Buffalo Rising Online

I only had the chance to go there once, the lights were never on when I was in that area of town. it was delicious and it's too bad he is closing. But I also heard that the corner is going to be a small grocer, so in the end that is how the world works. Things close, things open. I wish him the best of luck in whatever he is going to do now.

That whole corner including the plaza is ripe for redevelopment. rip it all down and rebuild curbside for mixed use, stores, apartments, townhomes and office space would be great and lordy, we all know the parking lot is "HUGE".

hate to say it but that plaza is ripe for an Aldis. A clean cheap grocery store.

Who needs business on elmwood? After all we do have a planning award!

Maybe they should just rename the street: Elmwouldn'tstartabusinesshere. That might not fit on a street sign though.

Luckily, the street is one of the 8 best neighborhoods in the world, unfortunately literally half the store fronts are closed. I'd say it looks like Detroit but they say things look like Buffalo there.

I got an idea for a new business: a nonprofit focused on sustainable self-sustainability

vgs – Although I don’t think the EV “sky is falling” (and I think hippygrrl gives good perspective), there are reasons for concern and your two points are mistaken:

Some of you talk as though this closing was somehow related to poor business on Elmwood. He just doesn't want to do it anymore.

John isn't retiring. He accepted a job running an in-house food service for a company. And he did say that declining business on Elmwood was a big factor in his decision.

QE alluded to that in the article above:

…Unfortunately, I believe that John anticipated this closing for quite some time. Upon stopping there in the past he would relay to me that the neighborhood was not supporting him as it had done so often in the past. …

And the Buffalo News included direct info from him and his wife:

An era ends on Elmwood Avenue as X-Cel Produce closes By Sharon Linstedt Updated: 10/17/07 8:55 AM

… The Darowzes had been contemplated closing their shop for the past two years as operating expenses climbed and revenues from sales failed to keep pace. Linda Darowz said she “didn’t sleep much” as she laid in bed doing the bookkeeping in her head.

“I worried about how we’d pay the bills,” she said. “As small business owners we were paying the same fees and licenses as a Wegmans or Tops.”

John Darowz said he’s lost his faith in New York state government after his long stint as a small businessman. “They make it as hard a possible. It’s ridiculous. My operational costs were up 35 to 40 percent and you can’t make up that difference with three to four hours of lunch business a day,” he said.

The decision to shutter XCel came earlier this month when John Darowz was offered a “dream job” to start up an inhouse cafeteria for James Desiderio Inc., the Buffalo area’s largest produce wholesaler. …

Full story here: http://www.buffalonews.com/145/story/186015.html

No problem, vgs, was just correcting those aspects. I agree and wish him the best in his new job.

I don't think Elmwood will implode soon, but it can't help being impacted by economic stagnation surrounding it in the city and metro. Also I'm guessing some of downtown residential gains recently might be drawning some good income residents who formerly would've chosen EV. At least there's no serious vacancy problem too close and many residential blocks still do great, but even a slow decline in EV's overall disposable income levels will impede business success. It'll be interesting to see Census figures on that stuff in a few years.

Hopefully at least gains of the past decade as summarized by hippiegrrl can be maintained.