December 2011 Archives

A critical corner of the 500 block of Main Street has sold.  WIL Partners LLC purchased the former Arby's/Grever's Florist building at 537 Main Street yesterday.  The three-story building faces Roosevelt Plaza and the Hyatt hotel.  The new owners paid $250,000 for the property that had been owned by Queen City Lofts, LLC.

WIL

By Jake Steinmetz:
During the holiday season, along with the annual yuletide cheer comes the frantic search for gifts for our loved ones.  Often lost in this commercial frenzy, however, is the greater significance of the gift being given.  Fortunately, one local company keeps the message of its product at the forefront of its operations, specifically promoting the Buffalo community.   
Born In Buffalo (B.I.B.) is a t-shirt company run by native Buffalonian Dave Hassett.  Since its inception in the Spring

The Buffalo and Erie County Public Library System has released a list of its most popular circulated items in 2011. With 37 locations, each reporting on the most borrowed selections, the library system compiles these year-end statistics to gauge readers' interest in topics, fiction and non-fiction popularity, and past, present and future reading trends. We at Buffalo Rising are lucky to have ongoing Sunday book reviews in order to help encourage Greater Buffalonians to pick up a book and read. Thanks to everyone who supported a public library this year.
BOOKS
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While walking down Elmwood the day or two after Christmas, I passed by 500 Elmwood, and for a minute I couldn't place what this storefront had been previously. Apparently on Christmas day (according to neighbors) the facade of the old storefront had been removed and replaced with this new metal and glass system. I stood in front of the building thinking to myself, "What the heck was here yesterday? What was the former business and what had happened to the exterior appearance?"
It suddenly occurred to me that the building had once housed HOD Tattoo. I then went to Google maps

We wanted to make someone's Christmas a little brighter. So we had a Twitter contest.  
We called it our Christmas Do-Over Contest and we asked our 7,500+ followers to share with us their worst Christmas present and we'd give the poor soul with the absolute worst gift a $100 gift certificate to Trattoria Aroma. 
Well, we received plenty of candidates for worst Christmas gift of 2011. One woman received a tooth brush. Not even a Colgate or Oral B toothbrush but a generic toothbrush. One woman

By Matthew Ricchiazzi:
My background is in private equity, so I know very little about education policy, theory, or practice. But I've always found education a deeply fascinating case study from a management perspective. I often delve into issues of organizational behavior, in attempt to understand a firm's performance, its weaknesses, and the incentives that implicitly motivate each cog of a complex system.
It seems to me that our public education system, as endemically flawed and woefully un-postured as it is, needs similar

As seen on Contemporist.com, these Parallel Park patio-meets-parking spaces are functionally creative, while adding vibrancy and street calming to commercial districts. Of course these would need to be placed in the ideal spots around town, but I could see a couple of the non-traditional bump outs fitting into the fabric of say Chippewa?
You can see that the road striping keeps cars far enough away so that poor parallel parkers don't accidentally knock into the pop-up-parks (as seen here

By Jamie Nash:
Everybody around here knows Chippewa, and what you can expect to see when you head out there for the night. Justin Anderson aims to bring something new to that perception with Tap House, which will replace the old Jack Devine's at 85 W. Chippewa by catering to those looking for a more relaxed evening--without fist-pumping and rave music. With the restaurant opening sometime in February, and the bar soon after in March, Tap House will be host to a reasonably priced light food menu, an ensemble of 25-plus North American brews, live music and events.
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On New Year's Eve, the last thing that you want to be doing is driving after having a couple of drinks. It's just one of those nights when everyone throws on a party hat, but unfortunately many people decide to get behind the wheel after tipping back a couple of cocktails. Even if you think that you're fine, there's no reason to chance it. Choose a designated driver if you can. If you can't find someone who is completely sober and willing to taxi you and your friends around town, then there's another option...
We are lucky to have Designated

Now that the pine needles on your Christmas tree are starting to fall off, it's time to throw it out. Stop! There's a better way to do the job. The City needs your tree to turn it into mulch. This is a win-win program. Just leave your tree curbside (see below for pick-up schedule), or take it to a drop-off center. It's that easy. Please try to be extra green this year and don't bag your tree - it kinda defeats the purpose of being earth-frienly when The City has to dispose of a giant plastic bag. The City saves $60 for every ton that it recycles, and you can be happy knowing that your beautiful

I recently became a fan of NY style pizza. My wife and I spent a couple of days in NYC and we hit the streets looking for the perfect slice. What we found was truly exceptional, and more importantly I now know where the NY-style pizza snobs are coming from when they rant and rave about the stuff. In recent years Buffalo has landed a couple of NY-style pizza joints that do a pretty good job when it comes to creating decent NY-style pizzas, but I'm not sold on any one restaurant in particular. Last night I decided to try out a new Elmwood pizzeria called Gino's, and after opening the box and taking

Downtown has undergone a transformation in recent years.  The number of buildings finding new life as residential spaces was only dreamed of a decade ago.  Today, there are few "obvious" residential conversion candidates left.  There seem to be more office tenants relocating into downtown than out.  Restoration of downtown's two grand hotels- the Statler and Lafayette- are significant preservation and city successes.  That doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement downtown.  Newell had a wish

Does anyone else remember when Ashland Gallery was in this building? I still remember when the business closed. I was such a big fan of the merchandise that I found inside the shop, which featured works produced by artisans from all over the world. This building is located at the corner of Bryant and Ashland, and sits directly across from Trattoria Aroma. Not only is the building beautiful, the commercial space on the first floor still retains so much of the original circa 1900 interior that it deserves to be home, once again, to a small neighborhood market, boutique, gallery, etc. 
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News of a Mighty Taco opening on Chippewa has Mexican fast food lovers salivating at the mouth. Although I can honestly say that I've only eaten at Mighty a handful of times, I have friends who grew up pledging allegiance to the brand. When we were younger, a couple of my friends would go a couple times a week, and while I was always an Elmwood Taco and Sub fan, they are, still to this day, diehard Mighty fans. Even if you've never eaten at Mighty, chances are that you've heard the commercials on the radio, and seen the ads on TV and in print. Their marketing campaigns are almost as legendary as

The Cornell University Glee Club will be performing at St. Louis Roman Catholic Church (Main @ Edward) on Sunday, January 15th at 4:30 PM as part of their 2012 Midwest Tour. The concert will feature selections relating to this year's theme of "conflict and reconciliation," including Lee Hoiby's "Last Letter Home" , the title piece of their latest CD release.  While on tour, the Glee Club will also be premiering their commissioned work: "Sonnet 73", by University of Chicago composer Shulamit Ran. 

Tickets for this concert are now

The second annual Olmsted Flurrious! winter festival is scheduled to take place on January 21. The festival will kick off at 9am with a Fleet Feet fun run around Delaware Park's Ring Road (see details). Upon completion of the lap, runners will be treated with live music in the heated tent located in front of the Parkside Lodge. This year's tent will be 25' longer in order to accommodate a 12-hour line-up of bands and DJs with a wide range of music including acoustic, rock, folk,

This year marks the 24th year for The Ball Drop, and this year Buffalonians have a lot to celebrate including a newly restored and magnificently lit Electric Tower. Live entertainment kicks off at 10:30pm with music acts Caitlin Koch and the Jamie Moses Band as headliners. Once again, the Ball Drop will conclude with a fireworks extravaganza, which always "wows' the audience and gives us a spectacular photo by Joe Cascio. See last year's stunning photo in lead photo.
"In addition to welcoming the New Year, the 2012 Ball drop also ushers in the 100th anniversary of

Whether it "The Addams Family", "Mannheim", "The Nutcracker" or "The Lion King", Shea's theater is hot these days. So hot that the NY Times has run a feature on the theater's success. Greater Buffalonians know how solid our cultural scene is, because we're the ones that support the shows. You might think that Buffalo lands these blockbusters (and some duds) due to a travel route of convenience. That is not the true. Shea's is a moneymaker, and often helps to make shows a success (and investors some money). From the article:
"The industry has noticed how good it

It's December 24, the day before Christmas. I must say that I've had a lot of fun exploring the city with Katie Krawczyk this month. My only regret is that there were not more days to feature shops that we talked about covering and never got the chance to do so. When thinking about the business that I would feature today, with only a few hours remaining until the 25th, I figured that I would choose a place that I knew would have a couple of killer post-holiday items. That means, when you go to redeem your Walmart presents (that your great aunt in Kentucky sent you) for cash, there are a couple