Looks simply amazing. I love the idea of a big table with food for people sit around and actually socialize with each other. We wall ourselves off all too often from one another. This seems like a great way to bring the old and new together to help bring back this section of Grant Street. How exciting!!
Finally someone is taking a chance and a stand to bring vibrancy BACK to Grant St. Congrats!!!!
Having watched the long painful decline of Grant St, this is indeed a great development.
The close proximity to Guercio's & PUSH / Massachusetts Project offices in the former library will also hopefully break down some of Bflo's race-class divisions.
Guercio's still attracts the affluent, as PUSH Mass-Ave Project, are organizing the WS poor. Hopefully they will meet & interact at "Sweet 7".
Keep it up!
Dick kern
Prish did such an astonishing job, here. The building is wonderful but the cafe is a complete transformation of a once lackluster space. Not only is the final project wonderfully imaginative and inviting but the road there was amazing. I've never seen someone assemble and inspire such a disparate group of talented people. Although they may not have been able understand her vision for the space, they trusted her completely and worked incredibly hard to get there. Kudos to everyone of them!
Well I love the interior even though I hate what they have done to the exterior. One would never know the interior is so pleasant by the loud exterior (Please please do something more tasteful)
I see this cafe in a bigger picture. The area between Linwood and Richmond has really gentrified and matured and its only going to continue to do so with projects like the Gates Tower and other projects on elmwood proper. This means that the future for Elmwood is the struggle to rise up out of the cheap college student beer mugs, happy hours, bars and tattoos...etc into the more mature, clean crisp, urban experience playing off the park and the culturals.
The future then is the gradual shift of Buffalo State from Elmwood to Grant. If one judges the front of a college by the entrance were people park, then Grant Street is the front entrance to Buffalo State....and increasingly college oriented businesses are going to find Forest, Grant, Amherst and Tonawanda their preferred location.
I can see the day when housing may become to expensive for college students between Linwood and Richmond and Grant and Amherst become cheaper alternatives.
Of course this has been predicted for 20 years....and the shift could have been supported if Howard over at Buffalo State stopped refusing 10,000 applicants a year and started buying land to expand the campus so that non-academic facilities (stadiums, track, baseball fields, dormatories, bookstores, bursars office, academic offices, teachers offices, small business incubators, etc) moved to the periphery of the campus of off campus entirely.
In the meantime....this cafe is a big step in the migration of Buffalo State students from Elmwood to Grant Street! Good Luck....cant wait for the next business. Maybe we can get Russ's Bakery to move back from the suburbs to Elmwood.
Projects like this were not happening 10 or 20 years ago and it a great to see the new appreciation for the wonderful old buildings and neighborhoods here in Buffalo. Congratulations and good luck.
Hey what happened to the "Korner Kaffe" on Forest just west of Elmwood?
Awesome, congratulations Prish. I wish you much success, and promise/look forward to my patronage.
-Andre
The place looks fantastic, from the pictures. Reminds me of Caffe Trieste in North Beach, San Francisco - one of the best, and oldest, coffee houses out there. Can't wait to get back to The Buff and partake of their bounty. Good for them!
No Saturday hours? There are a lot of us who work M-F but spend Saturday doing our shopping at Guercio's and Lorigo's.
21stcentury- you make it sound like buffalo state students are a bad element to have around. come down to the section of grant where these new and old businesses are. i would dare to say the surrounding neighborhoods would welcome with open arms, the students that you don't seem to think belong in the elmwood area. students will bring a refreshing revival to this area, beer mugs, tattoos and all! yes please RISE UP elmwood, we will gladly house your unwanted immature residents. and by the way, Russ's Bakery is alive and well on WEST FERRY & GRANT!!!
i pass by the building prish has taken on daily. watching the complete renovation of this structure was quite amazing. what a wonderful day it was to see a new coffee shop, gallery, flower shop, and let's not forget all the apartments above the retail space finally open. good luck to all involved. i will certainly help to support this new and exciting LOCAL business. can't wait to try the coffee!!!
Having witnessed this project from an early stage, and currently am working there now, I was very moved by this article. This place is exactly what inspires me about Buffalo, and Prish is incredible. Its nice to have someone recognize that. Seriously, thanks for posting this. Come down for some coffee!!
Having witnessed this project from an early stage, and currently am working there now, I was very moved by this article. This place is exactly what inspires me about Buffalo, and Prish is incredible. Its nice to have someone recognize that. Seriously, thanks for posting this. Come down for some coffee!!
Congratulations Prish! Can't wait to stop in. I too hope you will be having some Saturday hours.
Wow! I can't believe my eyes. I drive by this place every single morning on the way to work and although I saw the construction and work being done over the last few months, I guess i never really stopped to think that it might become something. I have always thought that Grant St. was one of the worst in the city (that I routinely drive by that is) and have long thought it to be absolutely hopeless. I am so happy to see that I might be wrong. Guercio's has been my only routine stop on this street for years besides the occasional trip to OTB on Kentucky Derby day, but I will be stopping in here.
Thank you to whoever put effort into making this place a reality. Gives me hope for Grant St. and for Buffalo.
Go Bills! Go Losman!
Thanks for transforming this corner and for believing in this forgotten area of the west side.
Prish..you need to walk across the street from your building and really look at how aweful the paint job looks. You had a chance to bring fresh life and color to this corner and it is missing the mark. Listen to what folks are saying. The design is much too busy and the colors are just horrible. Now the inside has character..why don't you bring some of those fresh colors outside to hide that aweful brown and gold combo. No offense but it is terrible. ANd is there a way to hide all those meters? I'm trying to be constructive not hurtful.
Congrats! My wife always tells me stories of Grant St from when she was a kid and I hope someday our children will have the same memories. Couple years ago we almost bought a home not far from here but one drive through a night made us second guess the purchase. Can't wait for catalysts like this to start things moving in the right direction. Congrats again!
i think the colors are stunning along with the design. if it was another boring building, you may have never noticed it. all your comments about the artistic design and colors, just means the plan to be noticed worked. this busy pattern also discourages tagging by graffiti artists. hey everyone come down and see the UGLY paint job, and have a cup of coffee!!! " YOU GO PRISH..."
I tried to stop by Tuesday afternoon. The place was closed. What's up with that?
RIB, see end of Newell's post:
Tentative hours: Mon-Fri 7am-7pm. Weekend hours TBD. Due to ongoing construction schedule, Prish can guarantee weekday morning hours will be regular, but afternoons could vary. Please call ahead if you're making the trip in the next few days.
Went today. Very nice space, good vibe, good coffee, muffin, etc.
Noted that there was a sign saying they would be CLOSED FROM 12/19 to 1/4. So don't try to go during that two-week period. But afterward its definitely worth a visit.
This piece has potential, but is in need of a massive edit and, unfortunately, a spell check ("payed"? Seriously? Nobody else noticed this?).
This piece has potential, but is in need of a massive edit and, unfortunately, a spell check ("payed"? Seriously? Nobody else noticed this?).
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