Unbeknownst even to many locals, the West Side is one of the most historic areas of Buffalo: its history began in 1802 when the federal government constructed a 30-mile (48-km) Military Road north from here to Lewiston. In the years after the Revolution, tensions between the United States and Britain remained high — and in case of a British incursion from Canada, the Military Road would enable troops to move as needed between Fort Niagara and Fort Tompkins, which would soon be built near what is today the corner of Niagara and Hampshire Streets. Two years later, Peter Porter, a State Assemblyman from Canandaigua and a former associate of Buffalo's founder, Joseph Ellicott, began laying out a settlement on the large parcel of riverfront land he owned along Military Road about two miles (3.2 km) north of Buffalo; he named the incipient hamlet "Black Rock" after a ledge of dark limestone that jutted into the Niagara River just north of what is today the Peace Bridge. Much larger than the modern-day neighborhood of that name, Porter's Black Rock occupied essentially all of what is today the West Side, and was made up of three parts: the larger Upper Black Rock in what is today the Upper West Side, centered around the corner of Niagara and West Ferry Streets; the smaller Lower Black Rock (later also known as Black Rock Dam for the lock and dam that was installed on the Erie Canal in 1833), which corresponds to today's neighborhood of Black Rock; and South Black Rock, what is today the Lower West Side, where streets were surveyed in a distinctive grid angled parallel to the shoreline that still exists; however, the land remained a sparsely settled forest, and none of the streets were actually constructed until the 1830s, '40s and after. Between Upper and Lower Black Rock was the harbor, located at the mouth of Scajaquada Creek and dominated by a shipyard owned by Porter.

The same year that Black Rock was incorporated as a village, the long-feared military confrontation along the Niagara River came to pass. The attempted American invasion of Canada that began the War of 1812 saw U.S. forces under General George McClure sack and loot the frontier villages of York (now Toronto) and Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake); in retaliation, before dawn on December 30, 1813, a British detachment crossed the river and landed in Black Rock, burning it to the ground then heading south to Buffalo to do the same. Though it was rebuilt quickly, Black Rock remained a battleground till the end of the war — Porter's shipyard did a brisk business building warships for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's fleet, and a second British incursion across the river was thwarted at the Battle of Scajaquada Creek Bridge in August 1814. The war ended in 1815, but things hardly quieted down: the always-heated rivalry between Black Rock and Buffalo took on a new urgency around 1816 when planning began for a huge canal linking the Hudson River and Lake Erie. It was understood that the Erie Canal would be a huge economic boon, opening up the West to large-scale settlement, and that it would begin at Albany — but the exact location of its western end had yet to be determined. Porter used his political connections to vigorously argue that Black Rock be selected over its rival. At first, its superior harbor — sheltered by Unity Island from the strong currents of the Niagara River — as well as the fact that two more miles (3 more km) of canal would need to be dug to reach Buffalo, seemed to give Black Rock the advantage. The successful launch from its harbor of the Walk-in-the-Water, the first steamboat on Lake Erie, further aided Black Rock's cause, but after a contingent of Buffalonians finally set about dredging the harbor there to a suitable depth, Buffalo was chosen in 1821 as the canal's terminus. When it opened in 1825, the Erie Canal passed through and beyond Black Rock; as a final insult, Black Rock even lost the rock formation that inspired its name: it lay in the path of the canal and had to be blasted away.

As predicted, Buffalo grew explosively, expanding its borders in 1832 to include newly developing South Black Rock. Black Rock might have been able to soldier on independently in the shadow of its now-much larger neighbor, but the years after the canal's construction were exceptionally harsh: the Panic of 1837 laid waste to its economy (half its businesses failed) just when Black Rock was getting back on its feet again after a damaging windstorm a few years earlier. Moreover, when relief came to the village, it was at the expense of some of its independent spirit: the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad, the area's first, helped transform Upper Black Rock into an important center for milling and coopering — which, in turn, attracted throngs of German and Irish laborers — but, by the same token, inextricably bound its new economy to Buffalo's. Thus, though Lower Black Rock was able to retain much more of its distinct identity and pastoral character, with a small-town feel to the streets around Market Square, a change to Buffalo's charter enabled it to annex Black Rock along with the remainder of the surrounding unincorporated township in 1853, ending its history as an independent village.

In spite of it all, the next decades would be ones of rapid growth for Buffalo's newly annexed West Side. It was about 1850 when former mayor Ebenezer Johnson moved to Tennessee, placing his vast Lower West Side estate up for sale. The estate was subdivided into streets and houses that quickly took on a working-class character: the canal was only a few blocks away, and the crowded tenements of the First Ward were a place that canal laborers, largely Irishmen, were keen to escape if they could afford it. As the Irish pushed north, they were joined on the blocks closest to downtown by Italians, who, beginning in the 1870s, competed with the Irish for canal and railroad jobs. Further north, the park and parkway system that eminent landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted had planned for the city attracted development to Prospect Hill; its western arm, Porter Avenue, lined with rows of stately elms, cut a swath through the old South Black Rock street grid, passing Prospect Park and ending at "The Front" (now Front Park), the pleasant green space Olmsted planned for the beautiful Lake Erie shoreline. The similar Richmond Avenue additionally extended north toward Delaware Park along the eastern fringe of the district.

The West Side continued to grow and diversify in the ensuing years. The New York Central Railroad's Belt Line, a commuter loop built in 1883 through Buffalo's outer neighborhoods, attracted residents to the undeveloped eastern outskirts of Black Rock: a community of industrial workers from Poland, Hungary and Ukraine gathered around the new Church of the Assumption near the corner of Grant and Amherst Streets. Meanwhile, as the more affluent Germans and Irishmen continued to push outward, the land north of increasingly industrial Black Rock also began to develop, with a second Olmsted park, Germania Park (soon to be renamed Riverside Park), built around 1900 as the centerpiece of the area in Buffalo's far northwest corner now known as Riverside. Originally the site of many summer homes belonging to Buffalo's elite aristocracy, Riverside became a pleasant "suburb" of Black Rock, with a greener, more countrified ambience, larger homes on more spacious lots, and a wealthier citizenry.

With the advent of the railroads in the late 19th century, the Erie Canal gradually became obsolete and fell into disuse; however, other than that, the early 20th century was a time of stability for the West Side. But subtle changes were afoot citywide that would rattle the district to its core in the second half of the century. Growth in Buffalo progressively slowed, then stopped altogether just after World War II, as the rise of the automobile enabled city residents to move to less crowded suburbs while retaining jobs downtown. The automobile age also meant the decline of the railroads, and the construction of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, which gave lake freighters a direct route to the ocean that bypassed Buffalo, brought the city's era as a major inland port to a screeching halt. Worse yet was the city's response to the resulting economic crisis: shortsighted attempts at urban renewal ravaged many areas of Buffalo, but the West Side was harder-hit than any other part of the city. Block after block of lovely brick Victorian cottages on the Lower West Side were demolished; these stable and vibrant, if poor, Italian communities were derided as "slums" by city leaders and replaced with public housing that was no better than what came before them, with the Italians dispersed to various parts of the city (most notably the Hertel Avenue area). As well, no sooner was the bed of the abandoned Erie Canal filled in than the monstrous Interstate 190 was built over its top. With the opening of I-190 in 1958, Buffalo was essentially cut off from its own waterfront; Front and Riverside Parks' serene river views were replaced by that of a noisy expressway. Thankfully, at the end of the 1960s, grassroots pressure forced the cancellation of plans for the West Side Arterial, another highway which would have bisected the Lower West Side along Virginia Street (the huge Niagara Street exit of I-190, the intended west end of the West Side Arterial, is a gruesome example of what might have been in store for the neighborhood).

By the 1980s, the West Side was in rough shape. Though the Hispanic community that had replaced the Italians on the Lower West Side (and, later, spread northward to Prospect Hill and the Upper West Side) tried their best to keep the area up, the battle against drugs, crime and poverty at times seemed hopeless. However, glimmers of hope were emerging by the turn of the millennium, and it came about that what saved the West Side was its trademark ethnic diversity — which, along with cheap housing and a low cost of living, began to attract newly landed immigrants to the district. By 2003, when Dr. Myron Glick founded Jericho Road Ministries, an offshoot of his Upper West Side medical practice providing refugees assistance with food, housing, finances, literacy and education, Buffalo had overtaken New York City as the state's leading destination for new immigrants. At the same time, Buffalo State College was instrumental in helping small businesses sprout on Grant Street after student-oriented shops began being priced out of the increasingly tony Elmwood Village, and D'Youville College also made massive investments in the surrounding neighborhood of Prospect Hill as it expanded during the 2000s. In turn, this investment attracted that of urban pioneers as well as preservationist-minded business owners such as Prish Moran, the 2007 opening of whose coffee shop Sweet_ness 7 is widely seen as the single turning point that cemented Grant-Ferry's arrival as Buffalo's newest hip neighborhood. The boom in property values that resulted from all this is still ongoing, and today the West Side, probably more than any other area of Buffalo, is truly rising from the ashes.

Much like downtown Buffalo but not nearly to the same extent, the West Side riverfront is noticeably cooler and windier than other areas of the city and region. The refreshing breezes are a big part of why locals are drawn to waterfront oases like LaSalle Park during the stifling summer months, but by the same token, visitors looking to walk the Bird Island Pier during the spring or autumn would be well-advised to wear a windbreaker and long pants.

Interstate 190 (I-190) passes along the length of the West Side riverfront from downtown to Tonawanda (and onward to Niagara Falls and the Canadian border), via which the whole district can be easily accessed:

• Exit 8 (Niagara Street) provides access to the West Village and the Lower West Side as well as downtown.
• Exit 9 (Peace Bridge via northbound lanes; Porter Avenue via southbound lanes) leads to Prospect Hill and also Fort Erie, Ontario via the Peace Bridge. Cars headed southbound exit directly onto Porter Avenue, with the Peace Bridge onramp accessible via the roundabout on the other side of the overpass. Northbound traffic can either proceed directly to Customs and over the bridge or else keep to the left lane and exit at the corner of Busti and Massachusetts Avenues. (Despite what the signs say, there's no direct access to Porter Avenue from the northbound 190).
• Exit 12 (Amherst Street) and Exit 13 (Austin Street) are accessible from the northbound lanes only, providing access to Black Rock and, in the former case, also to Grant-Amherst slightly further afield.
• Exit 14 (Vulcan Street via northbound lanes; Ontario Street via southbound lanes) is located in Riverside.

As well, the Scajaquada Expressway (NY 198) is a short highway that begins in Black Rock at Exit 11 of I-190, passing eastward through the West Side and North Buffalo and ending on the East Side at the Kensington Expressway. The Scajaquada's Grant Street exit makes for a convenient route to Grant-Ferry, Grant-Amherst and Buffalo State College. There's also a Niagara Street exit accessible to westbound traffic only.

The main thoroughfare of the West Side is Niagara Street (NY 266), which begins downtown at Niagara Square and proceeds through the Lower West Side in a straight southeast-to-northwest orientation (in conformity with the old South Black Rock street grid); shortly after crossing Hampshire Street, it turns north and parallels the Niagara River shore through the Upper West Side, Black Rock, Riverside and on beyond the city line. As well, Grant Street, the West Side's main shopping street, runs northward from Hampshire Street through the heart of the Upper West Side and into Black Rock, where it ends at Military Road.

Other main drags on the West Side include Richmond Avenue, a verdant, tree-lined boulevard designed by Frederick Law Olmsted that extends along the inner fringe of the West Side from Symphony Circle north to Forest Avenue, and Tonawanda Street, the main street of Black Rock and Riverside which splits off Niagara Street just north of Scajaquada Creek and runs north and northwest past the city line and into Tonawanda. From south to north, major crosstown routes on the West Side include: on the Lower West Side, Virginia Street, Porter Avenue, Connecticut Street, Massachusetts Avenue, and Hampshire Street; on the Upper West Side, West Ferry Street, Lafayette Avenue, West Delavan Avenue, and Forest Avenue; and in Black Rock and Riverside, Amherst Street, Hertel Avenue, and Vulcan Street. Additionally, in Riverside, Ontario Street runs from a point on Niagara Street about midway between Hertel Avenue and Riverside Park northeastward to Kenmore Avenue, intersecting at acute angles with Niagara and Tonawanda Streets.

Driving in the Lower West Side can be tricky due to its many one-way streets. An easy trick to navigating the Lower West Side that dates back to the initial survey of the South Black Rock street grid is that most of the crosstown streets (those that run perpendicular to Niagara Street) are named after the United States' Eastern Seaboard states, with more southerly states closer to downtown and more northerly ones further out. Thus, anyone with basic knowledge of U.S. geography can judge what direction they're heading and approximately how many blocks they are from their destination. The system isn't perfect, though: the word "New" has been shed from the street names (for instance, it's "Jersey Street", not "New Jersey Street"), there's only one Carolina Street, rather than a North and South, the Olmsted-designed Porter Avenue supplanted the portion of York Street west of West Avenue in the early 1870s, Hudson Street interlopes between Maryland and Pennsylvania Streets, and Maine and Delaware are not represented (respectively, to avoid confusion with Main Street and because Delaware Avenue already exists elsewhere in the city). After Hampshire Street, the scheme of state names (and the old South Black Rock street grid) ends.

Grant-Ferry is the only place on the West Side where on-street parking is ever hard to find. Parking meters are in place on Grant Street between West Delavan Avenue and West Ferry Street, as well as on West Ferry for half a block in either direction from Grant. They're in effect till 5PM every day except Sunday, at a rate of 50¢ per hour to a maximum of 2 hours. Additionally, though parking is free north of West Delavan, the 2-hour maximum rule on Grant extends as far as Potomac Avenue, except Sundays.

Elsewhere on the West Side, parking is a breeze. Parking meters are in place on the Lower West Side along Niagara Street south of Hudson Street (the same rules apply as on Grant, but parking is $1.00 per hour) and in Riverside along Tonawanda Street between Hunt and Crowley Avenues. Signs indicate that paid parking in Riverside is in effect till 6PM every day but Sunday with rates of 50¢ per hour to a maximum of 2 hours, but word is that some or all of the meters don't work and are slated to be removed. As well, the 2-hour maximum rule is also in effect along Ontario Street between Tonawanda Street and Kenmore Avenue.

Grant-Amherst has no parking meters or restrictions of any kind, but visitors to that neighborhood should keep in mind that the lot on the north side of Amherst Street between Howell and Bush Streets is for the exclusive use of customers of Casey's Tavern and Nick's Place, and enforcement is vigilant. If you can't find on-street parking along Amherst (unlikely), try the large lot at Tops Plaza at the corner of Grant Street.

Public transit in Buffalo and the surrounding area is provided by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA). The NFTA Metro system encompasses a single-line light-rail rapid transit (LRRT) system and an extensive network of buses. The fare for a single trip on a bus or train is $2.00 regardless of length. No transfers are provided between buses or trains; travelers who will need to make multiple trips per day on public transit should consider purchasing an all-day pass for $5.00.

If you'll be doing a lot of coming and going on the West Side via public transportation, you're likely at some point to have a transfer at the 42.945656-78.9072461 Black Rock-Riverside Transit Hub, located at the corner of Niagara and Ontario Streets. It's a major nexus for many of the Metro buses that serve the West Side, as well as North Buffalo and the northwestern suburbs of Tonawanda and Amherst.

Buffalo has made great strides in accommodating bicycling as a mode of transportation, with recognition from the League of American Bicyclists as a Bronze-Level "Bicycle-Friendly Community" to show for its efforts. The quality of bicycle infrastructure on the West Side is variable, but it's generally quite good by local standards and, as in the rest of the city, steadily improving. The Lower West Side is undoubtedly the most bicycle-friendly area in the district, populated largely by immigrants whose habituation to alternative modes of transportation, including bicycles, is imported from their home countries — as well as young, middle-class "urban pioneers" for whom carfreedom is a conscious choice.

Buffalo's oldest, largest, and best-known bike path is the Shoreline Trail, a multi-use trail that connects the Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna to Gratwick Park in North Tonawanda via the West Side waterfront, for a total distance of 22.6 miles (36.4 km). The Shoreline Trail passes into the West Side near the posh Waterfront Village condos and closely hugs the shore of Lake Erie and the Niagara River for its length, with excellent views over the water and easy access to many waterfront attractions including LaSalle Park, the Fontana Boathouse, Freedom Park, Unity Island Park, and Riverside Park. Best of all, for the vast majority of its length, the Shoreline Trail follows its own off-street right-of-way with no traffic to contend with — the exception is a short, unsigned stretch of 0.4 miles (700 m) along Busti Avenue and Niagara Street between Hampshire and West Ferry Streets, but the roadway boasts wide shoulders and sidewalks that provide a modicum of safety for cyclists. The trail is paved with asphalt in its entirety, and a speed limit of 15 mph (24 km/h) is enforced.

As well as being a lovely trail in itself, the Shoreline Trail also serves as a central spine for Buffalo's larger network of bike paths. Branching off of it is the Jesse Kregal Pathway. The path follows the north shore of Scajaquada Creek opposite the expressway for a distance of 2.4 miles (3.8 km), with the attractions of Black Rock and Grant-Amherst within easy striking distance. Passing out of the West Side, the Scajaquada Creekside Trail enters Delaware Park and ends near the Buffalo History Museum. Near its northern terminus in Tonawanda, the Shoreline Trail also connects with the Erie Canalway Trail.

As indicated above, in Prospect Hill and the Lower West Side especially, bike lanes and other accommodations have also been steadily added to the street grid. Among the streets which have been improved in this way is Richmond Avenue, with "sharrows" (pavement markings on roads too narrow to accommodate dedicated bike lanes, indicating that drivers should be aware of bicyclists on the road) in place between Forest Avenue and Colonial Circle, and a dedicated bike lane on each side of the street from Colonial Circle south to Symphony Circle. The ongoing redesign of the Niagara Street corridor saw dedicated bike lanes added to the stretch between South Elmwood Avenue and Hudson Street, with sharrows north from there to Porter Avenue. Niagara Street also has bike lanes further north in Riverside, from Ontario Street north through Riverside Park to the city line. Elsewhere, Porter Avenue sports a dedicated bike lane on each side between Symphony Circle and Niagara Street plus a signed off-street bike path west of Niagara Street as far as LaSalle Park where it connects to the Shoreline Trail, and Hudson Street boasts parallel bike lanes on each side between Plymouth and Busti Avenues, with sharrows in place east to Wadsworth Street and west to 4th Street with access to LaSalle Park via a pedestrian bridge over Interstate 190. As well, sharrows lead from Hudson Street to Symphony Circle by way of West Avenue and Pennsylvania Street, and are in place on Connecticut Street between Niagara Street and Richmond Avenue, on Wadsworth Street from Symphony Circle to Allen Street, on Grant Street from Forest Avenue south to Hampshire Street, on Forest Avenue from Niagara Street to Richmond Avenue (from which point cyclists can continue eastward into the Elmwood Village via an off-street pathway), on the entirety of Hampshire Street from Grant Street to the Shoreline Trail, and in Black Rock on Amherst Street from Bridgeman Street east into North Buffalo.

The various neighborhoods of the West Side cover a large geographic area, and it's not practical to see all of them without the aid of a car, bicycle, or public transit. Still, there are many lovely places for a stroll on the West Side. Aside from the bike paths and waterfront trails listed above, paramount among pedestrian-friendly West Side areas are the bustling Grant-Ferry commercial strip with its vibrant multiethnic street culture, as well as compact, charming Grant-Amherst. Visitors should be on guard after dark, though the West Side remains one of the highest-crime areas of Buffalo, and when the sun goes down these streets take on a noticeably sketchy character. See the Stay safe section for more information.

• 42.93563-78.9030692 Black Rock Historical Society, 1902 Niagara St (Metro Bus 5, 32 or 40), ☏ +1 716-874-2863. Th F 10AM-3PM. The Black Rock Historical Society's small storefront exhibit space opened in 2015 in a building they share with the Black Rock Riverside Alliance, and its exhibits represent ten years of acquisition by museum curators from their personal collections and donations from neighborhood residents and businesses. Through a series of historic photographs, artifacts, and other exhibits, the 200-year story of the Black Rock, Riverside, Grant-Amherst, and West Hertel neighborhoods — one of the most historic areas of Buffalo — is recounted. The Black Rock Historical Society also offers brochures for several self-guided walking tours around the neighborhood, covering everything from historic sites from the War of 1812 to modern-day community gardens. (updated Nov 2021)
• 42.89612-78.87783 Frances Folsom Cleveland House, 168 Edward St. (Metro Bus 3, 11, 20, 25 or 29). Privately owned, not open for tours. This delightful cottage on Edward Street is where Frances Folsom Cleveland, wife of President Grover Cleveland, lived from her birth in 1864 to her matriculation at Wells College about 1880. Frances' father Oscar Folsom, a prominent lawyer, died at a young age in a carriage accident, whereupon his friend and colleague, Grover Cleveland, took on the responsibility of caring for his widow and two daughters. Cleveland's relationship with Frances would blossom into a romance, culminating in their marriage in 1886, the first and still the only presidential wedding to ever take place at the White House. Folsom Cleveland was immensely popular — the public was struck by her beauty, poise and intelligence, and ladies of the day slavishly copied her fashion sense — and she's still the youngest First Lady in U.S. history. Though the house at 168 Edward Street is not open for tours, the city has placed an interpretive plaque in front of it with details on Folsom Cleveland's life, historical importance, and legacy. Architecture buffs will also take note of this fine example of the mid-19th Century red brick Italianates that remain popular on the Lower West Side. 
• 42.902435-78.885934 Karpeles Manuscript Library (Porter Hall), 453 Porter Ave (Metro Bus 3, 7 or 22), ☏ +1 716-885-4139. Su-Tu 11AM-4PM. The brainchild of California real estate magnate David Karpeles, the Karpeles Manuscript Library is the world's largest privately-owned collection of historic documents and manuscripts. The library consists of twelve branches nationwide, including two in Buffalo: Porter Hall, located in Prospect Hill at the beautifully restored former home of the Plymouth Methodist Church, and North Hall in Allentown. In addition to the travelling exhibits that rotate among all twelve branches of the library, Porter Hall houses the permanent collection of the Buffalo branch of the Karpeles Manuscript Library, including the William McKinley Room where original documents concerning the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley at Buffalo's Pan-American Exposition are displayed. Free. 

In the wake of the gentrification that has lately transformed Allentown and the Elmwood Village from boho to bourgeois, the West Side is largely where the Buffalo art scene has reconvened in the 21st century. Grant-Amherst and Five Points are home to some of the West Side's more longstanding artist communities, but nowadays the bulk of the action is on Niagara Street, where many of the old warehouses of the Upper West Side and Black Rock have been transformed into gallery spaces where the luminaries of the local scene exhibit.

• 42.93554-78.903015 Argus Gallery, 1896 Niagara St. (Metro Bus 5, 32 or 40), ☏ +1 716-882-8100. Operated by the same team of folks behind the Eleven Twenty Projects gallery on Main Street in Midtown, Black Rock's Argus Gallery launched in spring 2017 with a focus on supporting and nurturing emerging artists who come from communities that are underrepresented in the art world, through the exhibition of contemporary works in a variety of media that explore thought-provoking and sometimes controversial themes. (updated Nov 2017)
• 42.939022-78.8872766 Artsphere Studio & Gallery, 447 Amherst St. (Metro Bus 3 or 32), ☏ +1 716-874-2863. Th F noon-5PM, Sa 11AM-3PM or by appointment. A pioneering institution in the now-burgeoning art scene in Grant-Amherst, Artsphere Studio opened in 2003, across the street from its current building. This bright, airy, and spacious gallery features the work of its owner Doreen Boyer DeBoth, a painter, photographer and jewelrymaker; her husband, noted potter Douglas DeBoth, whose works are available for sale at the gallery; and other local artists working in a diverse variety of media. As well, temporary exhibitions are frequently held whose themes are often related to the rich history and unique identity of Black Rock and Grant-Amherst: Boyer DeBoth is a founding member of the Black Rock Historical Society and spearheaded the Black Rock Historic Photo Project whose constituent works can be seen on the exterior walls of several Amherst Street buildings. As well, a modest selection of books on local history and art are available for sale. 

• 42.936062-78.9007147 Buffalo Religious Arts Center, 157 East St. (Metro Bus 5, 32 or 40), ☏ +1 716-481-2350. By appointment. Located at the former St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church in the heart of historic Black Rock, the mission of the Buffalo Religious Arts Center is to salvage and display some of the works of religious art contained in the many churches and other places of worship (particularly on the East Side) that have closed their doors in the wake of Buffalo's half-century of population loss. In addition to the priceless works from other churches that curator Mary Holland has collected, such as statuary from St. Mary of Sorrows, icons from SS. Peter & Paul Russian Orthodox Church, and various items from Temple Beth El, St. Francis Xavier itself is a magnificent old building full of beautiful and uplifting art which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was a longtime cornerstone of the Black Rock community. $10, students $5, members free.  
• 42.913639-78.8831598 Essex Arts Center, 30 Essex St. (Metro Bus 7 or 12), ☏ +1 716-667-2808. A complex of four buildings that serve as living quarters as well as studio and exhibition space for painters, sculptors, photographers, musicians, and all manner of other artists, the Essex Arts Center has been a mainstay on the West Side for four decades running. The center traces its history back to 1969, when local steel sculptor Larry Griffis and his Ashford Hollow Foundation, which was established three years previously to administer the 400-acre (160 ha) sculpture park he'd established in Cattaraugus County, purchased the former Webster-Citizens Company Ice House to use as an arts studio and performance venue. The Essex Arts Center immediately attracted to its roster a veritable Who's Who of Buffalo's arts scene of the 1970s and '80s, and over the years it has proven to be an incredibly prolific incubator of institutions that have gone on to become major players in the local arts scene — Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, the CEPA Gallery, and the dearly missed Artists' Committee Gallery all got their start at 30 Essex before striking out on their own, and Big Orbit Gallery, founded in 1991 and described below, carries on the tradition at its original location. Besides the gallery, the Essex Arts Center also hosts frequent events such as art auctions, musical performances, and educational workshops and seminars whose proceeds go directly to benefit the local arts community. 

• 42.913824-78.8837849 Big Orbit Gallery, ☏ +1 716-560-1968. F-M noon-5PM or by appointment. Established in 1991, Big Orbit Gallery is a collective run by and for artists, featuring a changing schedule of experimental exhibitions in a diversity of media. This expansive gallery — situated in a former warehouse whose high ceiling, adjacent interior courtyard, and minimalist decor lend it a cavernous, airy ambience — features diverse exhibitions of works by local artists. Everything from traditional media like painting and photography, to performance art and sound sculpture, to genre-defying, avant-garde spectacle of all kinds can be found here. These works are united by their transcendence of cultures and viewpoints: Big Orbit Gallery prides itself not only on bringing established artists from the Buffalo area to the national and international stage, but also on building awareness of emerging artists of underrepresented demographics. A word of warning: updates to their website are sporadic at best, so Facebook or the pages of Artvoice are probably better bets for those who want to see what's on at Big Orbit. 

• 42.904691-78.8916110 The Fargo House, 287 Fargo Ave. (Metro Bus 3, 5, 22, or 40). Open by appointment. This handsome old Victorian in Prospect Hill is part private residence, part archaeological dig and part art gallery: award-winning artist, architect, author and UB professor Dennis Maher bought it in 2009 when it was on the city's demolition list and has been living in and renovating it ever since, a process that has yielded a treasure trove of salvaged structural and decorative elements that he assembles — along with found items from thrift stores, flea markets, and other sources — into imaginative collages displayed in the gallery space on the house's first floor. This ongoing project has earned him praise from the New York Foundation for the Arts and in the pages of the New York Times, among others. Aside from Maher's own work, the Fargo House also occasionally hosts exhibitions by other artists from the local area. 
• Sugar City. Sugar City is the loose arts collective that's been best known for their impromptu "guerrilla"-style art shows and performances that popped up at various spots around town over the two-year interval between their departure from their former home on Wadsworth Street in Allentown and the grand opening of their second one in the Upper West Side on Niagara Street. True to their usual nature, most of the renovation work at the second facility was performed by the seven "Sugar Citizens" themselves, but it wouldn't be exactly accurate to pin the "DIY" label on the collective: its community-based, participatory approach to art would be better described as "do it together". The Niagara Street location closed in Aug 2020, and the collective is looking for new ways to support artists who cannot obtain space in more traditional galleries, with an aim of blurring the lines and redefining what is and is not considered art. There's probably no way to describe their exhibits, other than to say these are the misfits of Buffalo's art scene whose creative output defies categorization, so expect the unexpected. (updated Feb 2021)
• 42.930134-78.8889411 The WASH Project, 593 Grant St. (Metro Bus 3 or 7), ☏ +1 716-253-1068. M-F 11AM-5PM and during events. The humble West Side Value Laundromat on Massachusetts Avenue is hardly the place you'd expect to be a reliable clearinghouse for information on community cultural happenings, let alone the venue for art studio space, a small library, and a wide gamut of artistic and cultural events. Yet that's exactly what the WASH Project (the acronym stands for "Westside Art Strategy Happenings") consists of. Owner Zaw Win, one of the West Side's growing legion of Burmese refugees who boasts a long history of political activism in his home country, teamed up in 2012 with local activist Barrett Gordon and financial benefactors including Houghton College and the local chapter of AmeriCorps to turn his laundromat into a beehive of community cultural life where the accent, not surprisingly, is on the diverse patchwork of ethnic groups that have forged a cohesive community on the West Side. At the WASH Project's small gallery, you can peruse monthly changing exhibitions of work by local artists, attend classes and workshops on a wide range of artistic subjects, create your own masterpiece in the "Creative Spin" studio (chalk art on the sidewalk outside the building is popular during the warmer months) — and maybe throw in a load of laundry while you're at it. The WASH Project has temporarily moved to a new location in Grant-Ferry, where it will remain while renovations on their original Massachusetts Avenue location are ongoing. Laundry facilities are available across the street at The Laundry Spot. The address and directions given in this listing are for the temporary locati' 

Though Larkinville and the Old First Ward have lately usurped the title of epicenter of the incipient Buffalo craft brewing and distilling industry, the West Side retains a measure of importance as home of two of the heavy hitters of the local scene.

• 42.89867-78.8918612 Community Beer Works, 520 7th St (Metro Bus 5, 22 or 40), ☏ +1 716-759-4677. On a limited basis, Community Beer Works offers free, informal tours of the newly expanded production facility where it churns out such Buffalo craft-beer favorites as the zesty, piney "Frank" American pale ale and the 5.9% ABV "Whale" brown ale. As of November 2018, a permanent tour schedule is said to be forthcoming. Contact brewery staff for more information. 
• Resurgence Brewing, 1250 Niagara St. (Metro Bus 5, 12 or 40), ☏ +1 716-381-9868. Tours by appointment. With a moniker that pays tribute to the newfound ambition and vigor in Buffalo, Resurgence Brewery opened in June 2014 in the former Sterling Engine Company warehouse that's also home to the offices of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper. Though they've since moved most of their production to a much larger facility in the Old First Ward, the original location remains in operation brewing seasonal and limited-edition beers in small batches, as well as developing and testing new varieties in preparation for their introduction to the public. The tasting room and beer garden remain open as well. 

More and more, Buffalo's exquisite and well-preserved architecture has grabbed the attention of locals and tourists alike. As of March 2020, there are 12 historic neighborhoods in Buffalo listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as 11 additional ones that have been granted landmark status by the Buffalo Preservation Board. Five of those districts are located on the West Side:

• 42.900515-78.88676724 Fargo Estate Historic District. Covering an irregularly-shaped expanse of 49 acres (20 ha) on the south slope of Prospect Hill bounded very roughly by Prospect Avenue, Hudson Street, Normal Avenue, York Street, and Porter Avenue, the Fargo Estate Historic District is situated right next door to the Allentown Historical District, with which it shares some similarities especially in terms of architecture. The district's namesake is the opulent country manor that once occupied two and a half of these blocks — home to William Fargo, a onetime Buffalo mayor and millionaire shipping magnate who went down in history as co-founder of Wells, Fargo & Co. — but the Fargo Estate itself was short-lived, existing only for two decades before Fargo's heirs subdivided the land into residential lots around 1890. What you'll see here now is a tract of two- and three-story wood-frame or brick houses that date to between roughly 1880 and 1930 and were once home to a middle-class Italian-American community; one of the most historically intact residential neighborhoods on the West Side. Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, and Colonial Revival styles dominate, along with some later styles such as Craftsman and American Foursquare. Today, it's the intactness of the period streetscape, more so than any individual buildings, that's at the heart of the Fargo Estate's appeal to fans of architecture and urban design. However, if you're interested in seeing some neighborhood historical and architectural landmarks, you can head to the former Plymouth Methodist Episcopal Church at 453 Porter Ave., built in 1911 and now home to the Karpeles Manuscript Library, or the lovely Second Empire-style Engine No. 2 and Hook and Ladder No. 9 fire house (1875, 310 Jersey St.) Another facet of the district's history is exemplified by Life Memorial Park at the corner of Porter and Normal Avenues, a pleasant garden established in 1992 in commemoration of local victims of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. (updated Nov 2017)
• 42.934943-78.90063425 Market Square Historic District. This small historic district is centered on the three blocks of Amherst Street between Niagara and Tonawanda Streets, represents what was originally the village center of Lower Black Rock; the wide grassy esplanade flanking each side of Amherst Street's westernmost block, now filled with historic monuments and interpretive panels, was once the site of a large public market gifted to the village by its founder, Peter Porter. In contrast to what was once called Upper Black Rock, which became heavily industrialized after annexation and grew into an integral part of the city, Lower Black Rock retained its independent spirit and, even in the present day, still has the look and feel of a small village. The architecture of the buildings here — which include some of the oldest extant houses in Buffalo — comprises fine examples of such styles as the Italianate, Queen Anne, Greek Revival, and Federal. The red-brick Gothic St. John's United Evangelical Church (81 Amherst St., 1890), the Federal-style Jacob Schmidt House and Tavern and Stephen W. Howell House and Store (71 Amherst St. and 189 Dearborn St. respectively, both c. 1830), and the gargantuan St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church (161 East St., 1912) are some of the historic sites to be found in the Market Square Historic District. (updated Nov 2017)
• 42.903307-78.89571926 Prospect Hill Historic District. Located on the waterfront near the foot of the Peace Bridge at the west end of the larger neighborhood with which it shares its name, the Prospect Hill Historic District is a 21-acre (8.5ha), five-block cluster of single- and two-family homes bounded roughly by Busti Avenue, Rhode Island Street, Niagara Street, Columbus Parkway, 7th Street, and Porter Avenue. The houses in the district span a relatively long period of history — from the 1850s through the 1950s, roughly — during which time Prospect Hill's evolution from a proto-suburban scattering of houses and small farms on the outskirts of town to a well-off inner-city neighborhood populated by the upper crust of Buffalo's Italian-American community was set into motion largely by Frederick Law Olmsted's park system, the far western reaches of which — Front Park, Porter Avenue, and Prospect Park — abut the district. Though it held up to Buffalo's late 20th-century decline better than most West Side neighborhoods and remains a desirable address today, sadly, the majority of Prospect Hill's most historic buildings have been lost to the wrecking ball over time — notably, the castlelike Fort Porter (built in 1844 at the north end of Front Park and used by the military as a customs and guard house) and the Tuscan villa-style Colonel Samuel Wilkeson House (c. 1863, once located at 771 Busti Ave.) were demolished for two separate expansions of the Peace Bridge plaza, in 1926 and 2013 respectively. However, the district still contains a number of handsome homes in a wide variety of architectural styles. (updated Nov 2017)
• 42.918824-78.89928827 Upper Black Rock Local Historic District. Comprising the buildings on either side of Niagara Street between Breckenridge Street and Lafayette Avenue, as well as the adjacent buildings to the west on Mason Street, this is a remarkably intact period streetscape that dates from the years between 1885 and 1915, when the Upper Rock was a buzzing industrial district at the crossroads of numerous methods of transportation — the old warehouses and factory buildings on the west side of the street back up directly onto the New York Central Railroad tracks and what was once the Erie Canal, while the east side of the street is characterized by houses and storefronts serving the working-class residents of the neighborhood. Some of the buildings you'll see in the Upper Black Rock Historic District are the former Sterling Engine Company (1246-1270 Niagara St.), built in 1907 and now redeveloped as the home of Resurgence Brewery, and the old Union Meeting House (44 Breckenridge St.), which predates all other buildings in the district as the oldest extant church building in Buffalo, erected in 1827. (updated Nov 2017)
• 42.892253-78.87922128 West Village Historic District. Much like the Fargo Estate Historic District, the West Village is a period residential neighborhood located on the site of what was once a large private estate: in this case, that of Buffalo's first mayor, Dr. Ebenezer Johnson, which was sold to developers after he left town in 1850. The West Village is the closest part of the West Side to downtown — 22 acres (9 ha) bounded by South Elmwood Avenue, Tracy Street, Carolina Street, Whitney Place, and West Chippewa Street — and it contains a veritable encyclopedia of late-19th Century architectural styles, with the Italianate, French Second Empire, Romanesque Revival, and Gothic Revival all well-represented. In addition, the single-family dwellings that dominated the neighborhood through the 1800s were joined around the turn of the century by a few handsome brownstone apartment buildings. As with the Fargo Estate district, the appeal of the West Village doesn't have as much to do with individual buildings as with its overarching identity as an unusually intact example of an attractive mid-19th Century residential district — as well as its street pattern, where the radial avenues laid out by Joseph Ellicott in Buffalo meet the diagonally-tilted old South Black Rock gridiron in an irregular labyrinth centered on Johnson Park, deeded to the city by the former mayor on what was once the site of his front lawn and redesigned by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1876. Nonetheless, the Gothic Revival Prospect Avenue Baptist Church at 262 Prospect Ave. (corner of Georgia St.), built in 1867 and enlarged in 1881, is a real beauty. (updated Nov 2017)

Prospect Hill is also home to one of the Niagara Frontier's six Frank Lloyd Wright buildings:

• 42.900635-78.90187829 Fontana Boathouse, 40 Porter Ave. (Metro Bus 22), ☏ +1 716-362-3140. Open for tours (Apr-Sep: check website for schedule, Oct-Mar: by appointment only). The only boathouse ever designed by the eminent Frank Lloyd Wright, the Charles and Marie Fontana Boathouse has perhaps the most unusual history of any of Buffalo's Wright buildings. Designed in 1905 (contemporaneously with Wright's most famous Buffalo commissions, the lost Larkin Administration Building and the very-much-alive Darwin D. Martin House), it was intended to be built for the University of Wisconsin Boat Club in Madison, but was instead built in Buffalo — in 2007, over a century after Wright's design was finalized — and only thanks to the dogged efforts of a local group of Wright aficionados financed largely by Buffalo-born screenwriter Tom Fontana. The only alteration to the original design was the replacement of the stucco on the exterior walls with concrete. The Fontana Boathouse does double duty today as both the working boathouse of the West Side Rowing Club and a destination for the growing legion of architectural tourists who come to Buffalo to see the works of Wright and other greats. It's also available to rent for private events. Tours $10. 

Yet once again, "diversity" is the key word when it comes to the West Side's calendar of festivals. There seems to be an annual event for every component of the area's identity — from the immigrants of Grant-Ferry, to the working-class Germans of Black Rock, to the hipster-friendly Buffalo Small Press Book Fair.

• 42.955747-78.9092861 Ruben (Bud) Bakewell Ice Rink, 2607 Niagara St. (At Riverside Park; Metro Bus 5, 35 or 40), ☏ +1 716-875-4820. Su F 2-3:50PM, M 3-4:50PM, Th 5-6:50PM, Sa 1-2:50PM except during special events, Oct-Feb only. City residents $2, non-residents $3, skate rental $3. 

• Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper Tours, ☏ +1 716-852-7483. Check website for schedule. Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, the community organization whose mission is to contribute to Buffalo's revitalization through the remediation of local waterways, holds a series of educational kayak tours in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and points between. The lineup of tours changes from year to year, but as an example, on the West Side the 2014 schedule included the annual Scajaquada Creek Regatta, a "leisurely paddle down the Black Rock Canal and up historic Scajaquada Creek, an underutilized resource full of history and ecology" that launched at the 42.899095-78.9018413 Great Lakes Center off Porter Avenue. Participants can bring their own kayak or reserve one of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper's limited supply. Free. 
• 42.934075-78.9039972 Classic Cruises, 1 Dann St. (At Rich Marina; Metro Bus 5, 32, 35 or 40), ☏ +1 716-946-7246. By appointment. Offering customized cruises for up to 6 people on the Summerlove, a 1956-model Chris Craft express cruiser with ample room on the deck for sightseeing, sunbathing or just taking in the surroundings, "Captain Rich" and "First Mate Pat" will take you anywhere you want to go on the upper Niagara River — whether it be a trip through the historic Black Rock lock, a cruise down to Canalside, a visit to the Erie Canal or Beaver Island State Park, a full circle around Grand Island, or whatever suits your fancy. A relaxing day on the water is in store for customers: as the website put it, "the way she cuts through the water, the smell of varnish, the sight of glistening mahogany wood and the rumble of a vintage motor all lend themselves to an unforgettable experience." In case of inclement weather, you can reschedule your cruise at no charge (subject to availability) or else receive a full refund. $50 per hour. 

• 42.902455-78.8911843 Kavinoky Theatre, 320 Porter Ave. (Metro Bus 3, 5, 22 or 40), ☏ +1 716-829-7668. The Kavinoky Theatre is located in Prospect Hill on the campus of D'Youville College. Over the course of its history, not only has the Kavinoky Theatre thoroughly restored the historic former Porter-View Room under the auspices of the D'Youville Capital Campaign, but this local repertory company of professional actors has produced nearly 150 plays and musicals of a consistently high quality, earning them more awards than any other troupe in Buffalo. The Kavinoky Theatre has given many actors of local extraction their start in the business. 
• 42.892982-78.8798894 New Phoenix Theatre on the Park, 95 Johnson Park (Metro Bus 3, 5, 11, 20, 25 or 40), ☏ +1 716-853-1334. Buffalo's premier alternative theatre, the New Phoenix Theatre on the Park opened in 1996 in a historic house in the West Village and has quickly gained an impressive reputation for the high-quality, diverse range of performances it has hosted in its tiny space, trending heavily towards bold contemporary works of theatre as well as avant-garde reinterpretations of old favorites. The New Phoenix Theatre on the Park hopes to foster a spirit of community collaboration not only through its exciting theatrical offerings, but also by playing an active role in the ongoing revitalization of the West Village neighborhood. 

Grant-Amherst is the place to go on the West Side for live music, with a trio of venues that are among the best-loved in Buffalo. As well, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra has its magnificent home stage on Symphony Circle.

• 42.92417-78.889995 Gypsy Parlor, 376 Grant St (Metro Bus 3 or 26), ☏ +1 716-551-0001. Grant-Ferry's live performance venue of choice. From indie rock bands and acoustic troubadours, to DJs spinning cutting-edge electronica, to big-band jazz, to such exotica as drum circles, belly-dancing and poetry slams, there's really no rhyme or reason to the array of local acts that take the stage at the Gypsy Parlor. Open-mic night is held every Tuesday at 8PM. 
• 42.93722-78.893586 Hot Mama's Canteen, 12 Military Rd. (Metro Bus 3 or 32), ☏ +1 716-783-8222. Anchoring the west end of the Amherst Street strip, the favorite watering hole of Buffalo-area shuffleboard enthusiasts and hot sauce aficionados now does double duty as a music venue, where local funk, blues, and rock bands take the stage at least three (and usually more!) nights a week. (updated Nov 2017)
• 42.938672-78.8923767 Imagine Event Center, 71 Military Rd. (Metro Bus 3 or 32), ☏ +1 716-553-6794. Owned and operated by the impresarios behind the Sportsmens Tavern (see below) yet about as far as you can get from the rowdy, raucous roadhouse vibe of that place, what the Imagine Event Center offers, in their own words, is "an intimate listening room, combined with wine, craft beers and topnotch acoustics for the best listening experience in Buffalo". What's to listen to? Local artists working in a wide diversity of genres, from rock to jazz to worship music to the "Bridging the Gap" live poetry/hip-hop series. (updated Feb 2020)
• 42.901852-78.8832028 Kleinhans Music Hall, 3 Symphony Cir. (Metro Bus 7 or 22), ☏ +1 716-883-3560. Designed by the internationally-famous father-and-son team of Eliel and Eero Saarinen, Kleinhans Music Hall is among the most architecturally distinguished buildings in Buffalo (it has served as a model for Festival Hall in London, among other venues), and boasts world-renowned acoustics. Aside from the several-times-weekly performances of the Buffalo Philharmonic itself, Kleinhans also features performances by other orchestras, small theatrical shows, and popular music acts — which have included Natalie Merchant, Johnny Mathis, and the Indigo Girls — performing either on their own or backed by the Philharmonic as part of the BPO Rocks! concert series.  
• 42.94035-78.884639 Rohall's Corner, 540 Amherst St. (Metro Bus 20 or 32), ☏ +1 716-939-2087. You can catch all kinds of performances at this hip yet unpretentious neighborhood watering hole at the heart of Grant-Amherst, but the marquee attraction happens the first Saturday of each month: the Black Rock Fiddle Jam, where local musicians get together for a rousing round of old-time acoustic music. It's an informal, freeform hoedown of fiddles, mandolins, banjos, guitars and good times. For those who would rather try their hand at playing instead of just watching and listening, lessons for all skill levels are provided free of charge. 
• 42.941046-78.89157310 Showplace Theater, 1065 Grant St. (Metro Bus 3 or 32), ☏ +1 716-877-2200. It was scarcely possible to be a rock fan in Buffalo in the 1990s and early 2000s without having an intimate familiarity with the old Showplace — it was a linchpin of the local scene, with a list as long as your arm of punk, alternative and indie bands who graced the stage at this former silent movie palace just before reaching megastar status. Then in 2019, after a twelve-year hiatus, the marquee lights flickered back to life and the Showplace went back to doing what it does best. Nowadays, rather than up-and-comers, new owner Joe Roxbury has a penchant for booking 1980s and '90s throwback acts, especially in the glam-metal genre: recent shows as of this writing include Slaughter, Ratt, Bret Michaels, Aaron Carter, and the Ying Yang Twins. (updated Feb 2020)
• 42.937741-78.89178211 Sportsmens Tavern, 326 Amherst St. (Metro Bus 3 or 32), ☏ +1 716-874-7734. With an authentically gritty roadhouse vibe, the self-described "honkiest, tonkiest beer joint in town" is among Buffalo's premier places to see live local country, folk, blues, and roots-rock acts. Sportsmens is a venue by musicians and for musicians — its owner is a longtime stalwart in the Buffalo scene, and many local artists and bands cite it as their favorite place to play in the city. The 325 seats are regularly filled with an eclectic mix of hipsters, college students, and neighborhood regulars who probably remember the days when the place was just a garden-variety neighborhood gin mill. And the Grille at Sportsmens Tavern goes above and beyond the usual pub grub, serving probably the best food of any live-music venue in the city. For a truly unique experience, try to get seats in the upstairs balcony. 
• 42.91756-78.8988912 Sugar City, 1239 Niagara St. (Metro Bus 5, 12 or 40). Sugar City is back: after ballooning rents priced the venerable DIY arts collective out of their former headquarters in Allentown (now the home of PAUSA Art House), they reemerged in August 2014 in a new spot on what the Buffalo News has termed the "suddenly sexy 1200 block of Niagara Street", which is also home to the Resurgence Brewery. The performance space in the rear of Sugar City seats audiences of up to 170 — quite a bit bigger than the stage at their old digs — and plays host to a variety of local bands that run the indie gamut from hardcore punk to ambient noise to neo-garage rock. Theatrical productions, poetry readings, and other performances take place as well. As before, all shows at Sugar City are all ages and alcohol-free. 
• 42.92003-78.8906313 The Tabernacle, 211 Lafayette Ave. (Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26), ☏ +1 716-883-1738. A full calendar of rock, jazz, and acoustic performances await in the incomparable environs of the pub-cum-performance venue Prish Moran opened in 2018 next door to her iconic Sweet_ness 7 coffeeshop. A psychedelic interior covered with garish frescoes lends the Tabernacle a trippy, jittery vibe described in Step Out Buffalo as reminiscent of such long-gone '90s-era underground coffeeshops as Stimulance and Coffee &. (updated Dec 2018)
• 42.91326-78.8867314 The WASH Project, 417 Massachusetts Ave. (Metro Bus 7 or 12), ☏ +1 716-253-1068. This neighborhood laundromat-cum-cultural nucleus boasts WASH the Mic!, a bimonthly open-mic event where local musicians come to jam, as well as a monthly curated concert series that's a showcase for the local ambient, drone, and experimental noise scenes. 

• 42.919689-78.89060815 Gather & Game, 212 Grant St. (Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26), ☏ +1 716-248-1883. W Th 11AM-9PM, F Sa 11AM-10PM, Su 11AM-3PM. A friendly venue for West Siders and others to do the two titular activities in a chilled-out, welcoming environment. At Gather & Game $3 per visit or a $25 annual membership buys you access to the vast library of store-owned games they offer on a "try-before-you-buy" basis (everything from classic board games like Monopoly to card games like Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh to RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons), plus there's a full schedule of game nights, tournaments and strategy classes, and of course, game sets for sale (including many that are not available anywhere else locally!) (updated Aug 2019)

Every shopping neighborhood in Buffalo seems to have its own specialty. On Elmwood it's the latest in trendy urban fashions, Allentown has art galleries galore, and Hertel Avenue is the place for antiques and home decor. As for Grant Street — well, if you're in the market for ethnic handicrafts or exotic foods and you can't find what you're looking for here, you're probably out of luck.

• 42.914844-78.8901671 West Side Bazaar, 25 Grant St. (Metro Bus 3, 7 or 12), ☏ +1 716-464-6389. Tu-Th 11AM-7PM, F Sa 11AM-8PM. Inspired by the Malcolm Shabazz Market in Harlem and in keeping with the old tradition of large public markets like the East Side's Broadway Market that you could once find all over town, this central hub of the Grant Street's internationally-flavored business district is not only a business incubator helping newly landed immigrants on their way to successful entrepreneurship, but also a gathering place providing a friendly reminder of their native lands. At the West Side Bazaar you'll find an ample lineup of vendors selling ethnic fashions and crafts, as well as an International Kitchen of food stalls serving authentic cuisines from around the world. (updated Nov 2018)

• Gadget Bazaar. At the helm of Gadget Bazaar is Romala Rajendran, who came to Buffalo after fleeing the civil war in her home country of Sri Lanka along with her husband Sujakshan. What you'll find at the oddly named Gadget Bazaar are not the latest in electronic gizmos but rather a handpicked selection of South Asian- and Western-style clothing and accessories, with a range of brightly-colored, statement-making jewelry at the forefront. (updated Nov 2018)
• Gysma's African Style. Gysma Kueny moved to Buffalo in 2002 from war-torn South Sudan, and her eponymous Bazaar stall features a range of handmade goods imported from Africa: fashions and accessories such as artisan jewelry, handbags, and even scarves and gloves, shea butter and toiletries including black soap from Ghana, and a selection of crafts crowned by a line of miniature wooden figurines depicting African wildlife. Best of all, you're supporting a good cause: part of the profits go to fund a charitable initiative to promote education for South Sudanese girls. (updated Nov 2018)
• Julienne Boutique. Julienne Nyiranjishi's whole family are artisans — both those in Buffalo and back home in Rwanda — and it's their work that's for sale at Julienne's Boutique. Clothing, jewelry and accessories, traditional baskets, and postcards bedecked with beautiful African imagery are on offer, but the specialty here is handmade wooden carvings: from traditional bowls to statuettes to tableware. (updated Nov 2018)
• Macramé by Nadeen, ☏ +1 716-541-8824. Macramé may be a retro novelty in the U.S., but it's big in the Levant — and by the time Iraqi native Nadeen Youssef arrived in Buffalo in 2009, she'd already begun making a name for herself with her skill in the craft. At Macramé by Nadeen she offers a small but charming (and growing!) range of handmade goods including wall art, jewelry, and plant hangers, as well as special made-to-order items. (updated Nov 2018)
• Moonlady Arts & Crafts. The rear wall of the West Side Bazaar is given over to Ma Theint's sprawling collection of ethnic clothing, home decor, and (above all) artworks and Burmese handicrafts. Customers can peruse traditional tapestries, Buddhist religious items, drums and musical instruments, lacquerware, dolls and puppets, and scads of other items that serve Theint's mission of promoting appreciation of Burmese culture and the immigrant community in Buffalo. (updated Nov 2018)
• Once Upon a Time. The sign hanging above this Iraqi-owned Bazaar vendor advertises "crafts and clothes, home decor, and gifts from a variety of Middle Eastern countries". At the delightfully named Once Upon a Time, that can mean lots of different things: brightly colored flowing dresses, smart handbags, elegant wall tapestries festooned with Arabic calligraphy, even musical instruments. (updated Dec 2018)
• Zigma Naturals. Once a nurse in a government-run hospital in Myanmar, Raine Manuel is today hard at work selling a hodgepodge of different goods: half the inventory at Zigma Naturals is a line of all-natural skin care products, vitamin supplements, and toiletries for adults and children; the other half consists of casual clothing that's decidedly more Western in style than what's sold elsewhere in the West Side Bazaar (though lovely nonetheless). (updated Nov 2018)

Specialty foods

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• 42.917935-78.899382 Bootleg Bucha, 1250 Niagara St (Metro Bus 5, 12 or 40). Tu Sa 11AM-5PM, W-F 11AM-7PM, Su 11AM-3PM. Buffalo's first kombucha brewery (a lightly carbonated, fermented tea native to East Asia with a wide array of purported health benefits; the owners will be only too happy to go over these for you) offers a rotating selection of about four dozen different varieties on tap, the most popular of which include ginger beer, carrot pineapple, and blueberry lavender. You can buy kombucha in disposable plastic bottles if you like, but Bootleg Bucha will also sell you a more environmentally friendly reusable glass bottle for $2, or you can even bring your own growler to fill. (updated Nov 2018)
• 42.916229-78.899073 Cookie, 1197 Niagara St. (Metro Bus 5, 12 or 40), ☏ +1 716-878-8821. M 10AM-4PM, Tu 10AM-5PM, W 9AM-5PM, Th F 9AM-6PM, Sa 9AM-2PM. Owned and operated by Rich Products, the famous food products megacorporation headquartered across the street, the name of the game at Cookie is an ever-evolving menu of cookies, pastries, and other baked goods made exclusively with Rich brand ingredients. The interior is decked out like an old-school sweet shop, complete with classic black-and-white checkerboard floor and a huge glass display cooler packed with tempting treats — but the Cookie experience, in practice, is decidedly a grab-and-go affair (though if the single table-and-chairs setup happens to be free, they also pour hot coffee all day!) (updated Nov 2018)
• 42.922259-78.8969184 5 Loaves Farm, 70 W. Delavan Ave. (Metro Bus 3, 5, 26 or 40), ☏ +1 716-803-9241. Jul-Aug: F 2-7PM. Since 2012, this farm on ten vacant Upper West Side lots has pursued its mission of promoting sustainable gardening as a way of providing neighborhood residents not only with fresh produce, but also vital education regarding healthy dietary choices. The food grown at 5 Loaves is disseminated mostly to local residents who've signed up for food shares through the Community-Supported Agriculture program, as well as to local restaurants, schools and food banks — but seasonal produce is also available at their farmhouse on West Delavan Avenue, open on Friday evenings in season. (updated Nov 2018)
• 42.920726-78.8904955 Guercio & Sons, 254 Grant St. (Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26), ☏ +1 716-882-7935. M-Sa 7AM-6PM. Guercio's history stretches back to 1961 — a time when Grant Street was the heart of a lively Italian-American neighborhood — and it remains today one of Buffalo's prime destinations for gourmet groceries, with both imports and locally produced items such as sliced bread from Luigi's Bakery and Anchor Bar brand wing sauce. When you're done marveling at the colorful produce and herbs stuffed in the carts on the sidewalk out front, come on inside and stroll through the fragrant corridors stocked with everything you could ever want from an Italian grocery store: canned goods, imported pasta, sliced-to-order Italian cold cuts, a dizzying array of fine olive oils, and more. (updated Nov 2018)
• 42.918992-78.8903696 Lorigo's Meating Place, 185 Grant St. (Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26), ☏ +1 716-885-3623. M-Sa 9AM-5PM. The corny puns come fast and furious: Lorigo's "Meating Place", so the slogan goes, is "Your Link to Quality". Indeed, since its opening in 1986, the specialty of the house at this real old-school butcher shop has always been homemade, family-recipe Italian sausage and meatballs. But times have changed on Grant Street, and so has Lorigo's: it's grown since then into a full-scale grocery market stocking a range of ethnic foods as diverse as the West Side itself: everything from Latino (including a full line of Goya products) to Caribbean to Somali to Southeast Asian. The aisles are jumbled and hard to navigate and the place often gets crowded, but that's part of the charm. (updated Nov 2018)
• 42.915503-78.8861767 What's Pop-In' Gourmet Popcorn, 418 W. Ferry St. (Metro Bus 3, 7 or 12), ☏ +1 716-597-8129. W 3-7PM, Th F noon-7PM. Call it a too-precious-by-half hipster indulgence if you want, but don't write off What's Pop-In' until you get your hands on a bag of the dill pickle popcorn that owner Stefan Coker churns out daily: one taste of it and you'll be an instant convert. Don't misunderstand, there are other varieties to choose from too — 23 total to be precise; from BBQ pineapple to black truffle to pizza to lemonade, it's clear why they call this guy the "flavor mastermind" — but trust us, start with the dill pickle. (updated Feb 2020)

Asian/African groceries

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• 42.923586-78.8897548 African Market, 355 Grant St. (Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26), ☏ +1 716-882-8786. Daily 6AM-6PM. Despite its name, the variety of imported foods offered here spans not only Africa, but the whole world. Though canned goods, spices, rice and other staples, and other miscellaneous groceries are sole here, the marquee item at the African Market is a wide variety of meats, many of which are halal or kosher — from everyday selections like beef and chicken to more unusual ones such as goat. A small selection of kitchenwares and ethnic clothing rounds out the stock. Best of all, unlike most small Grant Street businesses, the African Market boasts off-street parking: there's a small lot on the left side of the building, which is also where you'll find the main entrance. (updated Nov 2018)
• 42.916202-78.8903939 All in One Global African Family Store, 83 Grant St. (Metro Bus 3, 7 or 12), ☏ +1 716-436-9330. M-Th 9AM-9PM, F 9AM-5PM, Su 11AM-8PM. As its name attests, this entrant in the Upper West Side's extensive lineup of ethnic markets specializes in African goods — and as its name also attests, groceries aren't the be-all-end-all of the place. If you're hungry for African food, you've got the usual selection of staple starches such as dried beans, fufu flour, cornmeal, and rice (huge sacks of which are displayed in the front window), as well as copious other nonperishables and a smaller selection of meats and produce; if you're in the market for something else, how about a fine selection of chunky African jewelry, ethnic garb, toiletries, and housewares? (updated Feb 2020)
• 42.915424-78.89071710 Asia Super Bazaar, 294 W. Ferry St. (Metro Bus 3, 7 or 12), ☏ +1 716-939-3210. Daily 9AM-9:30PM. This place bills itself as a specialty grocery selling "Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, Burmese, Vietnamese, Nepali, Arabian, Somalian, African, Spanish, and American food and spices". But that's a bit of an exaggeration — the offerings here consist of a selection of South and East Asian packaged foods that's really nothing special by Grant Street standards, plus some convenience-store snacks, basic toiletries, and a smattering of toys, bedding, clothes and gifts. One strong point Asia Super Bazaar does boast is a large frozen food section containing some interesting exotic goodies. (updated Nov 2018)
• 42.92872-78.88944111 Bungtla Asian Market, 540 Grant St. (Metro Bus 3 or 7), ☏ +1 716-768-2655. M-F 9AM-8PM, Sa 9AM-9PM. This shop takes its name from one of the most spectacular natural wonders of Myanmar's Chin State, and it's certainly indicative of the type of food you'll find there. Bungtla's aisles are stocked mainly with Southeast Asian staples such as rice and dried noodles, as well as snacks, dried vegetables, spices, and other nonperishables, but head for the pair of stand-up coolers on the far side of the store and you'll find a pretty good selection of fresh(-ish) produce. (updated Nov 2018)
• 42.915062-78.89562712 Family Asian Grocery Store, 163 W. Ferry St. (Metro Bus 3, 5, 12 or 40), ☏ +1 716-424-1489. Daily 9:30AM-9PM. June 2019 saw the debut of yet another in the parade of Southeast Asian specialty grocers on the West Side. The sign above the entrance to this Burmese-owned, matter-of-factly-named place advertises "international foods, vegetables, meats, fish, etc.", and the goods on the shelves are pretty much as advertised, though the promised meats and fish are in comparatively short supply. Really what distinguishes Family Asian Groceries from its competition is the store itself, which is brightly lit, impeccably clean, and well organized; also, the selection of ethnic produce is topnotch (albeit mostly found in coolers or freezer cases). (updated Feb 2020)
• 42.916349-78.89069113 Golden Burma, 92 Grant St. (Metro Bus 3, 7 or 12), ☏ +1 716-551-0175. Daily 9AM-7PM. Golden Burma serves the growing community of immigrants and refugees from that country that have settled on Buffalo's West Side with a wide range of Burmese groceries, including fresh seafood, meat and vegetables, as well as canned, packaged, and frozen foods. For fans of Southeast Asian cuisine, the perpetually crowded aisles of Golden Burma are an excellent place to find exotic and unusual products and ingredients that aren't available anywhere else in Buffalo. Pots, pans, woks, and miscellaneous kitchenware are also on offer. (updated Nov 2018)
• 42.921493-78.89038714 Hatimy Market, 278 Grant St. (Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26), ☏ +1 716-884-8836. M-Sa 9:30AM-7PM, Su 10AM-6PM. Mirroring the neighborhood in which it's located, diversity is the name of the game at this friendly food market. Hatimy Market's helpful staff, helmed by Somali-born UB nursing student Ali Mohamed, serves nearly all of the West Side's varied communities of immigrants with a maddeningly eclectic variety of groceries from Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Arab world. Meats from beef and chicken to lamb and goat, many of them certified halal, are joined on the shelves by seafood, canned goods, rice, spices, and various and sundry food items. (updated Nov 2018)
• 42.919138-78.89067815 Jomow International Market, 188 Grant St. (Metro Bus 3, 7 or 26), ☏ +1 716-239-3474. Opens daily at 10AM, closing time flexible. Founded in 2010 under the name Marka Halal Market, this is yet another West Side destination for imported African and Arabian food. A variety of general groceries are stocked, but Jomow International Market's true claim to fame is its wide selection of halal meats, from beef and fish to goat and camel. (updated Nov 2018)
• 42.921759-78.88997416 Kat Food Market, 287 Grant St. (Metro Bus 3 or 26), ☏ +1 716-259-9780. M-Sa 10AM-6:30PM. Founded in 2014, the name of the game at this ethnic grocery at the north end of the Grant-Ferry strip is African and Middle Eastern specialty foods: from staples like rice and fufu flour, to frozen foods, to a wide selection of fresh produce, meats and fish. A range of toiletry products and other daily essentials are also on offer. (updated Nov 2018)
• 42.917112-78.89040417 Win Asian Market, 113 Grant St. (Metro Bus 3, 7 or 12), ☏ +1 716-887-3908. M-Sa 9AM-8PM, Su 9AM-6PM. This place's small size and spartan interior belie an impressive variety of Burmese and other Southeast Asian grocery items that serve the culinary needs of the West Side's burgeoning community of immigrants and refugees. (updated Nov 2018)