There’s a Mexican food craze going on in Buffalo at the moment. Remember that it was not that long ago that this city had a dearth of Mexican culinary options. Today, a taco is right around the corner, no matter where you live.
A new Mexican American restaurant will soon be open on Amherst Street in Black Rock. When Lucy Ethiopian owners closed up in order to supersize in Riverside, it left a prime restaurant location open on the street.
Haliboyz Mexican-American Grille is slated to open in the beginning of April. The restaurant is owned and operated by Nour Ali Mazeh, who ran a couple of other restaurants in Los Angeles before picking up and moving to Buffalo. I bumped into Nour in front of his new restaurant location, and asked him how he made his way to Buffalo. He said that he was here a couple of years ago, but moved back to LA. His brother ended up marrying a Buffalo gal. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that Buffalo was a super friendly city – that’s why he picked up again from LA and moved back.
Nour’s previous restaurants were not called Haliboyz, but they did serve up the same sort of cuisine mash-up – traditional street Mexican food, American and Halal meat. Coming from LA, this bodes well for the Mexican street food concept. “We’re bringing real Mexican to Buffalo,” said Nour. “We’re half Mexican, half Lebanese and we don’t play when it comes to cooking! It’s me and my partners – we call ourselves The Hali Brothers after our restaurant. It’s a family based business, so there’s definitely love put into everything.“
Amherst Street is finally picking up from where it left off a few years ago. It seems to be riding an entrepreneurial wave as of late, with a plethora of diverse businesses opening. Haliboyz Mexican-American Grille will be a great addition to that mix.
Haliboyz Mexican-American Grille | 388 Amherst Street | Buffalo NY