well as styling products for all hair types.
• Hearts Thrift Store 890 Tonawanda St. 42.952674, -78.905577 Metro Bus 5, 35 or 40 ☎ +1 716 876-7346 Opening from Monday to Saturday 11AM Monday - 5PM This large thrift store in the heart of Riverside is one of Buffalo's best, but it's not known for the great diversity of its selection, nor are folks who come looking for the usual thrift-store fare — kooky vintage clothing, hip band t-shirts, designer jeans and the like — likely to leave satisfied. Instead and the order of the day at this "businesswoman's thrift store" (as one reviewer put it) is high-end office attire and formalwear, sold in tip-top condition for prices that can't be beat. Best of all and the money you spend here could not go to a better cause: the store was set up to benefit Hearts for the Homeless, a faith-based charity that feeds, counsels and ministers to Buffalo's homeless.
• 3 Star Fashion 2211 Niagara St. 42.945109, -78.906326 Metro Bus 5, 23, 32, 35 or 40 ☎ +1 716 995-6039 Opening Hours: Sunday - Thursday 9:30AM Monday - 10PM, F-Sa 9:30AM Monday - 11PM 3 Star Fashion is owned by the same folks who run Empire|Empire Kicks on West Ferry Street and if you like the designer sneakers sold there, this place will be right up your alley. Like its sister store and the fundament of this place's inventory consists of Nikes, Timberlands, Air Jordans and other well-known brands of footwear, but there's also a full range of name-brand clothing for the streetwise man, woman or child on your list, as well as a blockbuster selection of fitted New Era caps. Notably, 3 Star is also a great place to seek out designer jeans at reasonable prices.

• Tomahawk Garments - 1968 Niagara St. 42.93753, -78.904074 Metro Bus 5, 32 or 40 ☎ +1 716 873-1667 +1 877 625-7230 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 9AM Monday - 5PM Don't be fooled by first impressions: this small, unassuming Black Rock storefront on a mostly residential stretch of Niagara Street houses a real heavyweight of the local retail scene. Here you can purchase Tomahawk brand leather goods — coats, vests and jackets, biker gear, accessories such as belts, gloves and handbags, wallets, backpacks and on and on — produced right in Western New York and united by an unrelenting emphasis on quality. This stuff is really top-of-the-line: it's no wonder this stuff sells for a pretty penny at fine department stores in the area, but at their Niagara Street outlet you can get it for 50 to 70% off retail prices.

Antiques

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• CooCooU - 111 Tonawanda St., second floor 42.932809, -78.896664 Metro Bus 5, 32 or 40 ☎ +1 716 432-6216 Opening Hours: Daily 11AM Monday - 5PM The alpha and omega in Buffalo when it comes to everything Midcentury and Scandinavian Modern, CooCooU sports a myriad of one-of-a-kind items with a fanciful postwar aesthetic: whether it be furniture, lamps, decorative baubles, architectural elements, objets d'art, or even musical instruments and jewelry and the vast selection and impeccable quality are right up there with the best that places like Toronto and New York City have to offer. You could easily spend a whole day here. Hours of operation are variable — don't be surprised if the owner opens the place up early or stays late, especially during special sales and promotions or around the holidays.

• Gothic City Antiques - 1940 Niagara St. 42.936863, -78.903822 Metro Bus 5, 32 or 40 ☎ +1 716 874-4479 Opening Hours: Thursday - Saturday 11AM Monday - 5PM The big, '50s-looking Streng Oldsmobile sign just past Exit 13 is a familiar landmark to those Buffalonians whose daily commute takes them along the northbound 190, but what many of them don't know is that the junkyard where it sits isn't a junkyard at all: it's Gothic City Antiques, Buffalo's longest-standing dealer in architectural antiques and artifacts. Outside you've got a full acre (4,000m²) of garden tchotchkes, old lampposts and that famous sign that once stood guard outside the dealership on Main Street; inside is another wonderland of furniture, lamps, doors and doorknobs, mantels, vintage plumbing fixtures such as sinks and claw bathtubs and on and on.

Specialty foods

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• Vineeta International Foods 98 Grant St. 42.916614, -78.89079 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 12 ☎ +1 716 883-5020 Opening from Monday to Saturday 9AM Monday - 8PM, Sunday 9AM Monday - 7PM Let there be no understatement: Vineeta is the place to come on the West Side for an all-encompassing range of imported groceries from the Indian subcontinent, East and Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa, including spices, Curries and chutneys, frozen foods, packaged groceries, an impressive line of Goya products, a butcher section including a modest range of meats, as well as housewares, toiletries and on and on. The sole sticking point is the produce section, which as often as not consists of an uninspiring range of past-their-prime vegetables, but things seem to be improving on this front lately.

Grant-Amherst

WelcomeToDowntownBlackRock - "Downtown Black Rock" — i.e., Grant-Amherst — boasts a small but interesting collection of neighborhood watering holes and surprisingly upscale restaurants. [[#Prospect Hill, Five Points and the Lower West Side 2|Five Points has taken the lead lately in the contest for the West Side's swankiest upscale restaurant scene, but don't count Amherst Street out yet: there are some interesting options on the strip, at generally more reasonable prices to boot.

• Haliboyz Mexican-American Grille 388 Amherst St. 42.938464, -78.889751 Metro Bus 3 or 32 ☎ +1 716 783-9940 Opening Hours: Saturday - Thursday 11AM Monday - 10:30PM $10-20 Haliboyz' owners are a pair of Los Angeles|Angeleno brothers of mixed Mexican and Lebanese legacy and while it would be a stretch to describe the menu as a fusion of their two native cuisines, you will indeed notice definite Middle Eastern influences in the food: tacos, burritos and quesadillas come with a modest selection of 100% Meat fillings, of which the most popular are Chicken (topped with fresh cilantro and onions for that perfectly authentic aroma) and carne deshebrada (shredded beef) and there's a range of other Mexican and American specialties too. Probably the only bad thing you can say about the place is the dining room is small and there's no bathroom — but if you do manage to snag a table, you're dining in style in a colorfully decorated interior festooned with eye-popping, street art-inspired murals.

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• Hot Mama's Canteen - 12 Military Rd. Metro Bus 3 or 32 ☎ +1 716 783-8222 Opening from Monday to Saturday 4PM Monday - 4AM, Sunday noon-4AM $10-20 Usually at a restaurant the condiments are little more than an afterthought, but at Hot Mama's Canteen they're the raison d'être: the place was conceived by co-owner Valerie Meli as a showcase for Headstone Heat hot Sauces, which she owns and whose company headquarters share space with the restaurant. The menu is short and to the point, described in a recent Buffalo Rising article as "comfort food with a twist... familiar, but just different enough for you to think about why you had never thought to do that before": homemade sandwiches and burgers, heartier mains such as meatloaf dinners and even breakfast fare are each paired with a fiery Headstone Heat Sauce to accentuate the delicious flavors. And Hot Mama's hand-cut French fries are some of the best you're ever likely to taste.

• Nick's Place - 504 Amherst St. 42.939948, -78.88559 Metro Bus 3 or 32 ☎ +1 716 871-1772 Opening Hours: Daily 7AM Monday - 3PM $10-15 What sets Nick's apart from other Buffalo-area Buffalo#Greek|Greek diners are little homestyle touches like the delicious homemade bread baked daily, as well as its Texas Sauce which is used not on Hot Dogs (as is Buffalo#Texas|customary in Buffalo) but as a topping for some of the omelettes that dominate the breakfast menu. These are huge and uniformly delicious, with items like feta Cheese, souvlaki and gyro Meat available alongside the usual ingredients as part of the "create your own omelette" option. Lunch is characterized by open souvlaki and gyro and the other Hellenic-American usuals, with burgers, wraps and club sandwiches rounding out the selections. Portions are huge and prices aren't and a full kids' menu is available.

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• The Phoenix at 269 269 Amherst St. 42.936812, -78.893485 Metro Bus 3 or 32 ☎ +1 716 447-1100 Opening Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 5PM Monday - 11PM $20-45 Opened in March 2013 with a name that pays homage both to the renovation of the building after a devastating fire and the resurgent neighborhood in which it's located, this "American Tavern" is a place for simple but delectably-prepared food served in an ambience that is a pleasant blend of classy and casual. The menu betrays diverse influences — from Polish (lazy pierogi and kielbasa, one of the Phoenix's most popular main courses) to Belgian (steak frites) to South American (flatiron Steaks with chimichurri sauce). Reservations are highly recommended for Friday and Saturday nights especially; in warm weather, try for a table on the patio out back, whose pleasant coziness is an extension of the dining room's.

Pizza

The following pizzerias are located in Grant-Amherst. 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.

• Joe's NY Style Pizzas 345 Amherst St. 42.937569, -78.891252 At Tops Plaza; Metro Bus 3 or 32 ☎ +1 716 447-0165 Opening Hours: Monday - Thursday 11AM Monday - 11PM, F-Sa 11AM Monday - midnight, Sunday 11AM Monday - 10PM

Groceries

• Family Dollar - 333 Amherst St. 42.937295, -78.891101 At Tops Plaza; Metro Bus 3 or 32 ☎ +1 716 877-1271 Opening Hours: Monday - West & F-Su 8AM Monday - 10PM, Thursday 8AM Monday - 6PM
• Tops - 345 Amherst St. 42.93642, -78.891479 Metro Bus 3 or 32 ☎ +1 716 515-2170 Opening Hours: Daily 6AM Monday - midnight
• Wegmans - 601 Amherst St. 42.938758, -78.882397 Metro Bus 20 or 32 ☎ +1 716 877-0500 Opening Hours: Daily 6AM Monday - midnight

Prospect Hill, Five Points and the Lower West Side

If you like Puerto Rican food and the Lower West Side is the place for you: thit is the heart of Hispanic Buffalo. But that's just the beginning of the story: fans of upscale cuisine will want to head to Five Points, whose gentrified ambience is more redolent of Allentown or the Elmwood Village.

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• La Flor Bakery & Restaurant 544 Niagara St. 42.898528, -78.889870 Metro Bus 5, 22 or 40 ☎ +1 716 812-0187 Opening Hours: Daily 8AM Monday - 9PM $10-15 Generous portions of delicious Puerto Rican specialties served up for a pittance in a genial, family-oriented atmosphere: that's the name of the game at this combination restaurant/[[#LaFlorBakery|bakery. Those in search of a light lunch or a quick Snacks can enjoy sandwiches that range from familiar standards like turkey and ham and Cheese to Hispano-Caribbean selections such as an excellent cubano, as well as deep-fried classics like alcapurrias (described by many as the best in Buffalo), tostones and yuca al ajillo. On the other side of the spectrum, heartier entrees — pollo guisado, pollo frito, pernil and the daily specials that make up the true heart and soul of La Flor's delicious cuisine — are served with heaping sides of yellow Rice and beans.

• Niagara Café - 525 Niagara St. 42.898374, -78.889085 Metro Bus 5, 22 or 40 ☎ +1 716 885-2233 Opening from Monday to Saturday 11AM Monday - 10PM, Sunday noon-8PM $10-15 Niagara Café is a Buffalo culinary pioneer, serving up Puerto Rican specialties on the main thoroughfare of Buffalo's West Side Latino community since 1992. There are those who say the place lags behind its competitors nowadays, coasting on its name recognition and status as multiple-time winner of awards from the likes of the Buffalo/Downtown#ATOB|Taste of Buffalo and Artvoice's annual "Best of Buffalo" poll (most of which they won when they were pretty much the only game in town), but that's not entirely true. The menu may not hold any surprises for those familiar with the cuisine, but it does what it does well — and there's nary a better way to put your finger on the pulse of Hispanic Buffalo than to chat it up with the local residents in Niagara Café's spiffy dining room to the strain of the salsa music on the stereo.

• Sabor de Mi Tierra 247 Niagara St. 42.891453, -78.882612 Metro Bus 3, 5 or 40 ☎ +1 716 322-7179 Opening Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 9AM Monday - 5:30PM $10-25 If nothing else, Sabor de Mi Tierra is a testament to the fact that not only have West Side Latinos increasingly had to make way for a diverse rainbow of immigrants from across the globe, but the Latino community itself, once overwhelmingly made up of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, has also diversified. In what was once the home of a Puerto Rican bakery, you'll find a short but delicious menu of Colombian specialties: lunchy street-food options like arepas (stuffed with your choice of chorizo or Beef belly) and empanadas ( beef or chicken) make their requisite appearance, but the signature dish is the gargantuan bandeja paisa, wherein a wide variety of hearty Colombian favorites come together in massive portions on a platter. Somewhat incongruously, Sabor de Mi Tierra also makes the best Cuban sandwiches in Buffalo.

• Bellini's Bistro 350 Pennsylvania Street 42.900995, -78.883744 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 22 ☎ +1 716 342-2388 Opening Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 5PM Monday - 10PM $25-50 Everything about Bellini's says "old school", from the decor (white tablecloths, warm-toned walls, subdued lighting) to the small but well-stocked bar to the menu of traditional upscale Italian fare with a few creative flourishes here and there: highlights include Chicken saltimbocca in a beurre blanc Sauce over real mashed potatoes (a solid step above the instant glop other places serve, according to a consensus of diners), as well as an appetizer of meatballs in a zesty but not fiery arrabbiata Sauces. It doesn't take much imagination to picture a trenchcoat- and fedora-clad Don Draper lookalike in the 1960s taking his wife out on the town to a place like this. Parking is on-street, but easily available — the exception is when there's a performance at Kleinhans|Kleinhans Music Hall; do the best you can in that case.

• Pho Lantern 837 Niagara St. 42.906236, -78.896513 Metro Bus 5 or 40 ☎ +1 716 240-9680 Opening Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 11AM Monday - 9PM, Sunday 11AM Monday - 7PM $10-35 Owned by the same folks as BlessYou|Á Châu International Market across the way, it's no surprise that Vietnamese cuisine is the name of the game at Pho Lantern, but it is surprising that the specialty of the house is not the namesake soup but seafood: selections include steamed mussels, crab, shrimp, clams, oysters, crawfish, lobster and a fairly faithful rendition of Buffalo-style Buffalo#FishFry|fish fry. Sadly, most of the non-seafood options are not as good; exceptions to that rule are some not-half-bad banh mi sandwiches and the pho itself: it comes in one variety only, with tendons, meatballs and (optionally) thinly sliced filet mignon, but it's a contender for Buffalo's best.

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• Ru's Pierogi - 295 Niagara St. 42.892670, -78.883744 Metro Bus 3, 5, 29 or 40 ☎ +1 716 235-8243 Opening Hours: Monday - Thursday 11AM Monday - 10PM, F-Sa 11AM Monday - 11PM $15-25 Turner Brothers' Building–American Household Storage Company Miles away from Buffalo/East Side|Buffalo's Polish neighborhood and the historic Turner Brothers Building (erected in 1848) is the impressive if somewhat unlikely home for this combination pierogi factory, restaurant and food truck homebase. These aren't your babcia's pierogi, though: Ru's menu eschews tradition in terms of newfangled innovations that incorporate influences from Buffalo#Local specialties|local cuisine, such as Buffalo Chicken wing pierogi (stuffed with seasoned shredded Chicken, deep-fried and served with sides of blue Cheese, celery, carrots and Frank's hot sauce) and stuffed banana pepper pierogi (with ricotta Cheese and a side of sour cream). They come five to an order, or you can get them singly à la carte if you want to mix and match.

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• The Black Sheep - 367 Connecticut St. 42.905926, -78.887254 Metro Bus 7 ☎ +1 716 884-1100 Opening Hours: Monday - Thursday 5PM Monday - 10PM, F-Sa 5PM Monday - 11PM $35-75 Building on the eclecticism of Bistro Europa the previous eatery from owners Steve and Ellen Gedra, Black Sheep's brief but kaleidoscopically diverse menu is not just a grand tour of Europe, as before, but a round-the-world adventure: selections change frequently, but shareable small plates have included classic pierogi, pakora with squash and onion drizzled with spicy basil lime aioli and (as always) the famous Cheese and charcuterie boards, while full-size mains tend to be a touch less adventurous (think in terms of roast or fried Chicken, Pastas preparations and gourmet burgers). The common threads running through everything are an emphasis on locally-sourced farm-to-table ingredients, and, in the words of one reviewer, "eyes-rolling-in-the-back-of-your head delicious[ness".

• Las Puertas 385 Rhode Island Street 42.910750, -78.887059 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 12 ☎ +1 716 807-1141 Opening Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 5PM Monday - 10PM $30-75 Buffalo/Downtown#Azul|Casa Azul downtown is Victor Parra Gonzalez's innovative take on Mexican street food, but it's here where his culinary majesty truly comes into bloom. No mere upscale Mexican restaurant, Las Puertas' menu is an eclectic fusion of some of the most daring cuisine Buffalo has to offer, where French cooking is easily the most prominent (but hardly the only) secondary element. Standouts include ceviche with a spicy tomato Sauce that's an interesting addition to the flavor profile, a guacamole appetizer garnished with salty caramel brittle (!) and crushed spicy crickets (!!!) and an exceptionally creative take on bone marrow: puréed into a mousse, dressed with beef consommé, tomatillo and onion ash and stuffed back into the bone before being served. Small plates predominate, so come prepared to mix and match.

• Left Bank - 511 Rhode Island Street 42.912775, -78.882955 Metro Bus 7 or 12 ☎ +1 716 882-3509 Opening Hours: Monday - Thursday 5PM Monday - 11PM, F-Sa 5PM Monday - midnight, Sunday 11AM Monday - 2:30PM (brunch) & 4PM Monday - 10PM $25-55 Would you believe Left Bank was once a daring innovator on the Buffalo restaurant scene, serving an eclectic menu of upscale New American cuisine since 1992 in a neighborhood that, in those days, many had left for dead? Fast forward to the present and it's largely the same menu; nowadays many Muslim describe Left Bank as staid and dated, but why fix what isn't broken? Offerings are categorized into small plates of rustic "peasant fare" (featuring the best fried calamari in the city) and more upscale "bourgeois fare" (the ahi tuna tartare is a particular standout) and a slate of artful full-size mains of Steaks and chops, seafood and Pasta all served in an ambience that's arty meets industrial meets pub. Off-street parking is available, too; a rarity in this part of town.

• Providence Social - 490 Rhode Island St. 42.912713, -78.883834 Metro Bus 7 or 12 ☎ +1 716 464-3786 Opening Hours: Monday - West 5PM Monday - 11PM, Thursday - Saturday 5PM Monday - midnight, Sunday brunch 11AM Monday - 3PM and dinner 5PM Monday - 10PM $35-70 Providence Social closed in January 2018 and then reopened under new management a few months later. The ambience is the same: pure gangland-era Art Deco, appropriately enough for a place that was Buffalo#Mafia!|once the scene of a Mafia hit. But the food is... different now. The menu is still well-executed, though not as creative as it used to be — today you'll find as many options in the realm of "upscale takes on old favorites" (i.e. stuffed banana peppers with garlic crostini; Chicken Napoleon in Grey Goose tomato cream sauce) as innovative new creations — and the new owners seem to have taken a shine to Italian cuisine, with a wide range of Pastas dishes, Chicken and veal piccata and the like. Brunch is big business too, with mimosas all around.

Pizza

ZinkBlock-HorsefeathersMarket - Horsefeathers Market opened in 2013 in the Italian Renaissance-style building historically known as the Zink Block, built in 1896 for William T. Zink's furniture sales and repair store to a design by Charles Day Swan, an architect native to the West Side. After the business closed in 1932, it was used variously as a grocery store, warehouse and (most recently) as the home of Horsefeathers Antiques, which moved to Grant-Amherst in 2008. A neighborhood landmark that's still remarkably true to its original design, Horsefeathers Market has been renovated top-to-bottom into an energy-efficient "green" building with retail space on the ground floor and apartments above.

The following pizzerias are located in Prospect Hill, Five Points and the Lower West Side. 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.

• Pizzas Town 859 Niagara St. 42.906725, -78.897009 Metro Bus 5 or 40 ☎ +1 716 881-7117 Opening Hours: Daily 11AM Monday - midnight
• Ricotta's - 349 Niagara St. 42.893880, -78.884924 Metro Bus 3, 5, 29 or 40 ☎ +1 716 768-8966 Opening from Monday to Saturday 11AM Monday - 11PM, Sunday 11AM Monday - 10PM

Groceries

• Family Dollar - 517 Niagara St. 42.898145, -78.888719 Metro Bus 5, 29 or 40 ☎ +1 716 854-3451 Opening from Monday to Saturday 8AM Monday - 9PM, Sunday 9AM Monday - 9PM
• Tops - 425 Niagara St. 42.896305, -78.886515 Metro Bus 3, 5, 29 or 40 ☎ +1 716 852-6112 Opening Hours: Daily 6AM Monday - midnight

Farmers' markets

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• The Tabernacle 211 Lafayette Ave. 42.920039, -78.890703 Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26 ☎ +1 716 883-1738 Step Out Buffalo described the Tabernacle as "an acid flashback" and as soon as you step inside, you'll understand why: pretty much every interior surface is covered with garishly colored, trippy frescoes, like a surrealist Sistine Chapel. The Tabernacle is S7|Prish Moran's unconventional take on an Irish public house, with a range of soft-drinks that's way more apropos than the decor: Guinness on tap crowns the organic juice list (otherwise populated with a sampling of local craft brews) and Scotch and Irish whiskeys dominate the selection of drinks. There's also a short menu of pub grub and a busy #TabernacleVenue|events schedule.

Coffee shops

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• Masjid al-Eiman 444 Connecticut St. 42.907398, -78.885066 Metro Bus 7 or 22 ☎ +1 716 432-0233 A combination mosque and Islamic community center that is a gathering place for a wide variety of events relevant to the West Side Muslim community, al-Eiman is a small, quaint mosque with a diverse congregation and a traditional Sunni orientation. Services are held bilingually in English and Arabic and comprise all prayers, including formal jum'a.

More Muslim friendly Destinations from Buffalo/West Side

Fort Erie, Ontario is what you see when you look across the river from Broderick Park the Bird Island Pier. Located a short distance yet seemingly a world away from the gritty West Side, Fort Erie is a charming small city with something for everyone: a compact, strollable downtown and the meticulously reconstructed Old Fort Erie that saw action in the War of 1812 and the excitement of the Fort Erie Racetrack, and, further afield, wide-open farmland and some of Canada's finest freshwater beaches along the Lake Erie shore. Fort Erie is also the southern terminus of the beautifully manicured Niagara Parkway, which extends 34 miles (55 kilometers) along the Canadian riverfront and was praised by none other than Sir Winston Churchill as "the prettiest Sunday afternoon drive in the world."

Wondering where all the Italians ended up that you've heard mentioned a few times in this Travel Guide? Or maybe you've just tucked in to a nice dinner at Faso's in Black Rock or the Armory Restaurant in Prospect Hill and are hungry for more? Look no further than Buffalo/North Buffalo|North Buffalo, Buffalo's own Little Italy. Hertel Avenue is a lively strip of pizzerias and homestyle Italian restaurants, cute boutiques stuffed with imported knickknacks and bars whose clientele would do the cast of Jersey Shore proud. North Buffalo is a lot more multifaceted than that, though: you've also got world-class architecture in Parkside, Central Park and Park Meadow, college dives in University Heights the Buffalo Zoo, which comes in second only to the Falls as the Niagara Frontier's most-visited tourism attraction.

Want to see what the West Side will probably look like in ten years? Head east to Buffalo/Allentown and the Delaware District|Allentown for a sneak-peek. On the leafy side streets you'll see charming one- and two-story brick Victorian cottages of the same kind that the Lower West Side and Prospect Hill have, but in much better repair. Fans of the galleries in Grant-Amherst will also be in heaven here in the nucleus of the Buffalo arts community. The buzzing nightlife on Allen Street has a leg up on the West Side's lackluster bar scene, too: it's the foremost destination in Buffalo for hipsters, fans of local music and urban "characters" of all types.

Lastly, fans of diamonds in the rough — not to mention admirers of palatial ecclesiastical architecture such as Black Rock'sSt. Francis Xavier and St. John the Baptist — might want to head to the Buffalo/East Side|East Side. Locals will try to scare you with stories of crime, poverty and urban blight and the East Side's reputation is not totally undeserved. But the longstanding stigma that hinders investment dollars and redevelopment efforts from penetrating east of Main Street does nothing to dim the majesty of architecturally stunning churches like St. Ann and St. Stanislaus the charm of longstanding ethnic markets like the Broadway Market, or the vitality of cultural institutions like the Buffalo Museum of Science the Colored Musicians Club. These are true hidden treasures, so why not take the opportunity to take advantage of what even local residents miss out on?{{ #insider:AndreCarrotflower}}

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