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The Buffalo Tourist, Buffalo, NY (2024)

02/09/2023

After sampling a bit of their food at A Cooks Tour, we decided to dine at Lago 210 and we were not disappointed. The restaurant has a lovely location on Lake Erie and it was a beautiful evening.

We started with the shish*to peppers, nachos, coffee-crusted pork belly, and the mezze board. Although you may find these appetizers at other restaurants, I am pleased to say they were not ordinary or simply good. They were very tasty and distinctive. My personal favorite was the delicious pork belly!

Our main courses were the shrimp jambalaya, duck breast, and the harvest bowl. All hit the mark and were distinctively good. We splurged on dessert after hearing that the desserts were made by their sister restaurant, Sweet Pea Bakery. We ordered the cheesecake and flan. It is definitely worth saving room for dessert or perhaps a trip to Sweet Pea!

The staff was very professional and did a fabulous job with our group of regular diners. I would most definitely return for a comfortable, delicious meal!

02/06/2023

Recently while having dinner at Coco Bar & Bistro I was excited to see this new mural across the street! It is called 'Traits points taches gribouillage' or 'Lines dots stains scribbles'. It was done by the French artist, Herve Tullet, a multifaceted artist and world-renowned children’s book author. This is his second permanent mural ever installed and it is part of the Buffalo Albright-Knox public art initiative.

The AKG said that Tullet’s work is at its most meaningful when it is activating others and encouraging play. Working with community partners, Tullet shared his design for the mural with the Buffalo Arts Studio, which collaborated with students in the Jump Start program. The students used Polytab, a non-woven material that is easily transported and sectioned, to create the work in their studio space. They arranged, prepared, further developed, and painted the mural over the course of two intensive weeks at Buffalo Arts Studio.

The AKG's website posits that the result of this mural is a shared experience far greater than the sum of its constituent parts. That the artist and his student collaborators used simple elements—primary colors, simple shapes, spontaneous gestures—to create a work of unadulterated joy, brimming with audacious movement that seeks to inspire the creative capacity in all of us.

It certainly is a happy mural and a lovely addition to Main Street!

02/04/2023

Canalside in Buffalo has some fun public art thanks to the Buffalo AKG Museum (formerly the Albright-Knox). I am thinking back to a warm summer afternoon when I was walking to meet some friends and stopped, as always to admire Shark Girl. Whenever I have friends visiting Buffalo for the first time I require the Shark Girl picture. Shark Girl is one of the first pieces of public art done by Buffalo AKG. It was done by Casey Riordan Millard. Shark Girl was originally conceived as the artist reflected upon the existential conundrums of life, love, family, and loss. Shark Girl’s yearnings and desires for normalcy and acceptance trigger equal parts laughter and empathy.

02/02/2023

Misuta Chows is a restaurant, bar, and arcade. It is a very unique spot located on Main Street, Buffalo. The decor is unique and includes lanterns hanging from the ceiling on the first floor. If you enter from the back you will see the Sudo's Dragon Mural. The back stairs are painted pink and glitter. Upstairs holds an arcade that is one of a kind.
We did not make a reservation for two on a Thursday evening. That was a mistake but fortunately, there was room at the bar to have dinner. We started with drinks, the Karen and the Sake-Toomi. The Karen was done well and was good to look at too!
We shared the Pork Gyozo appetizer. It was very good. I was sad to see that my favorite appetizer, the octopus balls, was no longer served. One of our entrees was the Japanese fried rice, bok choy, and house-made kimchi adding the soft egg and the spice bomb. I had spicy shrimp ramen. It was very good!
The staff was truly entertaining. The food and drink were good. Misuta Chows is an adventure and an experience. It is definitely worth the time to explore!

01/30/2023

International street artist Tabby visited Buffalo and created 20 stencil-spray works. Tabby resides in Austria but after designing one mural in Buffalo he wanted to do a series of small stencil murals in Buffalo. He was scheduled to come in April 2020. But when the plague descended he was forced to postpone. After several months when international travel was no closer to resuming Tabby had someone in Buffalo put up two of his stencils.
It was not until May 2022 that Tabby was able to come to the US. In all public appearances, he wears a costume to mask his look. The street artist was originally brought to Western New York by Jesse Zuefle another local artist. Zuefle, an artist himself (who operates under the pseudonym "BanksyHatesMe") also contributed to the project. After four intense days and almost 50 hours of work, they produced another 18 works around town.
It is kind of like a treasure hunt around town to find the murals. Even with addresses, it is not easy to find them and photograph them.
This piece is located at 437 Ellicott Street. I will post more but feel free to let me know which ones you find as you travel around Buffalo!

01/28/2023

There is a new man dancing in the outer harbor of Buffalo. Flat man had the spot for the last five years and now Round Man has stepped up to dance by the water.

Round Man is a 20-foot steel sculpture. He originated at Griffis Sculpture Park & The Essex Arts Center in East Otto, NY. Round Man, created in 1967 by Buffalo sculptor, Larry Griffis Jr., is an iconic piece that originated at Griffis Sculpture Park. The sculpture stands almost three stories high and weighs close to 2,500 lbs. It was created over 55 years ago and stayed in the park all that time until moving to its new location. Before the move, the sculpture was refurbished at Essex Art Center. The steel that makes up Round Man was designed and donated by Bethlehem Steel. This type of steel is no longer in production today. It came directly from Griffis Sculpture Park to ensure that the refurbishing of Round Man had the same look and age as the existing steel.

A changed look but the same feel. Definitely worth a walk to water by the Bell Slip.

01/26/2023

There have been many changes over the years at The Barrel Factory in the Old First Ward Buffalo. There is a unique events center, bar, distillery, apartments, and kayak store. Recently the restaurant portion of the business was revamped. On a gorgeous fall Sunday afternoon I enjoyed lunch on the outdoor patio. We started with a beer made there by Pressure Drop Brewing. There were many to choose from, with some distinctive flavors. We were offered tastes before choosing. We shared two samplers - beef on weck and Buffalo wing. Both had an interesting mix of traditional fare with some interesting twists.
The beef on weck had two slider-style roast beef sandwiches as well as "egg rolls" which were filled with roast beef and the outside of the roll had salt and wick on the outside. Both are very good and not just the usual grub. The Buffalo sampler came with 5 wings - your choice of sauce. There was also a play on a spring roll that was prepared like Buffalo-style wings, deep fried and covered in wing sauce. A sampler of these non-traditional items was perfect! We added a small order of their boozle berry chicken wings. The sauce was a little sweet, however if you eat wings correctly, with bleu Cheese, then it became a well-balanced dish.
The staff was pleasant and helpful and seemed to enjoy doing their job. The space is clean, comfortable, and interesting. It's worth a walk around the building. The restaurant and food had that comfortable feel of the Old First Ward, tasty, relaxed, and reasonable. It is a lovely stop for a casual meal.

10/29/2022

The sculpture outside of One M&T Plaza was designed by Harry Bertoia in coordination with the architect Minoru Yamasaki. It is meant to serve as a contrast: a curved structure against the straight line of the building.
With its white marble exterior and narrow windows, the building, built in 1966, is easy to identify on Main Street Buffalo. Minoru Yamasaki is considered one of the leading innovators of the architectural style called New Formalism. He was best known for designing the World Trade Center in New York City. As he was designing the plans for those towers, his plans for One M&T Plaza in Buffalo were becoming a reality. In 1963 the president of M&T Bank chose Yamasaki to build the bank’s new headquarters in downtown Buffalo. M&T liked that Yamasaki’s style was contemporary but that it still reflected the bank’s tradition of classical ornamentation. Construction on the tower began in1964 and the building officially opened in 1966.
The main entrance has columns interspersed with arches. Yamasaki used green trim marble imported from Italy on the base of the building on the north and south sides. White marble is used on the exterior except for the green marble on the base. The white and green were intentionally used together as they are the brand colors of

10/24/2022

Kyle Holbrook is the artist that painted this mural called 'Peace Buffalo'.
Holbrook has lost most of his friends from childhood to gun violence, forty five (45) total victims. The murals are meant to be a place of healing for himself and the families of the victim's remembrance of lost loved ones.
The Mural is also intended to bring awareness and serve as a constant reminder so the victims and families are not forgotten. By being so visible the mural hopes to encourage people to develop solutions to Gun Violence such as changing Gun Laws.
‘Peace Buffalo’ is part of a national mural tour to all 50 states.
The mural is meant to be simple so the message is easily attained directly in the heart of downtown Buffalo. The mural is located in the 500 block on Main Street Buffalo.

10/22/2022

Roosevelt Plaza is a small urban park between Gold Dome Bank (now M&T Bank) and the Electric Tower. The statute is called the Hiker. It is 7 feet tall and the soldier is dressed in a uniform from the Spanish American War. It was completed in 1920 and was done by Alan Newman.
The park is small and you might miss the statute and unique nature of the little park if you don't slow down and look up. You should definitely do that the next time you take a walk up Main Street!

10/15/2022

The Peace Bridge is an international bridge between Canada and the United States that connects Buffalo NY to Fort Erie, Canada. The picture is taken from the Niagara River. Construction began in 1925 and was completed in the spring of 1927. On March 13, 1927, the first car crossed the bridge. On June 1, 1927, the bridge was opened to the public.

When the bridge opened, Buffalo and Fort Erie each became the chief port of entry to their respective countries from the other. At the time it was the only vehicular bridge on the Great Lakes from Niagara Falls to New York. The bridge remains one of North America's important commercial ports with four thousand trucks crossing it daily.

The bridge was built during Prohibition in the US and the smuggling of alcohol from Canada to Buffalo built organized crime at the time as the production and sale of alcohol was legal in Canada. Until the bridge was completed most smuggling was done by water. The building of the bridge made the business that much easier.

10/13/2022

I recently had the pleasure of a wonderful dinner with Crown Hill Farm, prepared by Chef Jessica Arends. Partners for the event included butter meat co., Nuhn Family Farm, SmitasCookery, Produce Peddlers Inc., and BABS of Buffalo. Dinner was hosted by Flat #12 Mushrooms with wine pairings by Lago 210.

A wonderful farm-to-table dinner on a warm Sunday afternoon with friends, Delicious and good for the soul! You would not have known we were in the middle of the city of Buffalo and along with dinner, we were treated to a tour of Flat #12 mushroom farm.

The food was locally grown and sourced. The meal was thoughtfully prepared and spectacularly presented. It was hard to pick my favorite course. But if I had to it was probably the sweet corn fritter. However there was not one course I did not enjoy. I even splurged and had coffee with dessert. Superbly done.

First course - Sweet corn and Squash Fritter, Shallot Bacon Jam

Second course - Late summer panzanella with rainbow chard, biscuit croutons, Heirloom tomatoes, string beans, fennel, pickled shallot, shiso vinaigrette

Third course Smoked Yakitori, BABS smoked Yakatori chicken sausage, mizuna, sh*take, sweet peppers

Intermezzo - marinated cucumber, lemon basil

Braised beef and ricotta ravioli, borlotto beans, collard, roasted tomato, demi glace, cured duck egg yolk

Dessert - Pot de creme and coffee - lion's mane coffee-chocolate pot de creme, smita's rose zinger Chantilly cream and Lions mane coffee

10/10/2022

Recently Explore Buffalo took over giving tours of Seneca One. There has been a real transformation in the building. One fun addition is a large mural - actually two murals - along Main Street Metro Rail route.

The murals by Ashley Kay are befitting of all the rest of the beautification work that can be seen throughout the complex. The imagery tells the tale of the region, including Buffalo and Niagara Falls, with plenty of references to the rejuvenated waterfront. The artwork goes a long way towards creating a more visually appealing and inviting walkway, for people who are heading from downtown to Canalside and the waterfront.

Ashley Kay has not only picked up on Buffalo’s natural assets, industrial legacy, and recreational pastimes, she’s also evoked the spiritual realm of this region (think Spirit of Niagara). There are definitely some enchanting aspects, with the mesmerizing sun, and the strong, summoning mythological-esque women figures. The area is lite up so you can a view it any time of day!

10/08/2022

And the merry-go-round goes round and round!
The Buffalo Heritage carousel is located at Canalside in Buffalo. It was built in 1924 and is technically the menagerie park carousel from North Tonawanda. The carousel was originally owned and operated by Domenick De Angelis, Sr. and his family. He was born in 1891 in Italy and immigrated to the US where he fell in love with the amusement industry, at the age of 14! He saved and worked and at the age of 33 he traveled to North Tonawanda to purchase the carousel and brought it back to Massachusetts. The family operated it other amusement rides for a few years.
Eventually they were forced to shut down and placed the carousel in storage. They refused to sell it in pieces and kept for over 50 years. In 2016 it became the Buffalo Heritage Carousel. It operates on solar power and is open for rides for a very reasonable price. It is a lovely stop while walking through Canalside and It is a fine example of the rich history of the area and a shout out for the use of solar power!
Take a ride on one of the many animals and see where it takes you!

10/06/2022

On a recent summer evening, we stopped in Mint Mojito Bar on Niagara Street Buffalo. The outdoor patio was the big draw for one of the diners. The main focus here is drinks! The selection of cocktails is admirable and the signature mint mojito was an exceptional cocktail! The perfect drink for a warm summer night. There will be a return trip to test out other flavors! There is a small food menu featuring empanadas. The shrimp, coconut curry, mango, sweet potato, and basil was a very good combination. We shared sides of cucumber jicama salad and pineapple rice. Another group of diners noticed me looking at their order of chipotle fries and offered to let me try some. All the food was very tasty and the staff was friendly with efficient service.
The renovated building is very lovely and the location on Niagara Street allows for comfortable casual dining. I would recommend Mint for drinks and light fare!

09/19/2022

This mural, entitled ‘Welcome’, is located at 751 Filmore Ave, in the Broadway Filmore neighborhood. The mural was done by Keir Johnston and Ernel Martinez.

The artists created the work using sheets of Polytab, a nonwoven material also known as “parachute cloth,” which was then patched together like wallpaper to create a seamless installation. The flexibility of the material made it possible to work on the mural indoors and allowed Johnston and Martinez to bring the artmaking process out into the community. Each section of Polytab was marked in advance by the artists with an outline of the design, a kind of “paint-by-numbers” format that allowed individuals of all skill levels to come together and participate on the project simultaneously!

“Welcome” is written in the 13 languages the Broadway Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Services outreach identified as representative of this diverse neighborhood: Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, English, Farsi, French, German, Polish, Seneca, Spanish, Somali, Urdu, and Vietnamese.

Come and be Welcomed to the Doors Open in the Broadway Filmore neighborhood on September 24,2022 with Explore Buffalo!

09/17/2022

"If the sky could dream, it would dream of dragons.”
― Ilona Andrews, Fate's Edge

09/15/2022

This Labor Day I had a working lunch with a friend. We were working on the tour notes for our new tour of Seneca One and decided to meet at Undergrounds Coffee House and Roastery. We were going to check out their new location at Seneca One but they were closed for the holiday, so we went to the very comfortable old location. The atmosphere and decor are always charming and fun to bring people to see. There is even a mural on the bathroom wall by Nicole Cherry Mural Art.
We both had breakfast bowls. For a base price of $10.00 you are able to choose the base, two veggies or fruit, eggs, cheese, and a protein. Overall, a good concept, but not knowing what exactly to expect I would say it was good but not wonderful. I do not blame the restaurant, however! For instance, the sweet potato tots were a bit too sweet for me, I think I would have enjoyed the regular potatoes. I got a generous amount of sausage. I thought the egg in it might be more like a fried egg with the yolk. It was good but more of a scrambled egg cubed. Again not at all bad, just not likely the best choices for my tastes. A hearty good option for breakfast.
While there I took the time to admire the cups in their Roastery club. As the building was formerly a funeral home for many years, to honor the space they came up with the club, which features the images of notable deceased individuals. If that person hasn't been picked yet you can choose them!
Each mug is unique and a person can only be chosen once. Not only do you get your mug but discounts throughout the store. Will there be a round two in the new location?
I am excited to see the new location and recommend their original spot as well!

09/12/2022

There is a new mural in Buffalo that currently is nameless! It is located on Deleware Avenue near Allen Ave, near the Colter Bay Buffalo restaurant. The mural is by Beau Stanton and features specific Buffalo imagery. A main feature is the stained glass that is in the Buffalo Common Counsel Chambers. The figure of the woman appears to be from one of the statues that is part of the Caryatid porch, carved by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The flowering element could be a variety of clematis – a climbing vine.

Beau Stanton works on paintings, murals, large-scale installations, stained glass, mosaics, and multimedia animations. Stanton has done murals all over the world. The imagery and themes are always site-specific and closely tailored to the locale of the artwork, involving research and scouting of the surrounding area with a goal of creating work that is a direct response to its environment.

Buffalo is fortunate to have one of his excellent works!

09/10/2022

Looked up to the Lord above and said, "Hey, man thanks." -The Tragically Hip - New Orleans is Sinking

09/08/2022

I had a very special dinner at Ristorante Logge Vasari located in Piazza Grande, Arezzo Italy. I was lucky enough to share a meal with 6 of my favorite people, after a fabulous Tuscan wedding weekend before we were off to different parts of the world!
We enjoyed Tuscan bread before one of our most unusual first dish - Soft Egg with truffle, saffron, and pecorino sauce. It was hard to compare it to any preparation of an egg I had had. It was unique and interesting! A special that evening was the Parmigiano gelato antipasti. We ordered it for its uniqueness, but I do prefer more traditional flavors.
There were several pasta dishes including Red turnip fresh spaghetti with pistachio pesto and burrata sauce, pici pasta with sweet Tuscan garlic, and zucchini flower blossom - a seasonal special. All were wonderful!
On that warm summer night I must say truly - La vita è bella!

09/05/2022

I was in the Broadway Fillmore neighborhood recently. I was able to check out a mural that I had read about but had not seen!
It is called Work and Play done by Wojciech Kołacz, also known as Otecki, Polish, born in 1984.
The mural is located at 647 Fillmore Avenue, Buffalo. The location is direct across the street from Torn Space Theater, which is housed in the Adam Mickiewicz Library and Dramatic Circle. Buffalo is home to the second-largest Polish population in the United States, and the mural’s East Side location in particular is where many Polish families settled and established the Broadway/Fillmore neighborhood.

Otecki is an illustrator, print maker, painter, and mural artist working in Wroclaw, Poland, located about midway between Warsaw and Prague. He finds influence in cubism, tribal art, and Slavonic folklore, and is fond of presenting dualistic worlds and characters, especially human-animal combinations, that he considers “part majesty and part mystery.”
The perfect time to explore the mural and the neighborhood is on September 24th with Explore Buffalo's Doors Open in the Neighborhood Event! The event is totally free, although you must register online. Doors Open is designed to inspire greater appreciation for Buffalo’s unique history and architecture through free public access to significant building interiors and to build relationships for residents and visitors with Buffalo’s history and architecture. There will be 19 locations in the Broadway – Fillmore neighborhood that you can tour for free! I will be there and I hope to see you there.

09/03/2022

The Fountain of Neptune of 'The Giant', in Piazza del Nettuno in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, is dedicated to the god Neptune of Roman mythology, and Pope Pius IV.
The construction of the fountain was commissioned by the Cardinal Legate Charles Borromeo, to symbolize the fortunate re-election of Borromeo's uncle as Pope Pius IV.
His monumental fountain of 90 water jets is located between the Town Hall, Palazzo Re Enzo, and the Podestat Palace in the historic center of Bologna. It was commissioned in 1563 and completed in 1566.
The statute is great fun and it is no wonder there are stories of the artist offending the Pope in this work of art! One of the stories I was told is that the Pope did not want the statute to be anatomically correct - and the nickname "the Giant" might be even more fitting. So the artist took made some of the hands to provide some of the missing parts.
Neptune was the Roman god of all waters, bringer of winds and commander of storms. As capricious as the seas he commanded, Neptune guided the Roman people’s ancestor Aeneas to freedom, but demanded a human sacrifice for his assistance.

09/01/2022

I dined at Pearl Street Grill & Brewery with some friends tonight. I have always liked the building and the outdoor patios, but I had not been there in some time, since before the pandemic. Nothing memorable would be my overall rating. Perhaps if I was a beer drinker and would have had one of their many selections of beers I might have been impressed. I did not have a drink, as there was no list of vodka stocked and the server did not even know what kind of vodka they had.
Nothing on the menu stood out. They had the usual Buffalo tavern fare, wings, burgers, some sandwiches, fish fry, but no beef on weck. Perhaps I should have had chicken wings, but being from Buffalo you need to make a darn special wing to impress me! While deciding on my order I asked to substitute onion rings for fries but was told that was not possible. Still, we ordered the onion rings as a starter. They were fine but served on a metal tray with a mustard-type dipping sauce that I would have skipped.
All of us ordered the fish tacos, as we were told they were a best seller There was nothing exceptional about them. Although there were two, I had no desire to finish them. There was no effort expended on the presentation. They were served on metal trays that looked a bit banged up with some nacho chips tossed alongside without any salsa.
The wait staff and hostess were not impolite but were clearly inexperienced and not all that well trained. We were pointed to our table - not seated. I don't mean figuratively, literally, the hostess walked to the general area and pointed to our table, and said there it is. Later there was a crash when the table nearby was being cleared. It was quickly cleaned up however the cleaning supplies were left in the booth. It was discovered after they seated new people there. This I would describe as mostly careless and not managed well.
Nothing offensive. Nothing memorable. Nothing I can think of to make me return.

08/30/2022

The Ohio Street bridge at age 60 under going repairs.

This bridge was completed in 1962 and is "tower driven." The machinery to move the cables attached to the counterweights is located at the top of towers at either end, shrouded in a metal covering.

The bridge has been undergoing $16 million in repairs for well over a year.

'The hardest thing in life is to know what bridge to burn and which to cross"

The Buffalo Tourist