After years of sitting empty, the former Plate-Oh Restaurant location is opening up under new ownership. Donna Potter and her son Moe are busy (and I mean busy) transforming the spot into a place that will attract diners who have a hankering for healthy food options. The café is located just across the way from Buffalo State College and the soon-to-open Burchfield-Penney Art Museum. I was surprised to hear that the former Lancaster business has already made a name for itself in certain circles - namely the coffee drinking contingent. Now the mother-son team wants to bring everything they have learned to The Elmwood Village. They're even planning on cleaning up that corner (I would imagine they will be picking up after Subway since half of the mess comes from their customers). From Donna:
“We just celebrated our fourth anniversary in Lancaster. At the same time we are so exciting to move to the Elmwood Strip. I’ve really come full circle… I gave birth to my son when I was living on Elmwood Avenue and now we’re business partners. Even though we are moving from Lancaster, I am expecting that clientele to follow us into the city. We specialize in vegan and vegetarian dishes though we don’t limit ourselves to that alone. This morning my pastry chef made vegan peanut butter cookies and they were incredible – I’m not a vegan myself, but I Iook forward to having those choices.
“Elmwood is where we want to put all of our energy. We’re going to offer our customers a choice of full service dining or they can go into the coffee house section for take out. Breakfast specials like focaccia stuffed French toast with triple berries will be available all the time. We’re also going to be serving crepes, paninis (named after city streets), and a salad called The Forest Lawn. We're having fun and we want The Korner Kaffé to be a fun place for everyone.
“As of now we're trying to get open by Friday... it’ll be a soft opening at first. We want to grow with the community rather than being a corporate monster. My mix-masters are top-notch baristas - we do probably about 250 coffee drinks - raspberry chocolate truffle being one of my favorites. The awning is coming in at the end of the month, but the patio will be available Friday for the opening. There is a public parking lot right next door on Forest, though we're relying on the heavy foot-traffic at this location. The neighborhood is already stopping in to talk to us and everyone is wishing us luck - we're actively adopting the streets around us. One of the first things on our list is to clean up the garbage on the street and we're going to plant flowers in the public lot – it’s a real mess right now. The restaurant is a team effort between me and my son Moe. He’s a fan of tattoos, so you can expect the artwork to be tattoo designs. The kids want to be a part of something and we want to offer that while we watch over them... I'm like everybody's mom.”
The Korner Kaffé is located at 577 Forest Avenue. Phone is 716-995-0681