A new transformation on Buffalo’s west side is underway. Adjacent to Buffalo’s popular Allentown district and Elmwood Village, Connecticut Street offers some of Buffalo’s landmarks like Kleinhans Music Hall, The Connecticut Street Armory, Karpelles Manuscript Museum and more. Horsefeathers Community Market and Residence will be a new addition for the neighborhood to look forward to.
The slogan, “Our food, Our culture,” from this past Fall 2011 Restaurant Week, applies to what Horsefeathers Market will offer after a projected opening in the fall of 2012. As a local food marketplace, they will offer fresh, healthy, locally grown food. In honor of National Food Day, Horsefeathers held their inaugural event this past Saturday, October 22, to give visitors a taste of what’s to come.
Niki Klem, registered Dietitian and part of the organization team, explains that Food Day, created by the Center of Science and Public Interest, is similar to Earth Day. It raises awareness about the food you eat, where it comes from, how it is grown, as well as some of the politics and environmental consequences of our food choices. National Food Day not only shows how you participate in the food system but how the food system can support you. “Since we were going to eventually have a ground breaking event,” commented Niki, “we might as well celebrate in conjunction with something that is directly relevant to the market.”
With construction to begin in November, this five-story building will have a lot to offer, mainly on the ground floor and in the basement. On the ground floor there will be about six venders located in food stalls where they will be producing, bottling/packaging, and storing their own products. As of right now some of these vendors include White Cow Dairy, Coffee Roaster & Eco-Coffee Shop (that will apparently have bike-powered blenders, cool), Stone-Ground Bakery (that will have wood & conventional ovens), Pasta Pedler, and Horsefeathers Kitchen (which will have sandwiches and soups). In addition to being able to purchase products, you will be able to actually watch the process by which these vendors make their food. “You will be able to come in and see White Cow Dairy making their yogurt and bottling it,” stated Niki. A small bistro/coffee shop will have about six to eight small tables.
The basement will be transformed into a commercial kitchen. Although, this kitchen can be used for anything, it seems right now that the Food Trucks of Buffalo will be hopefully utilizing it the most. Right now, most are working out of basements kitchens of churches or Trocaire College but with this new commercial kitchen, trucks will be tied to something that is inspected by the Department of Health. “Now, they will have a home,” Niki said. “This will encourage this new local food movement to flourish because they will have somewhere that they can actually access on a regular basis.” Open 24 hours, you don’t necessarily have to be a vender in order to reserve time to use the kitchen.
The second floor will be offices and conference spaces. The third through fifth floor will have loft apartments, which might be offered to D’Youville College for lease to speakers or families. In the future, Niki hopes to bring in educational events allowing students from kindergarten to college to learn how food is produced and packaged. Since D’Youville College is directly down the road from Horsefeathers, Niki is working with the Personal Relations department in order to allow students to use their swipe cards to use the space. “There is no where, except for Wilson farms, for people who live on campus to go,” Niki states. “ Now, they can come and buy fresh pasta sauce and fresh veggies.”
Most vendors will be from the Elmwood-Bidwell Farmers market located in the Elmwood Village, not to far from Horsefeathers. Located on the corner of Connecticut Street and Normal Ave, Horsefeathers was built in the 19th century and was once a well known antique store. The transformation promises state of the art, energy efficient upgrades including geothermal heating and low-flow plumbing. Niki explained that they want to develop the building into something that can serve both the community and provide a space of food continuum. “From people producing, to people eating, to meetings, to people cooking,” commented Niki. “it provides a nice space for the community.”
Horsefeathers Community Market is hoping to open in the late summer to early fall of 2012 and will be hosting a big grand opening so keep an ear open for updates. It’s great to see yet another restoration project in downtown Buffalo, especially one that will be offering a space for local food vendors to create and sell their products.
I’m not sure who wrote this article but he/she doesn’t seem overly familiar with Connecticut Street or the West Side (I speak as a former Connecticut Street resident–prior to the D’Youville expansion).
1. I don’t know any veteran West Sider (by the way, it’s always capitalized) who would describe Connecticut Street as “adjacent to Allentown and the Elmwood Village”. Connecticut Street is far removed–physically and in terms of neighborhood realities–from those two areas.
2. Neither Kleinhans nor the Karpeles Museum are on Connecticut Street.
3. The products that will be produced and sold out of the building–while interesting–are not likely to be particularly relevant to the majority population of the West Side. It’s more likely that this building will follow the path blazed by Sweetness Seven and the former Annunciation School on Lafayette: niche markets for people with disposable income. The more typical West Side person is neither interested in (nor able to afford) overpriced coffee, elitist daycare services and non-market-priced apartments. These “services” are for people with money, pure and simple. All others–keep on walking by.
4. I doubt that many neighborhood residents will find employment at the former Horsefeathers. As with Sweetness Seven, the businesses in the former Annunciation School, the Rose Garden daycare, the Grant Street art gallery, the two closed flower shops and the departed-back-to-Elmwood Dolci, these places typically bring their employees with them–or hire folks like them. Long-time neighborhood residents generally do not reap any employment opportunities from these new enterprises. One exception might be Krudmart–but that is a business with no apparent walk-in customers.
5. Talk about “providing nice space for the community”–however sincere–rarely leads to public/private spaces where a wide cross-section of the community truly feels welcome and “at home”. It can be done–Guercio’s is one example of a thoroughly integrated clientele being present every day and Niagara Cafe is another–but the majority of these “new and exciting” places tend to be segregated by color and class.
Let’s be honest: the great majority of West Side residents won’t be “looking forward to” the opening of Horsefeathers any more than they did the arrival of Sweetness Seven, the Annunciation apartments, the Rose Garden and Dolci. The products and services offered (or once offered) in those locations are either unaffordable or irrelevant to most West Siders. They really do walk past those place with indifference. Some likely have a measure of resentment against the oddly detached folks tapping on laptops or tuned into earbuds, oblivious to the realities of the surrounding community.
The dominant realities of the West Side are illiteracy, unemployment, transient housing, crime and hopelessness. These are core issues crying out for substantial, effective responses. Overpriced apartments, slices of Italian cake and lattes are not the answer.