The Horsefeathers Market has landed another tenant. This time it’s a foodie who is not only new to the Buffalo culinary scene, she’s also new to Buffalo. In a twist of fate, Esther Pica was conducting online real estate searches from her home in NYC, on the Lower East Side, when she got her signals crossed. “I put the wrong zip code into the search field and a house in Buffalo came up,” she told me [laughing]. “But by that time, I had fallen in love with the house (and the price), so I arranged to fly to Buffalo. Originally I had been looking at warm weather college towns. Buffalo had not been on my list… but the West Side house drew me. I flew to Buffalo and bought the house almost the same day (with pocket change compared to NYC). Then I started following Buffalo Rising Online and learned about the Horsefeathers Market. I paid a visit to the market and told myself that that is where I needed to be.”
It turns out that Esther had started the first juice bar in the East Village just about 20 years ago with a partner, and she wanted to get back to that lifestyle again… but in Buffalo. As of late, she had been managing a bar/music venue near her home in NYC and, “It wasn’t for me,” she said. “I had been doing a lot of juicing in the city at all of the well-known places, and was keeping up with the latest trends. In Buffalo I’ll be making juices to order, all organic, all vegan, with organic foods like fettuccine alfredo made out of zucchini noodles and cashew cheese, and a wilted kale salad with creamy chipotle dressing, and a sunflower falafel… basically I torture nuts and make them do things that they really don’t want to do. I’ll have a line of nut-based cheeses too. I’ll be serving cold brewed coffee, which is 75% less acidic, without the bitterness, and naturally sweeter. It’s the least damaging coffee that you can drink. There will be a core group of bottled juices (bottled in-house) with a shelf life of three to four days since there is no oxygen added – bottled juices are part of the different cleanses that I will be offering, some all-juice, some smoothie, some raw foods. There will be deposits on the bottles, which customers will bring back and then the glass will be sanitized. All of my serving products are eco-friendly – knives forks, cups… all biodegradable. I’m jazzed to see how little garbage we will produce. In the future I am going to be offering wraps and other foods – at this time I am sourcing bread substitutes.”
Esther is excited to be experimenting with this new market that she is just starting to delve into. Personally, I can’t wait to try the flash frozen Thai coconut water that she tells me “…is so good that you’ll never go back to the store-bought stuff.” Esther is willing to work with people and their dietary needs – her energy bars will be made with enough care and attention that she will be able to accommodate customers will all sorts of dietary restrictions. Then there’s the triple layer water purifier/alkalizer that she had installed… and the pulp project that she is working on… and the home made kombucha… not to mention the “insane chia seed pudding”. Just what the doctor ordered!
Press Raw Food & Juice will be opening in early June, 2013
Press Raw Food & Juice – see Facebook
Horsefeathers Market Building
346 Connecticut Street, Buffalo NY 14222
716-464-3695